Grant Suspends Habeas Corpus in South Carolina Counties

President Grant suspended habeas corpus in nine York County, South Carolina counties on October 17, 1871, the only peacetime use of this power in American history. Federal troops arrested hundreds of Klan members. U.S. Circuit Court prosecutions resulted in conviction of roughly 60 Klan leaders. The prosecutions suppressed Klan activity significantly in South Carolina, but the political will to maintain this level of enforcement was not sustained beyond 1872.