WI: President Grant Has Less Corrupt Advisors

What if Ulysses S. Grant had picked better officials and department heads during his term, avoiding the myriad scandals that plagued him OTL? Could the "corrupt bargain" of 1877 be avoided and Federal troops kept in the South longer? What would the effect be?
 
What if Ulysses S. Grant had picked better officials and department heads during his term, avoiding the myriad scandals that plagued him OTL? Could the "corrupt bargain" of 1877 be avoided and Federal troops kept in the South longer? What would the effect be?


Probably very little.

By 1874 the GOP had controlled Congress for 14 years, so were about due for a defeat. Look what would happen to them in 1910 and to the Democrats in 1946.

If Grant's scandals hadn't happened along, in all likelihood something else soon would have. And once they gained control of the HoR, the Dems could block appropriations for military action in the South.
 
Its possible. If he could avoid just the obvious corruption in his administration there's a lot of marginal electoral benefits. For larger benefits, like an outside chance at reconstruction being durable, you'd have to avoid the Panic of 1873, and more generally make the massive railroad investment pay off. Picking a VP other than Schuyler Colfax would avoid some of the blame for the Credit Mobilier Scandal. Discovering it and prosecuting everyone involved could win Grant some points, while saving the treasury a lot of desperately needed cash. A less deflationary monetary policy, and ideally even some bimetallism - using silver to repay war debts, could preempt the attempted cornering of the gold market in 1869, which damaged both the stock market and farming interests. That policy would also help the large number of railroads being built in the south and west on credit, most particularly the Northern Pacific Railroad whose default prompted the Panic of 1873 and the Democratic wave of 1874. Settling African-American veterans in Dakota and Montana could provide some numbers and federal money to keep the Northern Pacific solvent, but even just hiring fewer corrupt Indian agents would greatly help out west.
 
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