PRESIDENT GRANT, WRITING FROM HIS SUMMER HOME OF LONG BRANCH, NEW JERSEY, DISCUSSES “THE TRIAL OF THE SUIT ‘CURTIS AGAINST GRANT.’”

ULYSSES S. GRANT (1822-1885). Grant was the Eighteenth President and the head of the Union Army during the Civil War.

ALS. 2pg. 5” x 8”. July 17th 1871. Long Branch, N.J. An autograph letter signed “U.S. Grant” as President to John Hoey, Esq. The President wrote from his summer home on the Jersey Shore: “Dear Sir: When I mentioned Wednesday of this week, as the day I could accompany you to Mr. Dinsmore’s I forgot that it was the day of the trial of the suit ‘Curtis against Grant.’ I could not leave on that day and hope you have not yet sent word to Mr. Dinsmore. I except the Sec. of the Navy has one day this week, to stay two of three days, and while he is here I can not well leave. As soon as I can ascertain what day I will fix an other day when there will be nothing to prevent my accompanying you. Yours Truly U.S. Grant”. The letter is addressed to John Hoey, an Irish immigrant and general manager of the Adams Express Company. He was a developer of Long Branch, New Jersey, where he built a celebrated mansion and park, and became quite friendly with Grant, Long Branch’s most prominent summer resident. William B. Dinsmore, the president of Adams Express, was Hoey’s boss. Hoey succeeded Dinsmore as president of the Adams Express Company in 1888. According to Dr. John Simon, editor of the Grant Papers, Grant may be referring to the civil service reformer, George William Curtis, in the line “Curtis against Grant’. Curtis pushed aggressively for reform at a time when those who were fervent supporters believed that Grant was dragging behind. Grant was the first of the civil service reformers in the White House, but he was frustrated by members of his party and general inertia. By 1872, Curtis was in full opposition to Grant and supported the Liberal Republicans. The letter is in very fine condition with the usual two horizontal mailing folds. There is slight smudging to the terminal “t” of “Grant” from where the President folded the letter before the ink was dry. This letter is unknown to the Papers of Ulysses S. Grant.