Scandal and Depression During President Grant's Administration
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=4864
General Information
Source:
NBC News
Resource Type:
Creator:
N/A
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
1869 - 1877
2007
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video MiniDocumentary
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
2007
00:02:34
Description
The administration of President Ulysses S. Grant is plagued by scandal and financial panic.
Keywords
Ulysses S. Grant, Presidency, President, Scandal, Depression, Cabinet, Corruption, Panic of 1873, Cabinet
, Administration, Credit Mobilier, Reconstruction, Policy, Schulyer Colfax, Orville Babcock, Whiskey
Ring, Fraud, Federal Troops, Civil Rights, Blacks, Crisis, Jay Cooke Company, Railroad
Citation
MLA
"Scandal and Depression During President Grant's Administration." NBC News. NBCUniversal Media. 1
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Jan. 2007. NBC Learn. Web. 22 March 2015
APA
2007, January 1. Scandal and Depression During President Grant's Administration. [Television series
episode]. NBC News. Retrieved from
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=4864
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"Scandal and Depression During President Grant's Administration" NBC News, New York, NY: NBC
Universal, 2007. Accessed Sun Mar 22 2015 from NBC Learn:
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=4864
Transcript
Scandal and Depression During President Grant’s Administration
NARRATOR: After his success as a General in the Union Army during the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant
was elected President of the United States in 1868. Grant upheld the Reconstruction policies set by
Congress, which included maintaining federal troops in the South to protect the newly granted civil rights
for blacks. But he was soon distracted by a series of scandals that plagued his administration. He may
have been an exceptional military commander, but Grant had little experience making administrative
policy decisions.
Professor EDWARD T. O’DONNELL (Holy Cross College): He relies on his handlers to kind of create
his cabinet, to set up his government, and a lot a ways to sort of dictate what will be the priorities of the
administration. And many of these people put in place in his administration, his cabinet officials, turn out
to be hopelessly corrupt.
NARRATOR: This corruption led to a number of scandals in the Grant administration. One involved a
railroad company called Credit Mobilier, where, in 1872, stockholders cheated their own company out of
millions of dollars. Among the stockholders were members of the United States Congress and Grant’s
own Vice President, Schuyler Colfax.
Another blow to the Grant administration occurred in 1873, when Jay Cooke & Company, one of the
biggest financiers of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, declared bankruptcy. This created a
ripple effect that caused many other businesses and financiers of the railroad to also go bankrupt. This
financial panic led to a national depression. Outside of agriculture, the railroads were the largest employer
in the United States. Millions of Americans lost their jobs.
The depression was followed by another scandal known as the “Whiskey Ring.” In 1875, government
officials, including Grant’s private secretary, Orville Babcock, filed false reports to cheat the government
out of three million dollars in tax revenue on liquor. Although it was never proven that Grant himself was
involved in any of these misdeeds, his administration suffered greatly in the eyes of the public.
O’DONNELL: The scandals of the 1870s essentially weigh down Grant's administration and divert a lot
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of attention and energy, so that they lose a lot a political capital. They don't have the ability to maintain a
vigorous Reconstruction policy. And that's key in understanding why the federal commitment to
Reconstruction – it's one of many reasons why the federal commitment begins to wane in the 1870s.
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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