Was part of the Great American story. We are at Mount Mcgregor in upstate new york, only a few miles north of saratoga springs. The significance of this Historic Site is, this was the final home of civil war general and president ulysses s grant. This is the place where Ulysses Grant penned his memoirs in 1885. He was dying of throat cancer and his family was facing serious financial problems. At this point in his life, he was a man trying to take care of his family. And we get to tell a story here that most people dont know about. After his second term as president , Ulysses Grants and his wife julia went on a world tour or two years, from 1877 to 1879. He met many World Leaders and was well respected around the world. When they arrived back in the states in 1879, they were looking for a place to settle because they had come out of the white house two years earlier. For grant, it was always an easy decision, even though they own multiple properties in the united states, the decision for grant, because he was always the devoted family man, was to be close to family. The grants moved into the city a home in the Upper East Side of manhattan, and their children lived nearby. They enjoyed a few years, you could say out of the limelight. Joining the winters with the family and summers at the new jersey cottage. And grant arrived back from his world tour, he was in need of some income, which is ahead scratcher for most people, because he was a general and a president and people wonder why he didnt have a pension of any kind. It turns out that he had given up his military pension to take the presidency, and at the end of his presidency, there was no pension at that time. So he was making his own way in the world. He had spent a lot of money on the world tour, and his son, ulysses junior, they called him buck because he was born in ohio, the buckeye state. Buck had gotten involved in investments. He got his father involved and they formed an Investment Firm with a man named ferdinand worn Ferdinand Ward. Investments went well for a while. The early 1880s were a comfortable time, money was coming in from the firm, but everything started to collapse in the final year of grants life. He ended up having a slip and fall on the icy sidewalk and that put him bedridden for a couple of weeks. Early in the spring of 1884, he arrived at the office of grant ward and found out there was a major financial crisis. He had to get a loan from his friend William Vanderbilt to try to keep the firm afloat. He brought this money to their business partner, Ferdinand Ward , who had been doing the books the entire time for the firm, and thought maybe it would help the firm survive. In fact, he found out soon afterward that war was actually a crook and he had been running essentially a ponzi scheme the entire time. It hit the grant family like a bombshell. They were financially devastated , because they had invested heavily in this firm, the whole family had, and now had to find a way to make money. Grant felt personally responsible. He had really encouraged his family and others to invest in the firm. Even though he was a victim, he felt personally responsible and wanted to pay back his debt. They were in a difficult situation because of this financial scandal. They packed up and moved out to the new jersey cottage for the summer of 1884 to essentially figure out what they were going to do for the future to rebuild their lives. Rent was approached by a big Magazine Company to write some articles. Grant had been pestered to be an author for many years and had always resisted because other people had written about him and he didnt think he would be much of an author. He was a very modest man. Most of all, he didnt need the money, either. They knew they had him in a corner because he did need the money. They offered him 500 per article, enough to keep the family afloat and pay the basic ills. So grant got started writing articles about the civil war in the summer of 1884 at the new jersey cottage. Thats when his writing career began. That was a way to bring in some money, but there would have to be a larger work of literature to be able to bring his family out of the debt they were in. Grant started his writing career kind of shaky. His first article was seen as more of a dry, military report. The editor even went so far as to remark that essentially, it may be then second disaster of shiloh, because it was on the battle of shiloh and this may be the second disaster of shiloh. So it was a poorly written article. Interestingly enough, the editor came down to visit grant at the new jersey cottage and talked with him freely. He said to grant, would you tell me a little bit about the civil war . So grant started talking and telling him stories and anecdotes of the civil war. He told grant, thats the material that people want to read. So he came into his own as an author that summer. At the end of the summer he started to have an idea that maybe this writing career could produce more money for his family. So right about same time that sentry magazine was ready to make a push to get him to write a larger book that could be sold, and told him they would publish it. He ended up starting to work on it as they went back to the new york city home for the winter of 188485. As grant was working on writing his articles during the summer of 1884, he ended up starting to have this pain. It started with a bad sting in the back of his throat that he felt as he was eating a peach. He started thinking it was something that was on the fruit when he ate it. What it kind of persisted and kept coming back. He ignored it because his regular doctor was away in europe and he really wanted to see his regular doctor. So he kind of just ignored it and said he would see his doctor in the fall, essentially. They didnt think much of it at the time. He had been a smoker since the civil war of cigars, and maybe it was just smokers throat, as they called it at the time. He continued working on his writing career until the fall of 1884, when he finally went to the doctor, when they moved back to new york city. He ended up going to his regular doctor, who knew there was a serious problem as soon as he looked at his throat. He sent him to a throat specialist, dr. John douglas. He went into the Doctors Office and dr. Douglas took a look at his throat, and grant looked at douglass face and said, is it cancer . And unfortunately the doctor had to tell them that it was cancer. Grant worked on his memoirs throughout the winter of 188485. Towards the spring of 1885, it was really touch and go. He had a couple of neardeath experiences and his doctors believed the only way he would survive long enough to finish his book was to get him out of the city, which was humid and dusty and hot, to a mountaintop environment. Thats what they did with a lot of ailing people in that time period. So they were looking for opportunities, and a friend of the family, joseph drexel, approached the doctors and the grant family to offer them the use of his cottage he had just purchased on the top of mount macgregor, just above saratoga springs. The cottage he offered to the grants was fairly modest in size. But did have six rooms upstairs and a few rooms downstairs. It had been originally a small inn tilt by the first owner of the mountain, duncan macgregor. It was moved to accommodate the expansion of the resort in the early 1880s, and the resort had expanded to the point where there was a 100 room hotel called the barrel call the bowel moral balmoral. It was turned into a mountaintop wilderness resort, with wonderful overlooks and pathways and obviously wonderful air. There was one advertisement for the Balmoral Hotel that said if we dont cure your hayfever, your stay is free. When grant and his party left new york city on the morning of june 16, 1880 five, grant was in very poor condition. Today he arrived, it was incredibly hot and his trip up here was very difficult. Although once he got off the train and came up to the cottage, he immediately got changed, came back out on the porch, and in the cool air of the mountains, it seemed to really revive him and seemed to have a good effect on him right away. Most importantly, he was able to be with his entire family here at the cottage. So we will head into grants bedroom. This is where grant would have come in from the outdoors. One thing you will notice that is missing here is a bed. Normally there is a bed in the bedroom. Unfortunately, because of grants condition, his throat condition, he ended up having to sleep sitting up in these chairs here. He would have his feet on one side and sitting up on the other. This is where he would work on his memoirs when the bugs are the heat chased him in. This is also where his nurses or doctors, which he had three doctors on call and two nurses, would administer any medicine or try to get him some nourishment. It was very hard for him to eat with his throat condition. Most of the items you see our original, but they they were provided by mr. Drexel. These two chairs actually did come up from new york city with the grants. In fact, grant road in these on the train on the way up from new york city. Because mr. Drexel left is to become a memorial, his son left his personal belongings. We have some very personal items that show that grant was here and he was at home here. And that he went through some very tough times here as well, because we have his fruit bowl and his spittoon, hairbrushes, toothbrushes, stockings, his clothing here, the beaver hat he is wearing in the photographs that were taken here. We also have the food mashing equipment used to process his food so he could try to take some nourishment. It was very difficult, though. A really interesting item in this room is grants original medicine is still here, the bottle with the original liquid and the original substance. Most people guess that what they were using for medication was Something Like morphine or some heavy set it like that. The only problem was that grant couldnt take medicine that because it was just too powerful and he would not be able to concentrate on working on his book. So the doctors settled on a fairly new substance at the time , a little controversial, it was cocaine. So what you see in the bottle is actually cocaine. They would stir it up and applied on his throat topically to give him a little bit of pain relief so he could concentrate on finishing his book for the sake of his family. When grant arrived, you can imagine, this man was internationally famous. The train car behind his familys train car was the press corps. They found out that grant was dying in march of 1885, they kept up a 24 hour vigil. They followed him up to the mountain here and camped out across from the cottage, and they would run up to the hotel and send telegraph wires down to new york city. They also open the Hotel Balmoral early that year. They opened it when the grants arrived on june 16. Grant was in the papers every day. He was a spectacle, you could say. Before secret service, the only person that volunteered was a Civil War Veteran, about the same age as grant. He was a local Civil War Veteran in his early 60s, and he volunteered. They put a tent up for him behind the cottage, and then he ended up being grants bodyguard. He stood at the bottom of the stairs near where grant sat on the porch of the cottage. He would tell people to move along and guarantee grants privacy. Grant made sams job difficult, though, because even in his condition, he was such a friendly man that these folks passing near the cottage, he would always tip his hat and waved. He was very friendly. He was a very unassuming man. You could sit next to him and not know he was famous. Money and fame never changed him. He was a simple man, very approachable at all times. But sam actually got frustrated and told rance oldest son. He said to fred, could you tell your father to be a little less readily . A little less friendly . Hes making my job difficult. So fred went to his father and tell them what sam had said. I think what grant said next shows a little of his character. He said, i dont want to be exclusive. Let them come. In the fall of 1884, there was buzz in the Literary Community about grant writing a book. One of the people that was interested in publishing the book, other than century magazine, that had already made an offer, was samuel clemens, better known as mark twain. He had just started his own Publishing Firm and had self published Huckleberry Finn that year, 1884. So he shows up at the grant house. He had been a casual friend of general grant since the civil war. He showed up at the household in new york city in the fall of 1884, just as grant was starting his memoirs. He asked the general, could i take a look at your contract . He looked at the contract, and later on he said, i didnt know whether to laugh or cry. It was the worst contract i had ever seen. It was only offering about 10 of the profits. Totally inappropriate for a man of your stature. He said, about a Publishing Firm, i can offer you 70 of the profits. An incredibly generous offer, especially for a man who was known to be ill. They didnt know he was dying, but knew he was ill at the time. Grant was reluctant at first, very honorable man. Twain pulled an ace out of his pocket and said, if you remember in a conversation a few years ago, i asked you to write your memoirs then. So grant eventually did go with mark twains offer, it was impossible to refuse. Mark twain had his nephew in law running his Publishing Firm, chal called Charles Webster. It was called Charles Webster and company. Him and Charles Webster came up with a plan to sell the memoirs door to door. Instead of selling them in bookstores. So they would arrive and take preorders from folks door to door. One of the things that mark twain wanted to do was provide an opportunity for Civil War Veterans to be salesman. He would actually request Civil War Veterans to don their uniforms to go door to door. Grant himself was a focus of his time. He was a celebrity. So having him writing the book was good for sales, but obviously having a Civil War Veteran come up to the door as well helped to sell them as well. So it was door to door sales, and there were many thousands of salesmen engaged in this all across the country. So it gave them a way to make money for themselves, and also to support their old commander in his final hours. Twain came to the cottage a few weeks before grant passed away, and it was a very important meeting. For grant, the most important thing was to find out how well it was selling. He knew time was short and he wanted to find out if the book would be a success. Thats when twain was able to tell him proudly, i have already presold 100,000 copies and i have not even canvassed two thirds of the country. So grant new that he had taken care of his family, that he had succeeded. Mark twain believed the second volume of his book, of his memoirs, was completed. But grant was a perfectionist. He still had writing in him and as long as he was alive, he would keep writing. And he did. He wrote at least another chapter to his book. It was a struggle right to the very end, but he kept on it. He wanted the book to be as good as possible. No matter what his physical condition, he always tried to work on the memoirs. Some days he could not get out of bed, physically. Other days, he worked on it and wrote 3040 pages in one single day. To give you an idea of the scope of the project, the memoirs would eventually be 1200 pages, almost 300,000 words. So this wouldve been a major project for someone in good condition. To have someone who is struggling with cancer, this was a heroic effort for the sake of his family. Grant worked up until the last few days before he passed away. He had finished his book and he asked to be taken down to the overlook for one last view of the valley. By the time they arrived back at the cottage here, rent was in very poor condition, and they knew he didnt have long to live. His son fred said to his father, would you like to lie down . They brought a bed down from the nearby hotel and placed it here in the corner. Grant was surrounded by his loving family here on the evening of july 22, 1885. He saw that their faces were anxious, and whispered to his doctors, i dont wish anyone to be alarmed on my account. His final wishes where that his family be comfortable. So they went up to bed, but they came back down the next morning, just before 8 00, to surround him as he passed away peacefully on this bed on july 23, 1885, 132 years ago. His son fred walked over to the mantel clock and stopped it at 8 08 in the morning, to mark the time when his father passed. And it hasnt been touched since. Its a symbol of the time capsule that this place has been kept all these years. Other than leaving a legacy for the country, the history of his life in the civil war that he left, he also left his family and amazing legacy financially. The memoirs went on to sell over 300,000 copies and bring in almost 450,000 for the grant family. In todays money that would be somewhere between 10 million and 11 million. It was enough for him to live for them to live comfortably the rest of their lives. So he did succeed in his final battle at the college at the cottage, his final devotion for his family. Almost immediately after grants passing, mr. Joseph drexel decided that this place would be left as a memorial to u. S. Grant. So things were left just the way they were when the grant family left. And it has been kept that way the last 132 years. Thats why i think this cottage is so important to keep the way it is and to maintain it, because it is just such a compelling story, and it really gives you that wonderful insight into a relatively misunderstood figure in american history, ulysses s grant. The 117th congress includes more than 60 members. It includes firstgeneration immigrants, state representatives, television reporters and professional athletes. Watch our conversations with new members of congress, this week at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, president s day, tonight, we feature Senate Republican members. Including tillerys alleged are fernandez, deborah ross, frank marvin, cameron burda, bill hagerty and roger marshall. Watch interviews with new members of congress at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Online at cspan. Org, or listen on the cspan radio app. President ial historians, authors, and Campaign Advisors talk about the past present, and , future of president ial elections. 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