Origins
The term "Grantism" was originally coined by Senator Charles Sumner in a speech on May 31, 1872, during a Presidential election year. It was used by Sumner to differentiate the Republican Party from Ulysses S. Grant. Sumner and Grant had been at political enmity ever since Sumner's refusal to annex Santo Domingo to the United States. Sumner accused Grant of political patronage, nepotism, and being an autocrat like Julius Caesar.
Sumner accused Grant of hindering African American national sovereignty rights in the Caribbean with the annexation proposal of Santo Domingo, although it is now believed Grant wanted to annex Santo Domingo as a safe haven for African Americans from the violence of the Ku Klux Klan and overturn slavery in Cuba and Brazil. Sumner was also angry that Grant used his personal secretary to establish international relations with Santo Domingo, rather than through the State Department and Congress. In essence Sumner summed up Grantism as a despotic government of "one man and his personal will." The lengthy speech was used as the political platform for the Liberal Republican Party and launched the political career of Horace Greeley as the party's presidential candidate in 1872.
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