GRANT, Ulysses S. (1822-1885). Partly-printed document signed ("U.S. Grant") as President, Washington, 11 December 1869.

One page, 203 x 252mm (lightly toned at the edges, spot of finger-soiling).

Grant remits the fine of an arrested whiskey bond broker, months after mistakenly revoking his presidential pardon from Andrew Johnson. In July 1868, Colonel Richard J. Enright was convicted to eighteen months in prison and a substantial fine for conspiracy to defraud the government after allegedly issuing fraudulent bonds to whiskey distillers. Grant's predecessor, Andrew Johnson, pardoned the fraudulent Enright, as well as two unrelated defendants, Jacob and Moses Dupuy, on his last day as President (The Papers of Andrew Johnson, Volume 14).

President Grant, upon taking office, revoked these three pardons by recalling the U.S. Marshals delivering the documents before the defendants received and accepted them; due to this technicality, this was one of very few examples of a President having the ability to revoke a previously-issued pardon. According to an article in the "New York Herald" dated December 19th, 1869, however, Grant accidentally revoked Enright's pardon here as "his case got in among others where pardons were subsequently revoked [likely Jacob and Moses Dupuy's]".

The article continues to assert that Grant has "made the matter right by issuing a full pardon, with a remission of the fine", referenced here. Of course, Grant's presidency was later upended by the Whiskey Ring scandal, in which Grant's public image was greatly tarnished due to the corrupt dealings between whiskey distillers and his officials.