Grant's mother was a sweet motherly woman. When I could not get work, Mrs. Grant advised me to write a letter to Washington. She said, "You ask Ulysses to give you something in Washington, and I will send it right along to him." Grant took his father's death very hard. I went up to him to see him and tell him I had been with his father. The General could not speak a work he was so affected. He was a very tender-hearted man.
Yes, there was a time when Uncle Jesse was much disheartened over Ulysses, but after Ulysses became General, Uncle Jesse was disposed to brag and it worried Ulysses. Jesse went on to Cairo (1861) and went around telling what a great man his son was. The General said, 'Don't do that father, I will be under the necessity of sending you home.'
At the White House the Dent's (Grant's in-laws) took possession. The Grant's didn't come on. Jesse was made postmaster at Covington, while old man Dent sunned himself on the White House porch. Mother Grant never came to Washington in her life, but the Dent girls fairly lived there. Old man Dent was a man without tact or respect for anybody. He was a fat old man, drank a good deal. General Grant was the model of his mother. She was reticent but could talk to her friends. Jesse Grant was quite deaf, loud-voiced.
Julia Grant was not on good terms with the General's mother. The General's mother was never in Washington because of this. She never came to see her son at the capital. The General's wife never did get along very well with his folks. The two families didn't hitch at all.
At Vicksburg a friend of mine said she saw Grant and was surprised at his manner. He was more like the vanquished than the victor. He was always very grateful. He never forgot favors. His mother talked in a low voice, so did the General. He was the hardest man to entertain I ever saw in my life. You couldn't entertain him. He would sit and think and listen to everything you said and say nothing in reply.
I went to him to get a place for my son, and he said, 'It would be the worst thing I could do for him, but I will do it. I pity your boy. I wouldn't have a son of mine in the Department. I have given money to my friends to get them away from Washington. I have seen more poverty and misery here in Washington than anywhere else in the nation. I have to help people very often. They come here asking for places and they stay on till their money is all gone." But he me gave a little card that got me the place I was after.
I remember hearing Mrs. Grant scolding her coachman because the carriage was muddy. I didn't see much of her. She was not at all stuck up but she wanted to stay in the White House. General Grant was one of the noblest men in the world. He trusted everybody. He thought every man as sincere as himself. When someone tried to throw me out of office, someone else heard of it and said, 'You had better not do that. The General appointed Mrs. Shaw and he doesn't allow his personal appointments to be disturbed. He kicks!'
It is evident that Grant was exposed to floods of tears on the part of every woman who could by any means secure an interview. His simplicity and homeliness of life and his tender heart exposed him to these assaults. He could not deny himself to any of these old friends and they imposed upon him. One day I went up to the White House to see the President and he was not in. I was ready to despair and go home; in fact I was on my way out when I met him coming in. I put my hand on his shoulder in my impulsive way, and said, 'General, you are just the man I want to see.' He looked up at me and smiled and looked very much amused and yet he was so polite! I never realized that he was the greatest man of the age. I always called him General, I couldn't think to call him Mr. President. He was the most modest man. He walked the streets like any ordinary citizen. He never seemed anything else to me.
