Not AJNolte, but I am a student of Ulysses S. Grant's history. Even before the ACW, Grant's life was shaped by sectionalism and slavery. Grant was raised by his father was an avowed abolitionist, and traveled through northwest Virginia and Kentucky, although his thoughts about slavery and the South were not recorded. In West Point, Grant made a number of Southern friends, though he engaged in heated discussions and nearly came to blows with his roommate Frederick Dent, son of a slave owner, over slavery. Grant's experience in the Mexican-American War reinforced his distaste for slavery, blaming Polk for the "wicked" war driven by Southern "slave power".
Still, Grant distinguished between Southerners and slavery. Grant made more Southern friends in Mexico and married Julia Dent, the sister of his West Point roommate. Although Julia's father was a proud proponent of slavery, it did not matter much to Grant. After some trying times, Grant stayed in Missouri, surrounded by slavery. He worked with slaves, including four young servants owned by Julia. However, they were more trouble than help to Grant, he was too kindhearted to enforce unpaid and reluctant labor with severity. For free black workers Grant paid them more than anyone else, causing his white neighbors and white workers to complain about it. In Grant's letters to his family, there is a hint of shame in that Grant never referred to the blacks around him as slaves, but only as "negro men" or "servants," as if to conceal the fact that they were slaves. Neighbors recorded that Grant objected to the institution of slavery on principle and opposed its expansion. However, he assailed abolitionists as agitators who, in advocating immediate abolition, imperiled the Union.
Grant was a staunch supporter of the Whig party and its leader, Henry Clay, but drifted about politically in 1850s. At one point, Grant joined a Know-Nothing lodge, but stopped attending meetings after being offended by the secrecy and ceremony of the nativist order. He eventually became a Democrat by default. The new Republican party, with its agitation of the slavery issue, worried him. In the 1856 presidential election, Grant voted for Democrat Buchanan over Republican John C. Fremont out of fear that the Union would break if Fremont won. After the Dred Scott case, Grant seemed to be "thoroughly informed" on political issues, reading accounts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 and wondering "who got the best of the argument." By this point, it is fairly certain that Grant was an Unionist at the core; he "could not endure the thought of the Union separating."
When Grant returned to Illinois, he tried to stay out of politics but could not help but observe that Lincoln had a good chance at capturing the presidency. However, Grant confessed to not "quite like the position of either party" and was relieved to know that he had not satisfied the residency requirement for voter registration. Still, Grant may have been more of a Republican than admitted; he declined to help his friend John A. Rawlins drill a march company supporting Douglas while occasionally dropping by the meeting of Republican marching clubs (the "Wide-Awakes") and helping out with formations and drilling. Eventually, Grant's prediction that the nation would be split asunder came true on the morning of April 12, 1861.
The problem with radicalizing Grant would be his marriage with Julia Dent, a member of a slave-owning family. Though Grant's opinions were respected by his neighbors, he could not simply proclaim his beliefs in abolition without being kicked out by the people of Missouri. Not to mention the fact that his association with the Dent family marked him as a Democrat in the eyes of many Republicans. Above all, Grant cherished the unity of his country more than he did abolitionism. Should the country's unity be preserved by slavery the choice was fairly obvious for Grant.
