PRESIDENT GRANT 77777777777777

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY May 31, 1870 President U.S. Grant signs Republicans’ Enforcement Act, providing stiff penalties for depriving any American’s civil rights. Congress enacted the Enforcement Act, which President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law on this day in 1870. The act set criminal penalties for interference with the right to vote. It authorized the president to use the army to uphold the act and to use federal marshals to bring charges against offenders for election fraud, the bribery or intimidation of voters, and conspiracies to prevent citizens from exercising their constitutional rights.