| Julia Grant | |
| Office: | First Lady of the United States |
| President: | Ulysses S. Grant |
| Term Start: | March 4, 1869 |
| Term End: | March 4, 1877 |
| Term Label: | In role |
| Predecessor: | Eliza Johnson |
| Successor: | Lucy Hayes |
| Birth Name: | Julia Boggs Dent |
| Birth Date: | 26 January 1826 |
| Birth Place: | St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Restingplace: | General Grant National Memorial Manhattan, New York |
| Signature: | Julia Grant Signature.svg |
Julia Boggs Grant (née Dent; January 26, 1826 – December 14, 1902) was the first lady of the United States and wife of President Ulysses S. Grant. As first lady, she became a national figure in her own right.[1] Her memoirs, The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant were published in 1975.
Julia Boggs Dent was born on January 26, 1826, at White Haven plantation west of St. Louis, Missouri.[2] [3] Her parents were Frederick Dent (1787–1873), a slaveholding planter and merchant, and Ellen Wrenshall Dent. Frederick owned about 30 African slaves, whom he freed only when compelled by law, having previously resisted moral arguments against slaveholding. Her family was of English descent, as her mother was born in England.[4] [5]
Grant, a distant maternal relative to Confederate general James Longstreet, was the fifth of eight children. In her memoirs, Grant described her childhood as "one long summer of sunshine, flowers, and smiles…"[6]
Around 1831–1836, Julia attended the Gravois School, a co-educational one-room schoolhouse in St. Louis. From age 10 to age 17, Grant attended the Mauro Academy for Young Ladies in St. Louis with the daughters of other affluent parents. Grant was a boarding student during the week and returned home to White Haven on weekends.
The Dent family was highly social with visitors coming from among the elite class of Cincinnati, Louisville and Pittsburgh. William Clark (of Lewis and Clark) and politician Alexander McNair were family friends.
As a young woman, Grant was a skilled pianist, an expert horsewoman and a voracious reader of novels.
Grant was born with strabismus (more commonly known as "crossed eyes") which prevents both eyes from lining up in the same direction.[7] When she was younger, one of the best surgeons in the country offered to perform the simple operation that would fix them. Grant was not keen on surgery, however, and declined.
Because her strabismus was never corrected, Grant almost always posed in profile for portraits.
While a student at West Point, New York, Fred Dent wrote to his sister Julia about how impressed he was with a fellow student, Ulysses S. Grant: "I want you to know him, he is pure gold." In 1844, Grant began visiting the Dent family. In April of that year, Ulysses asked Julia to wear his class ring, as a sign of their exclusive affection. Eighteen-year-old Julia initially demurred. Ulysses' regiment was then ordered to Louisiana, in preparation for service in the Mexican–American War. Distraught at their separation, Julia had an intense dream, which she detailed to several people, that Ulysses would somehow return within days, wearing civilian clothes and state his intention of staying for a week. Despite the unlikeliness of the dream, Ulysses did return just as Julia had predicted and the two became engaged.
Neither set of parents were enthusiastic about the match, with her parents doubting his future earnings capability and his parents disliking her father for being a slaveholder.[2] Nonetheless, the engagement held,[1] and Ulysses often sent letters to her, including ones that described his first exposure to the horrors of battle. The couple would not get married until 1848, four years later, once Ulysses returned from the war. He then was posted to several far-away locations, including Panama and Vancouver Barracks, where she did not accompany him,[3] although he continued to write her. He suffered from loneliness, boredom, and a possible drinking problem, and resigned from the army in 1854.
Over the next few years he tried several business ventures, none too successfully, and friends of hers indicated that she had been unhappy for much of the first decade of their marriage.[1] Meanwhile, she gave birth to four children between the years of 1850 and 1858. In 1860, the family located themselves in Galena, Illinois, where Ulysses worked as a clerk in a store owned by his brother.
With the American Civil War underway, Ulysses rejoined the Army. During some parts of the war, Grant traveled to be near her husband,[2] something that was unusual at the time.[3] The rest of the time, the two sent letters to each other. While she was careful to preserve his letters to her — which have been published in several forms — none of her letters to him are known to survive, possibly because at some point she destroyed them.[8]
The Grants had three sons and a daughter:[9]
Grant referred to her time in the White House often as the "happiest period" of her life. She hosted parties frequently, including gathering Union Army Officers, and orchestrating elaborate and lavish dinners for politicians and guests. She was the originator of the State Dinner at the White House, which honored King Kalākaua of the Kingdom of Hawai'i.[10]
During her husband's first term in office, Grant redecorated the families living quarters into a Renaissance Revival style, with money appropriated from Congress for the renovations. During his second term in 1873, Congress appropriated $100,000 for additional renovations from 1873–1874.[11] In order to prepare for First Daughter Nellie Grant's wedding, the Grants focused their refurbishing on the East Room, including the installation of gas globe chandeliers, which became renowned during the American Gilded Age among the elite. Herter Brothers, the New York furniture company, was the supplier of the furnishings in the East Room.
Grant sought to bring prestige to the position of First Lady, as well as to improve the stature of the wives of other government officials including the cabinet, the Congress, and the Supreme Court.[12] She was close friends with Julia Fish, wife of secretary of state Hamilton Fish.[13] She did not publicly support women's suffrage, but notably refused to sign an anti-suffrage petition.
Grant was the first First Lady recorded on film.
Grant was the first First Lady to write a memoir, though she was unable to find a publisher, and had been dead almost 75 years before The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant) was finally published in 1975. She died in Washington, D.C. in 1902.
In 1897, she attended the dedication of Grant's monumental tomb overlooking the Hudson River in New York City. She was laid to rest in a sarcophagus beside her husband. She had ended her own chronicle of their years together with a firm declaration: "the light of his glorious fame still reaches out to me, falls upon me, and warms me."[14]
While in Washington, D.C., Grant followed Dolley Madison's lead and acted as a "Queen Mother" figure.[15] She became friends with First Ladies Frances Cleveland, Caroline Harrison, and Edith Roosevelt.