Presidential Parallels
CREESY, VIRGINIA KAYS
PRESIDENTIAL PARALLELS A DECADE AGO drawing parallels between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy was a popular pastime, particularly since each assassinated President was succeeded by a man named...
...To take merely a few examples: The causes of the Panic of '73 (including a glut of American farm products on the world market) have little in common with the present slump...
...The attacks Greeley suffered because of his unorthodox views enabled Grant to score an overwhelming victory, with 286 electoral votes to the Democrat's 66...
...By the time Grant left office in 1876 his record was darkened both by the malfeasance of his associates and a severe economic downturn...
...Four years later, in 1872, Grant widened his margin of victory, mainly because his opponent, Horace Greeley, had a talent much like George McGovern's for alienating voters...
...His interest In Fourierism-A variety of Utopian Socialism-was no less misunderstood than McGovern's opposition to unchecked private enterprise...
...A very interesting man, though...
...Richard Nixon's narrow victory over the candidate of the war-torn Democratic party in 1968 is paralleled by Grant's close race in (868, also against the nominee of a Democratic party ravaged by a controversial war...
...he's worth reading about because for one thing, as you will see, a lot of his ideas were wav ahead of their time...
...The question for historians is what sort of conclusion can be drawn from all this...
...Of course, a closer look at the texture of events in the 1860s and '70s reveals great differences from the current situation...
...unlike Nixon, Grant is not believed to have been personally involved in his subordinates' misdeeds...
...Are the parallels simply accidental, or does a genuine chain of cause and effect exist reflecting some underlying and enduring truths about American politics...
...The Panic of '73 began with a disastrous plunge in the stock market and led ultimately to widespread unemployment...
...People didn't care much for Grant as President, but they reelected him rather than take a chance on Greeley...
...Greeley favored a liberal policy toward the South that reminds one of McGovern's dovish position on Vietnam...
...PRESIDENTIAL PARALLELS A DECADE AGO drawing parallels between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy was a popular pastime, particularly since each assassinated President was succeeded by a man named Johnson who stumbled badly while trying to carry out, to the best of his understanding, the policies of his predecessor...
...And for good reason: Until recently, Grant's Presidency held the dubious honor of being judged the most corrupt in American history...
...Yet once installed for four more years, the President faced not only growing evidence of corruption but economic recession as well...
...Abuse of office is but one basis for comparison, however...
...And his early advocacy of women's rights is surely worth the applause of the female McGov-ern troopers...
...With the collapse of Nixon's Presidency in a welter of corruption and maladministration, it appears inevitable that historians will extend the parallels, comparing his Administration with that of Ulysses S- Grant...
...the motives of Grant's associates are far removed from those of Nixon's "overzealous" aides...
...virginia Kays Creesy...
...In "Plain Speaking" Merle Miller quotes Harry Truman on Greeley: "For some reason I have never been able to figure out he came across as kind of a nut...
...The worst of the scandals resulted in the resigations of the Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of War, and the indictment of 238 persons, including Grant's private secretary...
...Nonetheless, there does seem to be a general pattern: In each case the prosecution of a deeply divisive war was followed by a wave of government corruption, an Ill-fated reform movement, a recession, and the departure of a President under a black cloud...
Vol. 57 • September 1974 • No. 17
