Home » History » American Presidents » LIFE AFTER THE WHITE HOUSE, PART III

LIFE AFTER THE WHITE HOUSE, PART III

© John S. Cooper

After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Vice President Andrew Johnson became President. Johnson tried to carry out Lincoln’s moderate Reconstruction plans, which brought him into conflict with the Radical Republican controlled Congress. He was impeached during his last year in office, but acquitted by one vote. At the end of his term, unable to gain the nomination of his party for a full term as President, he retired to his home in Tennessee. Remaining active in Democratic politics, Johnson ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Congress in 1869 and for the Senate in 1871 and 1872. He also campaigned for Horace Greeley for President in 1872, and stumped the state for congressional candidates in 1874. In 1875, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Becoming the only President to serve in the Senate after his presidential term, Johnson was greeted with applause and flowers when he took his seat for a special session in March 1875. After his triumphant return to Congress, he visited his daughter during the recess. While there, he suffered a severe paralytic stroke, and died a few days later, on July 31, 1875.

Ulysses S. Grant, hero of the Civil War, was elected President in the first post-war election. After serving two terms, he retired and spent two years touring the world, being received by enthusiastic crowds and heads of state all over the world. He settled in New York City and invested all his savings in the firm of Grant & Ward, in which his son was a partner. Ward proved to be a crook, and Grant lost all his money, leaving him almost penniless. To make a living, he wrote magazine articles that were so well received that he decided to write his memoirs. With the help of his publisher, Mark Twain, his memoirs were published and brought his wife a fortune. Unfortunately, Grant did not live to see his final success. He knew he was dying of throat cancer as he wrote the book, and finished just days before he died.

Rutherford B. Hayes succeeded Grant in the White House. Having renounced a second term in his nomination acceptance letter, Hayes retired after one term in the White House, happy to be leaving. He retired with his beloved wife to his estate at Spiegel Grove, Ohio. For the rest of his life, he engaged in philanthropic work in education, prison reform, Christianity, and veterans’ affairs. He supported Republican nominees for President, opposed women’s suffrage, encouraged temperance and promoted black education. As a director of the George Peabody Educational Fund and the John F. Slater Fund, he awarded scholarships to blacks. One of the people to whom Hayes gave a scholarship was the future activist W.E.B. DuBois. Hayes also served as a trustee of Ohio State University and other Ohio colleges. As president of the National Prison Association, he advocated greater emphasis on rehabilitation in the prison system. Taken ill while visiting friends, he died several days later on January 17, 1893. His last words were, “I know I am going where Lucy (his wife who had died several years earlier) is.”