'Reconstructing Grant' - Presentation by Frank Scaturro - 3/22/2022

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About the Video:
Frank Scaturro discusses the legacy of President Ulysses S. Grant. He gave the presentation via Zoom on March 8, 2022, to the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia. Introduction by Kurt DeSoto, President of the CWRTDC. Questions and answers follow the presentation.

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About the Topic:
Ulysses S. Grant's presidency has traditionally been arguably the most misunderstood of any of the nation's chief executives. Reconstruction is the biggest reason, but not the only reason, for a presidential reputation that historians once placed near the very bottom of the list, only to undergo a recent revival. Yet even with that revival, many distortions endure in both the popular and the scholarly imagination. Mr. Scaturro will explore why generations of built-up confirmation bias and double standards among historians stood in the way of doing justice to Grant's tenure in the White House and why he should be recognized in the pantheon of presidential greats.

About the Speaker:
Frank Scaturro is an attorney and writer. A graduate of Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, he served as Counsel to the Constitution for the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2005 to 2009, where he advised Republican senators on constitutional law issues and nominations. Afterwards, he taught courses as a visiting professor at Hofstra Law School on constitutional law and the legislative process.

The founder and president of the Grant Monument Association, Mr. Scaturro fought a failed government bureaucracy and pushed for a $1.8 million restoration of Grant’s Tomb. He has published a number of books and articles in the area of history and law, including President Grant Reconsidered (1998), a reassessment of Grant’s presidency; The Supreme Court’s Retreat from Reconstruction (2000), an exploration of a key chapter in the history of civil rights; and Public Companies (2002), a book he co-authored on how to be a responsible public company in the wake of the corporate scandals of a decade ago.

Mr. Scaturro practiced law as an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham, and Taft and a partner at FisherBroyles LLP. He is a past Republican candidate for Congress in New York’s Fourth Congressional District. During the 114th Congress, he served as special counsel to the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives. He currently serves as vice-president and senior counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network.

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Thanks to CWRTDC members Paul Mazzuca, for managing the Zoom meeting, and John Ciccone for video and audio post-production.