Pax Grantis

The sixth chapter shows northern evangelicals preoccupied during Grant’s presidency with managing various cultural, social, and political forces centrifugally threatening the Union. Their larger vision for national Christian oneness continued to subsume the ex-slaves. This was evident in several ways: first, many looked to the cohesive, homogenizing power that evangelicalism promised to provide the large and growing republic; second, predisposed to see Reconstruction end, particularly following the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, northern evangelicals were convinced that they had one of their own in the White House and thus supported Grant during the 1872 election against Liberal Republicans; and third, they regarded him as an ally when it came to addressing the potential threat offered by Native Americans and Roman Catholics. By the end of Grant’s presidency, the Union appeared restored, the nation had just celebrated its centennial, prosperity and oneness seemed to abound, and Americans felt at peace.