Book examines President Grant

Anybody remember that gag question Groucho Marx used on his quiz show? Who`s buried in Grant`s tomb? A dedicated ad-libber, Groucho could call the obvious answer right or wrong. A contestant might say "Grant" — perhaps after a moment`s hesitation, suspecting a trap. Groucho could accept it, get a little laugh. Or he could say "Wrong!" and point out that no one is buried there: President Ulysses S Grant and his wife Julia are both entombed, at ground level. In "US Grant: American Hero, American Myth" biographer Joan Waugh finds an interesting range of answers to a simple question: Who was Grant? She titles her final chapter: "Who`s (Really) Buried in Grant`s Tomb?" "The magnanimous warrior who saved the Union?" she asks, or "a greedy, corrupt, lazy militarist who exercised the powers of a despot against the defeated Confederacy?" She comes down forcefully on the side of Grant`s admirers, led by President Lincoln. Southern writers like Confederate Lt Gen Jubal A Early saw Grant as a butcher who won battles only with overwhelming forces. Extremists portrayed an alcoholic westerner who came to Appomattox, Va, in mud-spattered field gear. There he took the surrender of aristocratic Gen. Robert E Lee, who had said he would rather "die a thousand deaths" than give up the "Lost Cause." For the rest of the country, Grant was the victor in a war for two noble causes: the death of slavery and the survival of the United States. And he sought, as Lincoln had urged, to bind up the nation`s wounds. A million and a half people watched his funeral. Waugh carefully chronicles bewildering ups and downs in Grant`s reputation. The scale of corruption during the "gilded age" of his presidency led some to give him a prominent place on lists of "worst presidents." The honesty and literary quality of his "Personal Memoir," a task that occupied him until his last days, raised his standing. It also provided support for his family at a time when presidents received no pensions. In the 1990s, neglect of his tomb and deterioration of the neighborhood made it what one observer called a "graffiti-scarred hangout for drug dealers and muggers." Great-great grandson Ulysses S Grant Dietz threatened to move the bodies to Illinois. Then the National Park Service did a USD 1.8 million restoration job in time for the centenary of its opening in 1997. Bureau Report