Edwards Pierrepont

Edwards Pierrepont was a popular American attorney, reformer, jurist, traveler, New York U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Minister to England, and orator. Having graduated from Yale in 1837, Pierrepont studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1840. During the American Civil War, Pierrepont was a Democrat, although he supported President Abraham Lincoln. Pierrepont initially supported President Andrew Johnsons conservative Reconstruction efforts having opposed the Radical Republicans. In both 1868 and 1872, Pierrepont supported Ulysses S. Grant for President. For his support, President Grant appointed Pierrepont New York Attorney in 1869. In 1871, Pierrepont gained the reputation as a solid reformer, having joined New Yorks Committee of Seventy that shut down Boss Tweeds corrupt Tammany Hall. In 1872, Pierrepont modified his views on Reconstruction and stated that African American freedmans rights needed to be protected.

In April 1875, Pierrepont was appointed U.S. Attorney General by President Ulysses S. Grant, who having teamed up with Secretary of Treasury, Benjamin Bristow, vigorously prosecuted the notorious Whiskey Ring, a national tax evasion swindle that involved whiskey distillers, brokers, and government officials, including President Grants private secretary, Orville E. Babcock. Upon his appointment, Pierrepont quickly cleaned up corruption in Southern U.S. Districts. Pierrepont had continued former Attorney General George H. Williams moratorium on prosecuting the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan had been previously prosecuted by President Grants Attorneys General Amos T. Akerman and Williams from 1871 to 1873, prosecuting civil rights violations of whites against African Americans. Pierrepont ruled that a naturalized Prussian immigrants son born in the U.S. was not obligated to serve in the Prussian military as an adult. In his ruling of the Chorpenning Claim, Pierrepont cited the Supreme Court case

Source: Wikipedia