[337]

Anthony Comstock, Grant's vigorous prosecutor of abortionists and pornographers.
In 1875, Grant proposed a constitutional amendment that limited religious indoctrination in public schools.[338] Instruction of "religious, atheistic, or pagan tenets", would be banned, while funding "for the benefit or in aid, directly or indirectly, of any religious sect or denomination", would be prohibited. Schools would be for all children "irrespective of sex, color, birthplace, or religions".[339] Grant's views were incorporated into the Blaine Amendment, but it was defeated by the Senate.[340]
In October 1871, under the Morrill Act, Grant rounded up and prosecuted hundreds of Utah Territory Mormon polygamists, using federal marshals, including Mormon leader Brigham Young, indicted for "lewd and lascivious cohabitation".[341][342][343]: 301 [344] Grant had called polygamy a "crime against decency and morality".[345] In 1874, Grant signed into law the Poland Act, that put Mormon polygamists under the U.S. District Courts, and limited Mormons on juries.[345]  Beginning in March 1873, under the Comstock Act, Grant prosecuted, through the Postal Department, immoral and indecent pornographers, in addition to abortionists. To administer the prosecutions, Grant put in charge a vigorous moral leader and reformer Anthony Comstock.