 By the time Ulysses S. Grant succeeded Johnson in 1869 , Garfield had moved away from the remaining radicals ( Stevens , their leader , had died in 1868 ) . He hailed the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870 as a triumph , and he favored the re @-@ admission of Georgia to the Union as a matter of right , not politics . In 1871 , Garfield opposed passage of the Ku Klux Klan Act , saying " I have never been more perplexed by a piece of legislation " . He was torn between his indignation at " these terrorists " and his concern for the freedoms endangered by the power the bill gave to the president to enforce the act through suspension of habeas corpus . 
