The Cause Of The Great War

From Grant's Personal Memoirs (1885), this is among the most historically significant passages in the book. Writing after the war, Grant was explicit that slavery — not tariffs, states' rights, or cultural difference — was the fundamental cause of the Confederate rebellion. The directness was notable: many contemporaries on both sides promoted the "Lost Cause" narrative that framed secession as a constitutional rather than a moral controversy. Grant's memoirs, widely read and critically admired, helped counter that revisionism. Abraham Lincoln had reached similar conclusions in his Second Inaugural Address, delivered just six weeks before his assassination.