Grant Rising

The reputation of President US Grant is rising. Jonathan Bernstein on the Siena polls in which historians rank all the Presidents:

Grant was close to the bottom in the first three Siena polls (1982, 1990, 1994), beating out just three presidents each time. In the 2002 edition, he moved up the 35th (of 42). Now, he's escaped the ranks of the failed presidents entirely, rising to a respectable 26th. This matches what other surveys have been showing. The very first such study, conducted in 1948 by Arthur Schlesinger, Sr., had Grant second-to-last, and up until recently he was invariably a bottom-five choice. Now, with Siena joining the crowd, he's a mid-pack president. Siena's respondents docked him for his executive appointments and executive ability, and didn't really give him strong marks anywhere, with it all averaging out to 26th place.

I cheer this. Grant was not a great President but he was not a horrible one, either, and his dismal reputation was the result of a smear campaign by southerners. They never forgave him for beating Lee, or for his sincere (but mostly failed) attempts to get a fair deal for southern blacks. Now their influence is finally fading, and we can see Grant for what he was.