As commander in chief of the Union armies in the final year of the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant guided the Federal cause to victory. In 1868, he won election to the presidency as the Republican candidate (succeeding only with the support of new black voters in the South). Once in office, he backed Congressional Reconstruction measures. He appointed military officers and officials who were more friendly to black rights than those who served under Johnson, and his administration pushed prosecutions of the KKK. His first term may be considered the high-water mark of Radical Reconstruction.

Grant became a favorite target of abuse in Jesse James's letters to the press, which dwelt on politics repeatedly and at length. Jesse routinely attacked the Radicals, blaming them for turning him into a fugitive and destroying the South. In the most famous note attributed to Jesse, an anonymous letter published after the Kansas City Fair robber (just prior to the election of 1872), the writer urged his readers to vote against Grant, so that he would finally be free to lead a peaceful life.