The Peace Policy of Ulysses S. Grant

Abstract

This article reassesses the Peace Policy of the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, emphasizing incoherence in its formulation and implementation. Historians have involved themselves in illuminating debates concerning “paternalism” and “colonialism” as competing explanatory concepts, but have glossed over the significance of contingencies, inconsistencies and political competition involved in elaborating a substantive federal policy toward native peoples during the Reconstruction era. Whilst the Grant Administration focussed on well‐meaning but limited goals of placing “good men” in positions of influence and convincing Native peoples of their fundamental dependency on the United States Government, attempts to forge a new departure in federal‐Native relations were actually characterized by conflict and disagreement. The muddled creation of what has become known as the Peace Policy thus tells us much about the varied and divergent attitudes Americans had toward the consolidation of their empire in the west following the Civil War.