Edwards Pierrepont - U.S. Attorney General

U.S. Attorney General

President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Pierrepont Attorney General of the United States on April 26, 1875. A former Democrat, Pierrepont had difficulty fitting into the Grant Administration, as stress was created over his tenor during the prosecution of the Whiskey Ring and the indictment of Grant's private secretary, American Civil War general, Orville E. Babcock. Pierrepont, a reformer, was teamed up by President Grant with Secretary of Treasury, Benjamin Bristow to rid the government of corruption. Sec. Bristow had discovered whiskey distillers had created a government ring that profiteered by evading payment of taxes on the manufacturing of whiskey. Pierrepont was also involved with Reconstruction, as President Grant administered Southern policy through the Attorney General's Justice Department and the War Department. In terms of southern Reconstruction, Pierrepont continued his predecessors Att. Gen. George H. Williams's Spring, 1873 moratorium of prosecuting civil rights cases and in general was unresponsive to white violent attacks or outrages against African American citizens in the South. Pierrepont was more concerned for the restoration of the United States "international influence and political clout" after the American Civil War and was primarily known for his rulings on international law, naturalization, and extradition. To change his Cabinet coalition, President Grant removed Pierrepont as Attorney General and appointed him minister to Great Britain.