Was the Department of Justice founded in 1870 to advance Reconstruction
and civil rights enforcement? Or was its founding a conservative retrenchment
toward fiscal responsibility and limiting federal enforcement power? These
questions about congressional purpose in establishing the Department take on
renewed salience as presidential control threatens not only its traditional independence,
but the integrity of its prosecutions and the credibility of its officers
in court. Reading the debates, the text of the statute, correspondence of federal
lawyers, and the surrounding context together demonstrates that Reconstruction
enforcement was in fact central to the DOJ bill even if promises of fiscal
responsibility played a role in its promotion and passage. Moreover, evidence
from the first period of enforcement of civil rights after the Department of Justice
was founded shows that it was surprisingly effective despite extravagantly
violent southern resistance, at least until political will in the Grant administration
faded.