[110][l] In a few months, Grant paid off his debts.[112] The family attended the local Methodist church and he soon established himself as a reputable citizen of Galena.[113] For the 1860 election, he could not vote because he was not yet a legal resident of Illinois, but he favored Democrat Stephen A. Douglas over the eventual winner, Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln over the Southern Democrat, John C. Breckinridge.[114] He was torn between his increasingly anti-slavery views and the fact that his wife remained a staunch Democrat.[115]

Civil War
Main article: Ulysses S. Grant and the American Civil War
Brigadier General Grant photographed at Cairo, Illinois, September 1861 (Published 1911)
On April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began when Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.[116] The news came as a shock in Galena, and Grant shared his neighbors' concern about the war.[117] On April 15, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers.[118] The next day, Grant attended a mass meeting to assess the crisis and encourage recruitment, and a speech by his father's attorney, John Aaron Rawlins, stirred Grant's patriotism.