Around the World with General Grant with a Ulysses S. Grant Autograph Document Signed. by Grant, Ulysses S - 1879

New York City: The American News Company, 1879. First edition of Young's illustrated narrative of Grant's international travel, with an original document signed by Ulysses S. Grant as President. Quartos, two volumes bound in three quarters morocco over pebbled leatherette boards, gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, marbled endpapers, all edges marbled, tissue-guarded engraved frontispiece portrait of grant, illustrated with engravings both full page and within the text. In near fine condition. One page, partially printed, the document reads, "I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to affix the Seal of the United States to a Warrant for the pardon of Harris Fisher and Henry Goldstein, dated this day and signed by me and for so doing this shall be his warrant. "U.S. Grant" Washington 23 Nov. 1874." In fine condition. The document measures 10 inches by 7.75 inches. After leaving the office of the presidency in 1877, Ulysses S. Grant embarked on a journey worthy of his legendary namesake, an around-the-world tour that took him from Europe to the Middle East and Asia over two and one-half years. Accompanying Grant was journalist John Russell Young, a wartime associate who was working in Europe as a correspondent for the New York Herald when Grant first arrived in England. On assignment for the Herald, Young joined the former president's entourage and faithfully recorded every detail of the grand tour -- the sightseeing, official visits, travel conditions, and Grant's candid discussions with heads of state and other notables about the Civil War and other matters of state. So far from home, Grant felt free to speak his mind about his fellow Union officers, his Confederate adversaries, and the conduct of the war, at far more length than he would in his celebrated but close-to-the-vest memoirs. These salty reminiscences of the war give this travelogue its greatest importance for posterity.