Ulysses S. Grant Quotes
Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a public duty.
Ulysses S. Grant, 1822-1885, 18th President of the United States (Republican, OH), Instructions to federal officers investigating the Whiskey Ring, July 29, 1875
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The Treasury Secretary had discovered a massive fraud between some whiskey distillers and some government officials whereby the government was defrauded of millions of dollars of tax revenue. One of the Federal officials Bristow wanted to indict was O. E. Babcock, the President’s personal secretary and advisor. Bristow marshaled the facts and sent a report to Grant who wrote the quoted material in the margin of the report and sent it back to Bristow. Despite Grant’s lack of personal involvement and his immediate willingness to prosecute his close friend and colleague, the stain of scandal spread to Grant and to this day is a part of any discussion of his presidency.
This is one of the earliest examples of attempting to reduce crime by altering community norms.
Watkins was the first Dallas County Black DA. He was being interviewed because DNA testing proved that a man who had served 30 years in prison for rape and robbery, could not have committed the crime, and he had just been released. Watkins quotation was very significant because it set forth a philosophy that while extant in other areas of the country is almost unheard of in Texas, where there have been more innocent men convicted than in any other state. DAs in Texas usually fight every attempt to examine old evidence with modern tools.
Moses urged them not to accept a compromise what would give them the majority of everything that they were demanding but not all. See {637624} for Rustin’s’ argument to accept the compromise.
Many of the other members of the National Assembly criticized him for “washing the Assembly’s laundry” in public. They argued that the people would lose confidence in the National Assembly. The National Assembly at the time was the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch all at the same time. See {639833} for an example of the public statements he made. “Dissemble” means to lie or shade the truth with the intent of deceiving.
He is remembered today as the "Hanging Judge" of the American Old West. The two statements of his motto are contradictory unless all trials were perfect and all police, prosecutors, defense lawyers, defendants and witness always told the truth, and never made mistakes. This judge never followed the basic principle laid down by Blackstone regarding criminal law. See {594956}.
Remarks before the Joint Defense Appeal of the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League of the B’nai B’rith.
Ulysses S. Grant was an American military leader who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As president, Grant was an effective civil rights executive who created the Justice Department and worked with the Radical Republicans during Reconstruction to protect African Americans. As Commanding General, he led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and thereafter briefly served as Secretary of War.
