United States
Senators from Ohio, Hon. Thomas Morris, telling him that there was a
vacancy in the district's representation in West Point, and asking that
Ulysses might be appointed. He would not write to the congressman from
the district, because, although neighbors and old friends, they belonged
to different parties and had had a falling out. But the Senator turned
the letter over to the Congressman, who procured the appointment, thus
healing a breach of which both were ashamed. General Grant gives an
account of what happened when this door to an education and a life
service was opened before him. His father said to him one day:
"'Ulysses, I believe you are going to receive the appointment.' 'What
appointment?' I inquired. 'To West Point. I have applied for it.' 'But I
won't go,' I said. He said he thought I would, _and I thought so too, if
he did_." The italics are the general's. They make it plain that he did
not think it prudent to make further objection when his father had
reached a decision.

Little did Congressman Thomas L. Hamer imagine that in doing this favor
for his friend, Jesse Grant, he was doing the one thing that would
secure remembrance of his name by coming generations. It did not
contribute to his immediate popularity among his constituents, for the
general opinion was that many brighter and more deserving boys lived in
the district, and one of them should have been preferred. Neighbors did
not hesitate to shake their heads and express the opinion that the
appointment was unwise. Not one of them had discerned any particular
promise in the boy. Nor were they unreasonable. He was without other
distinctions than of being a strong toiler, good-natured, and having a
knack with horses. He had no aspiration for the career of a soldier, in
fact never intended to stick to it. Even after entering West Point his
hope, he has said, was to be able, by reason of his education, to get "a
permanent position in some respectable college,"--to become Professor
Grant, not General Grant.

In the course of making his appointment, his name by an accident was
permanently changed. When Congressman Hamer was asked for the full name
of his protege to be inserted in the warrant, he knew that his name was
Ulysses, and was sure there was more of it. He knew that the maiden name
of his friend's wife was Simpson. At a venture, he gave the boy's name
as Ulysses Simpson Grant. Grant found it so recorded when he reached the
school,