page_title: Ulysses S. Grant presidential administration reforms
section_title: Enforcement Acts (1870–1871)
hierarchical_section_title: Ulysses S. Grant presidential administration reforms / Enforcement Acts (1870–1871)
caption_attribution_description: English: Amos T. Akerman
context_page_description: During Ulysses S. Grant's two terms as President of the United States there were several executive branch investigations, prosecutions, and reforms carried-out by President Grant, Congress, and several members of his Cabinet, in the wake of several revelation of fraudulent activities within the administration. Grant's cabinet fluctuated between talented individuals or reformers and those involved with political patronage or party corruption. Some notable reforming cabinet members were persons who had outstanding abilities and made many positive contributions to the administration. These reformers resisted the Republican Party's demands for patronage to select efficient civil servants.
  It was with the encouragement of these reformers that Grant established the first Civil Service Commission, and ended the moiety system. Many in his cabinet including his Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and his Secretary of Interior Jacob D. Cox implemented Civil Service reform in their respected departments. Historian H.W. Brands has noted that the Grant Administration thwarted the 1869 Gold Ring in addition to the successful prosecution the Whiskey Ring in 1876.
context_section_description: During his first administration, President Grant signed a series of laws known as the Enforcement Acts that were to reform the South and protect African Americans from violent attacks and intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan and Redeemers . This was done in order to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the constitution that respectively gave African Americans United States citizenship and the right to vote.   The first bill that Grant signed into law was the Enforcement Act of 1870 on May 31, 1870.  This law was designed to keep the Redeemers from attacking or threatening African Americans and white Republicans who supported Reconstruction.  This act placed severe penalties on persons who used intimidation, bribery, or physical assault to prevent citizens from voting and placed elections under Federal jurisdiction. In 1871 Congress passed the First Enforcement Act and Second Enforcement Act to specifically go after local units of the Ku Klux Klan after a Congressional investigation into the South instigated by President Grant revealed violence and intimidation against African Americans. President Grant signed the bill into law on April 20, 1871 after being convinced by Secretary of Treasury, George Boutwell, that federal protection was warranted, having cited documented atrocities against the Freedmen.   This law allowed the President to suspend habeas corpus on "armed combinations" and conspiracies by the Klan.  The Act also empowered the president "to arrest and break up disguised night marauders". The actions of the Klan were defined as high crimes and acts of rebellion against the United States.
  The Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina was strongly entrenched and continued acts of violence against African American citizens. On October 12, 1871 President  Grant, who was fed up with their violent tactics, ordered the Ku Klux Klan to disperse from South Carolina and lay down their arms under the authority of the Enforcement Acts.  There was no response, and so on October 17, 1871, Grant issued a suspension of habeas corpus in all the 9 counties in South Carolina.  Grant ordered federal troops in the state who then captured the Klan; who were vigorously prosecuted by Att. Gen. Akerman and Sol. Gen. Bristow.   Although the Ku Klux Klan was effectively destroyed by 1873, Southern resistance against African Americans persisted and a system known has Jim Crow eventually dominated the entire South. Other white supremacist groups emerged including the White League and the Red Shirts.
caption: U.S. Attorney General Amos T. Akerman, appointed by President Grant, prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan
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