Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant was arrested for speeding on this day in 1866, many years before the invention of the automobile. Turns out, the cops were out looking for people pushing the speed limit in the 19th century too, just for the people who were in horse buggies. Zooming around the nation's capital, Grant was stopped and at first offered to pay his fine — but then had second thoughts and sped away from the police. That's right: This future president was, for a brief moment, a man on the run.
He relented when a warrant was issued, though, and appeared in court to pay the fine, though that didn't stop the contemporary press from absolutely torching him over the affair. Just three months later on the Fourth of July, he got arrested for the same crime. This time, he headed to the police precinct and paid up immediately, no warrant necessary.
But wait, there's more: Grant was arrested a third time for speeding while a sitting president ... probably. Police officer William West, a Black Civil War veteran, claimed to have arrested the commander-in-chief in 1872. The day before, he had caught Grant speeding in a horse buggy race. He chided the president, who apologized.
West caught him doing the exact same thing the next day and felt obligated to take Grant into custody. The president and police officer (supposedly) chatted on the way to the precinct, with Grant assuring West that he'd face no harm as a result of the arrest. The president did not appear in court the next day. There is little evidence to validate West's story, though comments by the D.C. police chief in 2012 provided extra detail to the story that seemed to corroborate it, at least a bit. Others dispute the account in whole.
