President Grant's Inaugural Address
Read the excerpt from President Grant's Inaugural Address. Pick one issue that Grant
discusses in this passage. What challenges might prevent him from resolving this issue?
The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many questions
will come before it for settlement in the next four years which preceding
Administrations have never had to deal with. In meeting these it is
desirable that they should be approached calmly, without prejudice,
hate, or sectional pride, remembering that the greatest good to the
greatest number is the object to be attained. This requires security of
person, property, and free religious and political opinion in every part of
our common country, without regard to local prejudice....The question of
suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the public so long as a portion of
the citizens of the nation are excluded from its privileges in any State.
-Ulysses S. Grant, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1869