page_title: World tour of Ulysses S. Grant
section_title: Preparation and launch
hierarchical_section_title: World tour of Ulysses S. Grant / Preparation and launch
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of the USS Indiana that carried Grant to Europe on Grant's world tour
context_page_description: The world tour of Ulysses S. Grant began in May 1877, only a couple of months after Grant's second presidential term had ended. After serving as a general during the Civil War, and as president for two consecutive terms during the turbulent Reconstruction Era, Grant was ready for a vacation from the years of stress that war and politics had brought him. Now in his later fifties, Grant looked forward to the tour with great enthusiasm. With his wife Julia they embarked on a long-anticipated tour, which would develop into an around the world tour, lasting more than two and a half years. The tour was filled with visits to a variety of places and prominent people, including Queen Victoria, Pope Leo XIII, Otto von Bismarck and other such dignitaries around the world. The Grants had a flexible itinerary and their visits to various countries would bring them to Paris three times during their tour. Grant was often received by cheering crowds as "General Grant" the Civil War hero in the various countries along the tour, often with official greetings and huge celebrations.
  During the tour abroad, Grant was encouraged by his successor President Rutherford B.
context_section_description: Grant had assumed the presidency in 1869 with reluctance, doing so only because he did not want to leave " ... the contest for power for the next four years between mere trading politicians ... ". When he finally stepped down from the presidency after eight years of hectic political life, and after years of civil war, he was relieved, and later stated, "I was never so happy in my life as the day I left the White House. I felt like a boy getting out of school." Grant was looking forward to a long vacation, anticipating the prospect of travel abroad with enthusiasm. After leaving the White House, and wanting to remain in Washington to be close to daughter Nellie, who was expecting a baby, Grant accepted an invitation from his former Secretary of State, and friend, Hamilton Fish, to stay at his residence in Washington, remaining there for two months. After leaving the Fish residence in late March, Ulysses and Julia embarked on a sentimental visit to various towns and cities of their earlier days, including Cincinnati and Galena. Grant had left the White House with very little money to his name but thereafter had accumulated money given to him by his many admirers, which he invested in a mining project that yielded a profit that amounted to approximately $25,000. Grant had sacrificed his military pension when he became president.
  In Cincinnati, Grant was received with great fanfare and celebration and was lauded as an icon of American history, second only to George Washington. Thereafter he returned to Brown County in Ohio where he was raised and where he had not been in decades and visited with old friends.
  Faced with idle retirement, Grant sought to fill the void in his post-presidential life and decided to embark on a world tour with his wife, Julia – an idea he had often entertained for some years previous. He would use the money he had earned from his investment to pay for the tour. During the week before he departed on his tour he arrived at Philadelphia on May 9, and stayed in the home of his close friend, George Childs. On the 14th a reception for Grant was given at the Union League Club, which concluded with a review of the First
  Regiment Infantry of the National Guard of Pennsylvania.
  The next ceremony occurred on the 16th when a procession of soldiers' orphans, all wards of the State, marched past Childs' residence while Generals Grant and Sherman stood on the steps of the house, extending their good wishes to the children as they passed. Later that day Grant was received by a group of twelve hundred veteran soldiers in Independence Hall. After the event Grant had a luncheon with Governor Hartranft at Childs' residence. From there Grant stopped off in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to visit his widowed mother, Hannah. Preparing for the tour, the Grants arrived in Philadelphia on May 10, 1877, and were again honored with celebrations during the week before their departure.
  On May 16, Grant and Julia began their world tour and left for England aboard the steamer SS Indiana voyaging across the Atlantic Ocean. Among those who accompanied the Grants on the tour was John Russell Young, a journalist from the New York Herald, invited on for purposes of documenting the various visits and events as they went along. Also present was Adam Badeau, U.S. Consul in London and former general staff member for Grant during the Civil War, acting as an observer, aide and adviser. With the United States and political life behind him, Grant's personal aspect soon changed from quiet and serious to one more friendly and talkative. The prospect of a leisurely world tour and being free from the daily stresses of political life gave Grant much relief. Grant's aide, Adam Badeau, noted that any final encouragement to return to politics was now being rebuffed by an enthusiastic Grant looking forward to seeing the world.
  After only a couple of months into Grant's tour, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 occurred, and he began receiving numerous letters from America with references to the overall situation, many of them expressing the general idea that a 
caption: USS Indiana, Delaware Bay, 1877, departing Philadelphia, bound for England
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