US Presidency
1872

Detailed statements of the disbursements through the Department of Justice will be furnished by the report of the Attorney-General, and though these have been somewhat increased by the recent acts of Congress to enforce the rights of citizens of the United States to vote in the several States of the Union, and to enforce the provisions of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and the amendments thereto, I can not question the necessity and salutary effect of those enactments. Reckless and lawless men, I regret to say, have associated themselves together in some localities to deprive other citizens of those rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the United States, and to that end have committed deeds of blood and violence; but the prosecution and punishment of many of these persons have tended greatly to the repression of such disorders.