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THE MAKING OF A NATION - President Grant: The Civil War Gene

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THE MAKING OF A NATION - President Grant: The Civil War General Faced Battles of Politics and Government
By Frank Beardsley

Broadcast: Thursday, July 28, 2005

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

(MUSIC)

 
Ulysses Grant
Ulysses Grant was elected President of the United States in eighteen sixty-eight. Grant was the military hero of America's Civil War. He led Union troops of the North to victory over Confederate troops of the South.

Grant was extremely popular. But he was a much better general than politician. As president, it was not long before he got into trouble in the battles of politics and government.

I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Larry West and I report on the first administration of Ulysses Grant.

VOICE TWO:

Grant resigned from the army to run for president. However, he ran on his record as a winning general. "Let us have peace," he often said. And the people believed he would guarantee peace.

In fact, Grant guaranteed nothing. As a presidential candidate, he offered no new national programs. So, as president, he had no new policies to carry out. He had few struggles with Congress, because he rarely asked Congress to do anything.

Many events took place during Grant's two administrations. But he usually was not involved directly. He had problems only because he was linked indirectly1 to the men who were responsible.

VOICE ONE:

One of President Grant's first problems was caused by two of his friends. They tried to take control of the gold market. The men were Jay Gould and James Fisk. Both were extremely rich.

Gould and Fisk developed a plan to buy a large part of the nation's gold supply when the price was low. They would hold the gold until demand greatly increased the price. Then they would sell it and make a lot of money.

To be successful, they had to prevent the government from selling gold on the market. Government sales of gold would keep the price down. So, Gould and Fisk urged President Grant to stop the Treasury2 Department from selling

gold. Grant refused to give them a firm promise.

VOICE TWO:

The two men brought one of Grant's relatives into their plan. They paid him to write a letter to the president. It asked the president to halt government sales of gold.

A messenger took the letter to the White House. He then sent a telegram to James Fisk saying the letter had been delivered. The telegram said: "Letter delivered, all right." Fisk thought this meant that President Grant had agreed to halt government sales of gold. So he began buying gold in huge amounts.

Fisk was wrong. The words "all right" meant only that the letter had been delivered. They did not mean that Grant had agreed to the plan. In fact, Grant did not agree. He ordered the Treasury Department to sell gold to block the attempt by Gould and Fisk to control the gold market.

VOICE ONE:

The result was that James Fisk and Jay Gould lost a great amount of money. So did other businessmen and bankers. Many Americans blamed President Grant for not acting3 quickly enough to stop the activity of his two friends.

Concern about Grant grew after another incident was reported at the New York customs office. Two of Grant's friends there became involved in a plan to get money from importers. They used their official positions to earn huge

amounts of money.

VOICE TWO:

Grant also was criticized for one of his few independent actions as president. He tried to buy the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.

The island nation was ruled by a dictator, Buenaventura Baez. Baez was so dishonest that the people of the Dominican Republic were ready to overthrow4 him. Before this could happen, he offered to sell his country to the United States.

When Grant received the offer, he sent a White House official to negotiate with Baez. The official returned with a treaty giving the Dominican Republic to the United States for one-and-one-half-million dollars. Grant immediately

sent American warships5 to the Dominican Republic. He wanted to keep Baez in power until the treaty was completed.

Grant asked the Senate to approve the treaty. Many senators opposed it. They said taking control of the Dominican Republic would cost too much money. They also said it was a bad idea for the United States to take control of any nation in the caribbean.

President Grant went to the Capitol building himself to urge senators to approve the treaty. His efforts failed. The treaty was defeated.

VOICE ONE:

Grant's biggest national problem was the political situation in the former rebel states of the south.

After the Civil War, most southern states were governed by radical6 members of the Republican Party. Radicals7 supported citizenship8 rights and voting rights for blacks. In the late eighteen sixties, the radicals began to lose

power. Many failed to be re-elected to state office. They were being defeated by candidates of the Democratic Party. Democrats9 did not want blacks to have any rights at all.

VOICE TWO:

The first radical Republicans to lose power were those in Virginia. The change there was made peacefully. Not so in other southern states. In Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina, Democrats used threats and violence to win

elections. Their campaigns often were led by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Klan was a secret organization of white men. Members believed white people were greater than black people. Wearing cloths over their faces, klansmen broke up radical Republican political meetings. They threatened, beat, and killed blacks to keep them out of politics. They did the same thing to whites who tried to organize or help blacks.

VOICE ONE:

Before long, Ku Klux Klan groups were formed in every southern state. By eighteen seventy-one, radical Republican congressmen were demanding a new law to destroy the Ku Klux Klan.

A committee headed by radicals was named to investigate klan activities in the south. The committee heard reports of the klan's brutal10 acts. It helped prepare a bill to control the klan. After much debate, Congress passed the bill.

The new law gave the president power to declare military rule in the south. Democrats charged that the real purpose of the law was to keep radical Republican state governments in power.

President Grant did not wait long to use his powers under the new law. He declared military rule in a large area of South Carolina. Thousands of people there were arrested. They were tried in federal courts. Juries were made up

mainly of blacks and radical whites.

VOICE TWO:

This kind of justice made southerners feel even more bitterness toward the north. It also angered a number of moderate members of the Republican Party. They said the federal government should not help radical Republicans

stay in power in the south.

Some of these moderate Republicans broke away from President Grant and the radicals. They called themselves Liberal Republicans and formed a new political party. They held their own presidential nominating convention for the

election of eighteen seventy-two.

They nominated Horace Greeley as their candidate. Greeley published the "New York Tribune" newspaper.

VOICE ONE:

Democrats believed their only chance to win the election was to support the new Liberal Republicans. So they, too, chose Horace Greeley as their presidential candidate. As expected, the radicals who controlled the main Republican Party nominated Grant for a second term.

The campaign between Grant and Greeley was very strange. Grant made no speeches. He spent the summer at a holiday town on the Atlantic Ocean coast. His supporters, however, were not silent. They called Greeley a fool and a traitor11. They refused to treat him as a serious candidate.

Unlike Grant, Greeley did campaign hard. But he had little financial help. He also was hurt by a poorly-organized campaign.

VOICE TWO:

On election day in eighteen seventy-two, Ulysses Grant won a big victory. He got the votes of thirty-one of the thirty-seven states.

Horace Greeley died three weeks after the election. The new Liberal Republican Party died with him. Ulysses Grant and the radical Republicans would govern for another four years.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to the V.O.A. Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley.

We invite you to listen to this program again next week at this same time. We will continue the story of Ulysses Grant -- the military hero of America's Civil War and president from eighteen sixty-nine to eighteen seventy-seven.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 indirectly a8UxR     
adv.间接地,不直接了当地
参考例句:
  • I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
  • They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人,他们进行了间接接触。
2 treasury 7GeyP     
n.宝库;国库,金库;文库
参考例句:
  • The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
  • This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。
3 acting czRzoc     
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
参考例句:
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
4 overthrow PKDxo     
v.推翻,打倒,颠覆;n.推翻,瓦解,颠覆
参考例句:
  • After the overthrow of the government,the country was in chaos.政府被推翻后,这个国家处于混乱中。
  • The overthrow of his plans left him much discouraged.他的计划的失败使得他很气馁。
5 warships 9d82ffe40b694c1e8a0fdc6d39c11ad8     
军舰,战舰( warship的名词复数 ); 舰只
参考例句:
  • The enemy warships were disengaged from the battle after suffering heavy casualties. 在遭受惨重伤亡后,敌舰退出了海战。
  • The government fitted out warships and sailors for them. 政府给他们配备了战舰和水手。
6 radical hA8zu     
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的
参考例句:
  • The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
  • She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。
7 radicals 5c853925d2a610c29b107b916c89076e     
n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 );根基;基本原理;[数学]根数
参考例句:
  • Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals. 一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The worry is that the radicals will grow more intransigent. 现在人们担忧激进分子会变得更加不妥协。 来自辞典例句
8 citizenship AV3yA     
n.市民权,公民权,国民的义务(身份)
参考例句:
  • He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生,但没有瑞典公民身分。
  • Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后,她选择了澳大利亚国籍。
9 democrats 655beefefdcaf76097d489a3ff245f76     
n.民主主义者,民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
  • The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 brutal bSFyb     
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的
参考例句:
  • She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
  • They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼,骨子里却是野蛮残忍。
11 traitor GqByW     
n.叛徒,卖国贼
参考例句:
  • The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
  • He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。

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