Description:

Grant Ulysses 1822 - 1885 Louisville, Kentucky celebrates U.S Grant's 63rd birthday in 1885.

Copy of a book entitled "The Sixty-third Birthday of General Ulysses S. Grant, April 27th, 1885" by Miss Susie Woodson, with compliments of W.R. Kinney, and printed and published by the Kentucky Lithography & Printing Co. in Louisville, Kentucky in 1885. Book is approximately fifty pages in length, and commemorated the 63rd birthday party held in honor of Grant by citizens of Louisville, Kentucky on April 27, 1885. Bound at the top between two textured dark blue boards. Cream pages with gilt edging are printed, sometimes with alternating taupe and teal inset backgrounds. A handsomely color printed bust portrait of Grant, along with a graphic of a Yankee and Reb shaking hands, appears on the title page. In near fine condition, pages very clean with minor toning at edges. Some scattered wear to covers, book measures 7" x 10.75".

As remarked in the foreword: "His [Grant's] serious illness and gratifying recovery from immediate danger, it was thought, made it proper that his birthday so soon to occur should be publicly observed in some congratulatory manner". A committee of ten former Union and Confederate soldiers, many of them officers, volunteered to organize Grant's birthday party and appreciation to be held at the city's Masonic Temple. On April 27, 1885, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported: "The stage and auditorium were handsomely draped with mammoth flags and bright strips of bunting ... On the right of the stage, mounted on an easel, was a large picture of Gen. Grant in a gilt frame. A wreath of tender vines and pretty white buds and lilies circled round the frame. In the audience were many of the leading people of the city. Every seat was occupied, and in the rear and on the sides there was a solid fringe of eager listeners. The gallery was also comfortably filled, the majority being colored people, who never missed an opportunity to applaud".

The book reproduced in full speakers' speeches, testimonial letters from absent attendees, and newspaper editorials from the event. Louisvillians were enthusiastic about Grant as a person, but they were also well-aware of the event's symbolic power. It was significant that citizens of a self-identifying Southern city recognized the lifetime achievements of a former Union army general and 18th U.S. President. To contemporaries, the event symbolized the fully materialized reunification of the Union. Twenty years after General Grant accepted General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, former Confederates and Union soldiers joined together to celebrate Grant's life. In this way, Americans used the opportunity of Grant's 63rd birthday to do some national soul-searching.

In the spring of 1885, Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was dying of throat cancer; indeed, he would die three months after this birthday party. Grant's upcoming birthday, as well as his soon-to-be-published memoirs, shined a light on his personal character, military career, and presidential accomplishments. Grant's present illness and poverty prompted Congress to reinstate his army pension in the months preceding his death.

At the end of this commemorative book, the committee secretary noted that one Colonel Andrew Cowan made a motion that "a full report of this meeting ... be handsomely printed, and that a copy be transmitted to Gen. Grant". This book is one of those commemorative copies.

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