Ohio History Journal

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NEWS and NOTES

ONE OF THE BETTER results of the effort

to recognize the centennial of the Civil

War has been the establishment of a

project to collect and publish the cor-

respondence and other papers of Ulysses

S. Grant, supreme commander of the

Union armies and eighteenth president of

the United States. To accomplish this

end the Ulysses S. Grant Association was

created through the efforts of the Civil

War centennial commissions of Ohio

(where Grant was born and lived his

early years), Illinois (which gave him

his first command in the war), and New

York (where he spent his last years).

The association has been chartered as

a non-profit corporation by the state of

Illinois. Its offices are located in the

Ohio State Museum, Columbus, the head-

quarters of the Ohio Historical Society.

Officers of the association are: Ralph

G. Newman, Chicago, president; Bruce

Catton of the American Heritage, David

C. Mearns of the Library of Congress,

and T. Harry Williams of Louisiana

State University, vice presidents; Erwin

C. Zepp of the Ohio Historical Society,

secretary; Clyde C. Walton of the Illinois

State Historical Society, treasurer; and

Allan Nevins of the Huntington Library,

chairman of the editorial board. Dr.

John Y. Simon of the department of his-

tory of Ohio State University is executive

director and managing editor.

The Grant Association expects to pub-

lish the writings of U. S. Grant as com-

pletely as possible. Exceptions will be

formal and routine documents which

called only for Grant's signature as an

army officer or as president. These will

be noted, however, and located and de-

scribed briefly. Letters to Grant, espe-

cially those which elicited some response,

will be utilized as fully as space and

finances will permit.

According to Dr. Simon, the project

is "currently in the collecting phase of

its operations. The methods employed

are an adaptation of those employed by

the editors of similar projects, such as

the Jefferson Papers, Adams Papers,

Franklin Papers, and Woodrow Wilson

Papers." The association is acquiring

photoduplicates wherever available of all

material written by Grant or addressed

to him. The extensive collection of copies

of Grant letters gathered by Dr. Orme W.

Phelps of Claremont College, now of the

Brookings Institution, has been turned

over to the association, and Dr. Phelps

has agreed to assist in the project as a

member of the editorial board.

The association believes it already has

brought together the largest collection

of Grant material to be found in a single

depository. It urges that any person

knowing of Grant papers, particularly

isolated pieces in depositories and items

in private collections, notify Dr. Simon

of their existence.

A preliminary analysis of known Grant

letters and other manuscripts reveals a

dearth for the first forty years of his

life. By 1862, however, when Grant was

beginning to make a name for himself

in the Civil War, recipients of his letters

began preserving them. Hence there is

considerable material for the army years,

the period of the presidency, and the

immediate   post-presidential  years  to

1880, when the Republican party denied