"Intelligence has been commoner among American presidents than
high character, but [Ulysses S.] Grant ran against the stream by having a
sort of character without any visible intelligence whatever. He was
almost the perfect military man -- dogged, devoted and dumb. In the
White House he displayed an almost inconceivable stupidity. Whatever
was palpably untrue convinced him instantly, and whatever was crooked
seemed to him to be noble. If the American people could have kept him
out of the presidency by prolonging the Civil War until 1877, it would
have been an excellent investment. A more honest man never lived, but
West Point and bad whiskey had transformed his cortex into a sort of
soup."
--H.L. Mencken, A Second Mencken Chrestomathy (Edited by Terry Teachout, 1995), p. 33.
[With thanks to Thomas Dilorenzo at LewRockwell.com]
--H.L. Mencken, A Second Mencken Chrestomathy (Edited by Terry Teachout, 1995), p. 33.
[With thanks to Thomas Dilorenzo at LewRockwell.com]
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