General Grant became president of the United States in 1869. When accepting office he forfeited his military pension. Eight years later he failed in an attempt to win a third term and embarked on a two-year tour which was successful with many royal receptions, but not financially profitable. In 1881 he purchased a home in New York City and put nearly all of his financial assets into an investment banking partnership. Ferdinand Ward, who ran the partnership, bankrupted the company, took and money and fled. Grant had to repay a $150,000 loan to William H. Vanderbilt with his Civil War mementos, and was left with very limited funds.
Grant started writing articles for The Century Magazine to raise funds for his family. Mark Twain stepped in and offered Grant a contract for the publication of his memoirs which would allow Grant to receive 75% of the sales as royalties. After starting he discovered he had terminal cancer. As Grant worked on the book Congress passed legislation that restored Grant to General of the Army with full retirement pay.
With death approaching Grant completed his memoirs a few days before his death. Over 300,000 copies were sold earning the Grant family nearly a half a million dollars. The book has been considered one of the best autobiographies ever written. The totality of Twain's involvement in the final product is not known, but many theorize he ghost wrote it with Grant at his side. Twain never took credit for any involvement in its creation.
"MAN proposes and God disposes." There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice.
Although frequently urged by friends to write my memoirs, I had determined never to do so, nor to write anything for publication. At the age of nearly sixty-two I received an injury from a fall, which confined me closely to the house while it did not apparently affect my general health. This made study a pleasant pastime. Shortly after, the rascality of a business partner developed itself by the announcement of a failure. This was followed soon after by universal depression of all securities, which seemed to threaten the extinction of a good part of the income still retained, and for which I am indebted to the kindly act of friends. At this juncture the editor of the " Century Magazine" asked me to write a few articles for him. I consented for the money it gave me; for at that moment I was living upon borrowed money. The work I found congenial, and I determined to continue it. The event is an important one for me, for good or evil; I hope for the former.
In preparing these volumes for the public, I have entered upon the task with the sincere desire to avoid doing injustice to any one, whether on the National or Confederate side, other than the unavoidable injustice of not making mention often where special mention is due. There must be many errors of omission in this work, because the subject is too large to be treated of in two volumes in such way as to do justice to all the officers and men engaged. There were thousands of instances, during the rebellion, of individual, company, regimental, and brigade deeds of heroism which deserve special mention and are not here alluded to. The troops engaged in them will have to look to the detailed reports of their individual commanders for the full history of those deeds." - The full text of Volume One can be read here.
In 1958 Congress passed the Former Presidents Act which guaranteed a pension for the life of the president and his wife. The legislation was prompted by President Truman's limited financial resources which impacted his ability to support an office staff. Eisenhower was the first president to benefit from the act.
(a) Each former President shall be entitled for the remainder of his life to receive from the United States a monetary allowance at a rate per annum, payable monthly by the Secretary of the Treasury, which is equal to the annual rate of basic pay, as in effect from time to time, of the head of an executive department, as defined in section 101 of title 5, United States Code [section 101 of Title 5]. However, such allowance shall not be paid for any period during which such former President holds an appointive or elective office or position in or under the Federal Government or the government of the District of Columbia to which is attached a rate of pay other than a nominal rate.
(b) The Administrator of General Services shall, without regard to the civil-service and classification laws, provide for each former President an office staff. Persons employed under this subsection shall be selected by the former President and shall be responsible only to him for the performance of their duties. Each former President shall fix basic rates of compensation for persons employed for him under this paragraph which in the aggregate shall not exceed $96,000 per annum, except that for the first 30-month period during which a former President is entitled to staff assistance under this subsection, such rates of compensation in the aggregate shall not exceed $150,000 per annum. The annual rate of compensation payable to any such person shall not exceed the highest annual rate of basic pay now or hereafter provided by law for positions at level II of the Executive Schedule under section 5313 of title 5. United States Code [section 5313 of Title 5. Government Organization and Employees]. Amounts provided for “Allowances and Office Staff for Former Presidents” may be used to pay fees of an independent contractor who is not a member of the staff of the office of a former President for the review of Presidential records of a former President in connection with the transfer of such records to the National Archives and Records Administration or a Presidential Library without regard to the limitation on staff compensation set forth herein.
(c) The Administrator of General Services shall furnish for each former President suitable office space appropriately furnished and equipped, as determined by the Administrator, at such place within the United States as the former President shall specify.
(d) [Repealed. Pub. L. 86-682, § 12(c), Sept. 2, 1960, 74 Stat. 730. See sections 3214 and 3216 of Title 39.]
(e) The widow of each former President shall be entitled to receive from the United States a monetary allowance at a rate of $20,000 per annum, payable monthly by the Secretary of the Treasury, if such widow shall waive the right to each other annuity or pension to which she is entitled under any other Act of Congress. The monetary allowance of such widow--
(1) commences on the day after the former President dies;
(2) terminates on the last day of the month before such widow--
(A) dies; or
(B) remarries before becoming 60 years of age; and
(3) is not payable for any period during which such widow holds an appointive or elective office or position in or under the Federal Government or the government of the District of Columbia to which is attached a rate of pay other than a nominal rate.
(f) As used in this section, the term “former President” means a person--
(1) who shall have held the office of President of the United States of America;
(2) whose service in such office shall have terminated other than by removal pursuant to section 4 of article II of the Constitution of the United States of America; and
(3) who does not then currently hold such office.
(g) There are authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator of General Services up to $1,000,000 for each former President and up to $500,000 for the spouse of each former President each fiscal year for security and travel related expenses: Provided, That under the provisions set forth in section 3056, paragraph (a), subparagraph (3) of title 18, United States Code [section 3056(a)(3) of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure], the former President and/or spouse was not receiving protection for a lifetime provided by the United States Secret Service under section 3056 paragraph (a) subparagraph (3) of title 18, United States Code; the protection provided by the United States Secret Service expired at its designated time; or the protection provided by the United States Secret Service was declined prior to authorized expiration in lieu of these funds.
-Professor Walter
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