Ulysses S. Grant And The Black Friday Scandal

Ulysses S. Grant and the Black Friday Scandal
To provide absolute trust and loyalty to people can be considered a fault or a virtue. During Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency this was considered a fault for him, because so many people that Grant trusted betrayed him and almost ruined the nation. Grant had to deal with corruption in his cabinet, the negative influence of people who were thought to be his friend, and scandals like the Black Friday scandal. Due to the 1869 Black Friday scandal, Ulysses S. Grant’s attitude towards like would never be the same, because not only was he personally associated with the people that were involved in this scandal, the Black Friday scandal almost destroyed the U.S. economy. As Ulysses S. Grant grew up, he

The only road block in their plan was the fact that Ulysses S. Grant was in control of the prices that gold sold for, and to help maintain balance, Grant could raise or lower the prices when necessary. Jay and Jim stockpiled gold to sell when the prices were high enough. To help get Grant out of the way, Jim and Jay acquired Abel Corbin, Grant’s brother-in-law, to help them get Grant to raise the prices (Andrew). Abel convinced Grant to appoint General Daniel Butterfield as the United States Sub-treasurer (Andrew). Daniel helped Jay and Jim by telling them when Grant raised or lowered the prices. This gave them an advantage over Grant. To help convince Grant even more, Jay and Jim conversed with Grant at multiple social events and always talked about how an increase in gold prices would do wonders for the economy

Some people took out loans and Grant flooding the gold market left people with no way to repay their loans, they became financially ruined (“Black Friday”). The decrease in gold also affected the stock market, “The stock market prices decreased, dropping about 20%. This bankrupted or inflicted severe damage on venerable firms” (“The Black Friday Gold Scandal”). The aftermath of this scandal not only affected the stock market; it also caused foreign trade to stop and the value of crops also decreased by 50%, financially ruining many