Page "Ulysses S. Grant" Paragraph 19

Although unopposed to slavery at the time, Grant kept his political opinions private and never endorsed any candidate running for public office before the Civil War.

His father-in-law was a prominent Democrat in St. Louis, a factor that helped derail Grant's bid to become county engineer in 1859, while his own father was an outspoken Republican in Galena.

In the 1856 election, he cast his first presidential vote for the Democratic candidate James Buchanan, saying he was really voting against Fremont, the Republican presidential candidate.

In 1860, he favored the Democratic presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas over Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln over the alternate Democratic candidate, John C. Breckinridge.

Lacking the residency requirements in Illinois at the time, he could not vote.

It was during the Civil War that his political sympathies coincided with the Republicans ' aggressive prosecution of the war.

In 1864, his patron Congressman Elihu B. Washburne used Grant's private letters as campaign literature for Lincoln's reelection.