In 1870, to enforce Reconstruction, Congress and Grant created the Justice Department that allowed the Attorney General and the new Solicitor General to prosecute the Klan. Congress and Grant passed three Enforcement Acts, designed to protect black people and Reconstruction governments. Using the Enforcement Acts, Grant crushed the Klan. By October, Grant suspended habeas corpus in part of South Carolina and sent federal troops to help marshals, who initiated prosecutions. Grant's Attorney General, Amos T. Akerman, who replaced Hoar, was zealous to destroy the Klan. Akerman and South Carolina's U.S. marshal arrested over 470 Klan members, while hundreds of Klansmen, fled the state. By 1872, the Klan's power had collapsed, and African Americans voted in record numbers in the South. Attorney General George H. Williams, Akerman's replacement, suspended prosecutions of the Klan in 1873, but prior to the election of 1874, changed course and prosecuted the Klan.
In 1870, to enforce Reconstruction, Congress and Grant created the Justice Department that allowed the Attorney General and the new Solicitor General to prosecute the Klan. Congress and Grant passed three Enforcement Acts, designed to protect black people and Reconstruction governments. Using the Enforce,ment Acts, Grant crushed the Klan. By October, Grant suspended habeas corpus in part of South Carolina and sent federal troops to help marshals, who initiated prosecutions. Grant's Attorney General, Amos T. Akerman, who replaced Hoar, was zealous to destroy the Klan. Akerman and South Carolina's U.S. marshal arrested over 470 Klan members while hundreds of Klansmen, fled the state. By 1872, the Klan's power had collapsed, and African Americans voted in record numbers in the South. Attorney General George H. Williams, Akerman's replacement, suspended prosecutions of the Klan in 1873, but prior to the election of 1874, changed course and prosecuted the Klan.