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see Full Terms at mintmobile.com. It's

1:06

April 9th, 1866, and another remarkable

1:08

event is about to be uncovered

1:10

by Aria, Rebecca, and Ali. Who

1:12

is the only sitting US president

1:15

to have been arrested is a

1:17

classic pub quiz question. The answer

1:19

to which is Ulysses S. Grant.

1:21

I mean he already has the

1:24

most fearsome Christian name of any

1:26

president so it fits that he

1:28

should have the rap sheet as

1:31

well. But he wasn't actually yet president

1:33

today in history in 1866 when he

1:35

was first arrested because he was actually

1:37

arrested three times for the same offense.

1:40

breaking the speed limit, the horse and

1:42

carriage speed limit. Yeah, at this point

1:44

Grant was the US Army's top general.

1:47

He was a household name throughout the country

1:49

and a hero, at least if you were

1:51

living in the North of America, for having

1:53

just led the Union Army to victory in

1:56

the Civil War, which had ended the previous

1:58

year. He was exercising his... fast gray nag

2:00

according to the national intelligence so which broke

2:03

the story unfortunately he was exercising it along

2:05

14th Street in Washington DC a busy thoroughfare

2:07

then and now and it was Grant's misfortune

2:09

that he had committed his offense in front

2:12

of Officer S.T. Crown along with his partner

2:14

officer Bailey he raced after Grant and hailed

2:16

him to a stop Grant offered to pay

2:18

the fine on the spot which was against

2:21

regulations and when the officers explained this to

2:23

him and said he needed to come down

2:25

to the station with him and said Grant

2:28

according to the article quote expressed his doubts

2:30

of their authority to arrest him and drove

2:32

off, which I think we can assume was

2:34

the 1860s equivalent of a middle finger. Yeah,

2:37

Mike drop. Yeah, so Grant had always had

2:39

a fondness for fast horses and had a

2:41

thrill-seeking riding style that made his arrest for

2:44

speeding entirely in character. He'd always been an

2:46

avid horseman from a young age and was

2:48

known for his exceptional riding skills when he

2:50

graduated from West Point Military Academy, his classmates

2:53

said that he was the best rider they'd

2:55

ever seen, though he wasn't the best soldier

2:57

he ranked pretty low in his year group

3:00

that year. Yeah and actually horse skills to

3:02

be fair come into the Civil War victory

3:04

don't they? It's not just like if you're

3:06

listening to this thinking why are you reducing

3:09

Ulysses S. Grant to horsemen? If you look

3:11

at his statue commemorating his role in the

3:13

civil war, it's on horseback, like he's all

3:15

about the horses, right? Absolutely, and during the

3:18

civil war, he was again known for his

3:20

speed. He frequently rode into battle at full

3:22

gallop, and that's part of what made him

3:25

such a great general in the first place.

3:27

Apparently, the union was stocked with fairly timid,

3:29

comparatively, leaders who weren't able to take this

3:31

sort of aggressive approach that was just natural

3:34

to grant. And so that that confluence of

3:36

speed of speed... and aggression was just always

3:38

part of the thing that made him so

3:41

successful throughout his military career. Okay, but nonetheless

3:43

that doesn't make it okay to violate the

3:45

law. It's wrong to speed. Because it's wrong

3:47

to speed. There were pedestrians and children in

3:50

Washington and you know people have been killed

3:52

and really severely injured and this particular route

3:54

actually went to the horse train. So, it's

3:56

a funny idea, isn't it? Especially when you

3:59

consider someone who would go on to be

4:01

president. But this was often mates on the

4:03

way to the horses, having a race on

4:06

the way to the races, kind of like

4:08

gamblers might gamble on the plane on the

4:10

way to Vegas. Like, that's the kind of

4:12

mood, right? Or like, boy races might race

4:15

to the racetrack. That's what they're doing. Well,

4:17

and I think we should say as well,

4:19

you might be picturing sort of carriages and

4:22

wagons. This isn't what this was. They were

4:24

in buggies, you know, these small vehicles drawn

4:26

by two horses, you know, barreling down the

4:28

road. This was basically the 1860s version of

4:31

First and Furious street racing. Yeah, yes. And

4:33

the, you know, the reason why they would...

4:35

cracking down on grant in particular, was that

4:37

at the time there had been a spate

4:40

of terrible injuries and deaths. And so the

4:42

district was really, really keen to snuff this

4:44

out. And so that's why the police were

4:47

sort of standing around waiting to hand out

4:49

tickets to even one of the most famous

4:51

people in America at the time. Well, particularly

4:53

to the most fact, I mean, it's sort

4:56

of a celebrity example, isn't it? It's making

4:58

an example, but also in a way that

5:00

doesn't really detriment his war record, because it

5:03

fits in, as we're saying to his image,

5:05

he's fast on a horse. So, you know,

5:07

he's not going to mind this being reported,

5:09

but it does tell everybody, there's a speed

5:12

limit, don't break the speed limit. Yeah, and

5:14

as you can imagine, Grant was a very

5:16

divisive figure, with a lot of glee. the

5:19

defeated southern states, one Virginia newspaper lamented that

5:21

it was a bad example in general grant

5:23

to violate a law but a worse one

5:25

to treat the officers of law with contempt.

5:28

Well, he'd certainly learnt that lesson by the

5:30

time he got his second speeding offence, just

5:32

three months later on July the 4th in

5:34

1866. The Richmond Daily Dispatch detailed a second

5:37

speeding incident where Grant had been caught riding

5:39

too fast through the streets of Washington DC

5:41

again, but this time the article noted, Grant

5:44

took the arrest. very much in his stride

5:46

and he responded to the officers with good

5:48

humor this time calling the situation and oversight

5:50

on his part and he then rode over

5:53

to the second precinct station without any protest

5:55

where he promptly paid the fine for his

5:57

infraction. So he'd learnt from the fact that

6:00

the last time out it hadn't gone particularly

6:02

well for him to have not just gone

6:04

with the flow and it led to this

6:06

bad publicity that this time he was determined

6:09

not to incur. All of this was going

6:11

to light-hearted nonsense until six years later we

6:13

get to the stage where he is arrested

6:15

again for speeding again, but this time as

6:18

a sitting US president. And what's interesting is

6:20

at this point, this is not reported anywhere.

6:22

We only know this because the police officer

6:25

that did the arrest blabbed about it many

6:27

years later. in 1908 that he was the

6:29

man that arrested Grant in 1872. And there

6:31

are various reasons for it, I think. One

6:34

is that, as I say, he was president,

6:36

and I guess at that point it becomes

6:38

almost treasonous, doesn't it? People feel like, oh,

6:41

should they be printing this information about the

6:43

president breaking the law? What will that do?

6:45

What's the precedent for that? The other reason

6:47

was that he was black. the police officer

6:50

William West. He was a veteran who'd fought

6:52

with an all-black union regiment during the Civil

6:54

War. He was a formerly enslaved man who'd

6:56

served in the United States colored troops infantry

6:59

regiment. And so the idea of a black

7:01

soldier arresting the president would have upset a

7:03

lot of those people in the South, but

7:06

of course with this president, it was particularly

7:08

interesting because this was a president that was

7:10

brought up believing in the emancipation of everybody

7:12

and everybody deserves the vote and fighting in

7:15

particular for African-American rights, which is how he

7:17

ended up in the Civil War in the

7:19

first place. And he's being arrested by a

7:22

black soldier. Some people would have thought that

7:24

was ironic. What was interesting is clearly for

7:26

grant. he sort of thought it was apt

7:28

like he was he was sort of happy

7:31

to talk and we understand from the reports

7:33

of 1908 to this black soldier that West

7:35

told the story all those years later was

7:38

that on the day in question when he

7:40

first encountered Grant he was among several officers

7:42

at the scene of an accident where a

7:44

mother and child had been knocked down by

7:47

a speeding carriage the latest victim of the

7:49

reckless driving epidemic in the nation's capital he

7:51

was interviewing witnesses at the scene when he

7:53

was interviewing witnesses at the scene when they

7:56

saw these buggies come racing down the street

7:58

they were at again they drew them all

8:00

to a halt and West stopped one and

8:03

realized that the driver of the driver's for

8:05

a lot of other gentleman. And then the

8:07

very next day, again as West told it,

8:09

he was on patrol at the corner of

8:12

M and 13th Street when he saw the

8:14

same group of buggies come racing along again,

8:16

five or six of them, and the irate

8:19

officer West called them all to a halt,

8:21

and he realized after she pursued them for

8:23

a whole block while they slowed down that

8:25

it was Grant again. Grant did try the

8:28

old, oh I didn't realize I was going

8:30

so fast officer, but West said, duty is

8:32

duty so, dutifully accompanied him down to the

8:34

police station where they put down a $20

8:37

bond a piece and they were allowed to

8:39

leave. Although the story goes Grant had to

8:41

walk back to the White House because his

8:44

vehicle had been confiscated. The next day the

8:46

case against them was heard. The next day

8:48

Justice was swift. Yes it was. And considering

8:50

it was the next day they somehow got

8:53

32 ladies of the city to testify about

8:55

the menace of these speedhead drivers. Grant did

8:57

not appear for the hearing I think quite

9:00

sensibly deciding it was better to forfeit his

9:02

$20 dollar bond. and appearing court. Critics point

9:04

out that there's no primary source documentation or

9:06

formal records to support West's story and that

9:09

does raise doubts about its accuracy. West himself

9:11

had no official documents and so this story

9:13

came to be regarded as an alleged event

9:15

rather than something that definitely happened but some

9:18

of those documents could have been conveniently lost

9:20

or scrubbed because who are you going to

9:22

believe the president or this lowly officer? What

9:25

struck me was as Rebecca said, these women

9:27

who supposedly turned up a... the court to

9:29

testify against testify against the

9:31

guys out Grant was

9:34

hanging out with. These

9:36

are the mates. mates. they managed

9:38

to find they managed to

9:41

find dozens of women

9:43

to come and say,

9:45

this is this is behavior. I

9:47

mean, I mean, that

9:50

really shows you that

9:52

it must have been

9:54

a really serious problem

9:57

in this area of

9:59

Washington. in were area who

10:01

just wanted they were southern ladies who

10:03

just wanted to have their the

10:06

men who were present

10:08

in court in to get

10:10

to get west fired. Grant wrote

10:12

to the chief of

10:15

police to ensure that

10:17

that would not happen. of

10:19

mean, this has got

10:22

all the makings of

10:24

an anecdote that you

10:26

tell a child I

10:28

sitting on your knee has

10:31

got a total makings coming

10:33

an anecdote And that is

10:35

why good things happen

10:38

to good people and

10:40

the right -side one

10:42

in the Civil War. knee

10:44

looking up a total thrust in everyone that's

10:47

coming up. hear more from

10:49

us on this topic,

10:51

join happen to good our

10:53

weekly bonus right.com. in the civil war.

10:56

Yeah.