#When was ulysses s.grant born drivers
#When was ulysses s.grant born driver

Grant failed to show up, thereby forfeiting his $20 collateral, but his friends used their time on the stand to disparage West’s “outrageous conduct … in daring to arrest gentlemen out for a pleasant drive,” according to the Evening Star. Upon arriving at the station, Grant paid $20 in collateral, then watched in amusement as his six companions, some of them prominent government officials, protested their arrests on a similar speeding charge.Īll seven men were told to appear in court the following day. Army during the Civil War, reassured West he would not face any repercussions for the arrest, “as he admired a man who did his duty,” the Evening Star wrote. The president willingly consented to being taken down to the police station, even asking West about his wartime experiences during their ride. These animals of mine are thoroughbreds, and there is no holding them.” Defending his actions by saying he’d forgotten their conversation, Grant added, “Hang it, officer. “Literally burning up the roadway,” according to the Evening Star, he was unable to bring his horses to a halt until an entire block had passed. The following day, West spotted the president at the front of a group of racers in the same vicinity. He then took his leave, reiterating his desire to drive responsibly in the future. In response, Grant apologized, promised to “hold team down to the regulation speed” and inquired after the injured parties. Hailing Grant down, West informed the president that he was not only “violating the law by speeding along street” but also setting a poor example for the other gentlemen of the city.

#When was ulysses s.grant born driver

The unknown driver had badly injured a woman and a 6-year-old child but escaped before he could be held accountable for his reckless behavior. West first stopped Grant when the president sped by a crowd of Washingtonians who were discussing a recent carriage accident.

While driving to and from a racetrack in the Brightwood neighborhood, Grant and other horse racing enthusiasts often engaged in informal contests, giving little thought to the pedestrians in their paths.

#When was ulysses s.grant born drivers

His lieutenant asked him to keep an eye on speeding carriage drivers in the “aristocratic section of the city,” around 13th and M Streets Northwest. Per the Evening Star, West, a veteran who’d fought with an all-Black Union regiment during the Civil War, started working for the D.C. The Evening Star report is the only detailed account of Grant’s arrest as the Post notes, “standards of journalism, particularly with quotations, were not as rigorous back then as today, so it’s nearly impossible to know whether this is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” Still, the fact that Grant was arrested for speeding isn’t in dispute: In 2012, Cathy Lanier, then-head of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, confirmed the story to WTOP, adding that officers “actually stopped and cited” Grant for speeding on three separate occasions. After becoming president in 1869, “he loved to ride fast, and he literally went fast through the city,” historian John F. The former commander of the Union Army, Grant started riding and training horses in his youth. Comparatively, Grant’s speeding charge “was not a high crime, but -at least theoretically speaking-a misdemeanor,” writes Michael S. The charges against Trump have yet to be unsealed, but they’re believed to center on a $130,000 payoff made to an adult-film actress during the 2016 presidential election. (Other presidents have found themselves in legally gray territory but avoided arrest: In 1974, President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for any crimes committed as part of the Watergate scandal in 1997, Bill Clinton faced a civil suit for sexual harassment, which was settled out of court.)Ī 1908 Evening Star article about Grant's arrest Donald Trump, who was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday and will likely be arraigned next Tuesday, is now the first former president to hold this distinction. But he’s not the only commander in chief to face criminal charges. Grant’s brush with the law marked the first and so far only time a sitting United States president has been arrested. President, to have to do it, for you are the chief of the nation, and I am nothing but a policeman, but duty is duty, sir, and I will have to place you under arrest.” Looking like “a schoolboy who had been caught in a guilty act by his teacher,” as West recalled to the Evening Star in 1908, Grant reportedly asked, “Do you think, officer, that I was violating the speed laws?” Answering in the affirmative, West replied, “I am very sorry, Mr. The very next day, however, West caught Grant in the midst of another race with his friends. in 1872, he issued the president a warning. Grant for speeding in a horse-drawn carriage on the streets of Washington, D.C. When police officer William Henry West pulled over Ulysses S.