Ulysses S. Grant as president was a very different creature from General Grant the war hero. By anyone's standards, Grant's presidency was a total failure, characterized as it was by scandal and widespread corruption at the very highest levels of government.
One of the chief causes of corruption was Grant's management skills. He treated the role of president in much the same way as that of General, delegating orders directly instead of consulting widely with his colleagues in keeping with long-established convention. Delegating policy on a one-to-one basis, without additional input from other colleagues, inevitably made it a lot easier for individual cabinet members and officials to line their pockets, as their actions would be subject to much less scrutiny.
Though personally honest himself, Grant had a blind spot when it came to those of his cronies, who plundered the government's coffers. Fiercely loyal to his friends and associates, even when they were caught with their hands in the till, Grant greatly exacerbated the air of almost permanent scandal surrounding his administration from day one.
He thus bequeathed an unfortunate legacy to his immediate successor, Rutherford B. Hayes, who would attempt to deal with the rampant corruption at the heart of federal government by embarking upon a program of civil service reform.
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