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Grant entered the 1868 campaign season with increased popularity among the Radical Republicans, after his open disagreement with Johnson over the Secretary of War dispute. The Republicans chose Grant as their presidential candidate on the first ballot at the 1868 Republican National Convention in Chicago. In his letter of acceptance, Grant concluded with the words "Let us have peace", which became his campaign slogan. (They are also now engraved above the entrance to Grant's Tomb).
Grant won the election by 300,000 votes out of 5,716,082 votes cast, but he received an electoral college landslide, of 214 votes to opponent Horatio Seymour's 80. At the age of 46, Grant was the youngest president elected at that time. Grant was the first president elected after the nation had outlawed slavery and granted citizenship to former slaves. But in the 1868 election, the votes of African-Americans counted in only 16 of the 37 states, nearly all in the South. Grant lost Louisiana and Georgia primarily due to Ku Klux Klan violence against African American voters.
On March 4, 1869, Grant was inaugurated as the 18th President of the United States. In choosing his cabinet, Grant declined to consult with the Senate. He named Elihu B. Washburne as Secretary of State, who had supported Grant's military career. Washburne served only twelve days before resigning because of ill-health. This allowed Grant to appoint Washburne Minister to France. To replace Washburne, Grant appointed New Yorker Hamilton Fish as Secretary of State. The two men's wives had a strong friendship.
Grant wanted to appointed New York businessman A.T. Stewart Secretary of Treasury, but although he was confirmed by the Senate, Stewart was disqualified from taking office, because as a commercial merchant, he was lawfully prevented from becoming Secretary of Treasury due to a 1789 statute. Senator Charles Sumner and Senator Roscoe Conkling refused to amend the law to allow Stewart's appointment, so in place of Stewart, Grant appointed Radical Republican George S. Boutwell Secretary of Treasury.
As Secretary of War, Grant appointed his long time Army staff officer John A. Rawlins. Rawlins died in office from tuberculosis a few months later. To replace Rawlins, Grant appointed William W. Belknap Secretary of War, on recommendation of William T. Sherman. As Secretary of the Navy, Grant appointed Adolph E. Boriem but Boriem resigned only serving a few months. Grant then appointed New Jersey lawyer George M. Robeson Secretary of Navy to replace Borie. Grant replaced four cabinet officers during his first year in office including Washburne, Stewart, Rawlins, and Borie.
In March of 1869, Grant announced that he wanted the Tenure of Office Act repealed. The Tenure of Office Act was passed by Congress in 1867, sponsored by Radical Republicans, to curb the power of the President Andrew Johnson in making government office appointments. The controversial law had been used as one of the grounds during the impeachment trial of Johnson in 1868. On March 5, 1869, a bill to repeal the act was placed before Congress, but Senator Charles Sumner was opposed to it. Grant declined to make any new appointments except for vacancies, until the law was overturned. This angered political office seekers, who then pressured Congress to repeal the law. A compromise was reached and a new bill was passed that allowed the President to remove his own cabinet, but that required other government appointees to have the approval of Congress within a thirty-day period. Grant reluctantly signed the bill, but wished he had obtained a full repeal of the law.
During Reconstruction, freed slaves were given the vote by Congress and became active in state politics. Fourteen were elected to Congress. They formed a voting base of the Republican party along with some local whites (pejoratively called "Scalawags") and some northerers who were elected in southern districts (called "Carpetbaggers".) Most Southern whites opposed the Republicans. To protect the rights of African-Americans, Grant established federal military rule in Georgia and restored black legislators who had been expelled from the state legislature. Grant worked to ensure ratification of the pending constitutional amendment approved by Congress and sent to the states during the last days of the Johnson administration, that would prohibit the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". The amendment was eventually ratified on February 3, 1870 and was certified as the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Grant called it's ratification as "a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free government to the present day". Many in the south, however, were determined that the new law would be unenforceable.
In 1862, during the Civil War, President Lincoln signed into law the Morrill bill that outlawed polygamy in all U.S. Territories. During the 1868 election, Grant promised to enforce the law against polygamy. This led to tensions when Mormons in Ogden, Utah began to arm themselves and practice military drilling. Grant believed Utah was in a state of rebellion was determined to arrest those who practiced polygamy outlawed under the Morrill Act. Two years later, in 1871, he went on to direct US Marshalls to round up hundreds of Mormons and put on trial for polygamy. On November 20, 1871 Mormon leader Brigham Young, in ill health, was charged with polygamy. The Morrill Act, however, proved hard to enforce.
During Grant's presidency the early Women's suffrage movement was led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and was gaining national attention. They lobbied for female suffrage, equal gender pay, and protection of property for women who resided in Washington D.C. In April 1869, Grant signed a law for the protection of married women's property from their husbands' debts and the ability for women to sue in court in Washington D.C. The following year, in March 1870 Representative Samuel M. Arnell introduced a bill, coauthored by suffragist Bennette Lockwood, that would give women federal workers equal pay for equal work.
In 1869, Grant appointed his aide General Ely S. Parker, a Seneca Indian, as the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs. During Parker's first year in office, the number of Indian Wars per year dropped from 101 to 58. Chief of the Oglala Sioux Red Cloud wanted to meet President Grant, after learning that Parker was appointed Indian Commissioner. Red Cloud, along with chief of the Brulé Sioux Spotted Tail, came to Washington, D.C. by train and met with Parker and President Grant in 1870. Grant said that he held no personal animosity towards Native Americans and personally treated them with dignity. When Red Cloud and Spotted Tail first met Grant at the White House on May 7, 1870, they were given a formal dinner and entertainment comparable to what that given to a young Prince Arthur at a White House visit from Britain in 1869. At their second meeting on May 8, Red Cloud informed Grant that Whites were trespassing on Native American lands and that his people needed food and clothing. Grant ordered all Generals in the West to "keep intruders off by military force if necessary". He lobbied for and signed the Indians Appropriations Act of 1870–1871.
On April 10, 1869, Congress created the Board of Indian Commissioners. Grant appointed a number of volunteer members and gave the board extensive power to supervise the Bureau of Indian Affairs and "civilize" Native Americans.
After taking office, one of Grant's first moves was to sign the Act to Strengthen the Public Credit. It ensured that all public debts including war bonds, would be paid only in gold rather than in greenbacks. The price of gold on the New York exchange fell to $130 per ounce, the lowest point since the suspension of specie payment in 1862. On May 19, 1869, Grant issued an executive order protecting the wages of those working for the U.S. Government. In 1868, a law was passed that reduced the government working day to 8 hours. Grant's order provided that "no reduction shall be made in the wages" regardless of the reduction in hours for the government day workers. Treasury Secretary George S. Boutwell reorganized and reformed the United States Treasury by discharging unnecessary employees. He also implemented changes in the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to protect the currency from counterfeiters. He revitalized tax collections to improve the collection of revenue. These changes soon led the Treasury to have a monthly surplus. By May 1869, Boutwell reduced the national debt by $12 million. By September the national debt was reduced by $50 million, which was achieved by selling the growing gold surplus at weekly auctions for greenbacks and buying back wartime bonds with the currency.
The first two years of the Grant administration with George Boutwell at the Treasury accomplished the reduction of government expenditures to $292 million in 1871 – down from $322 million in 1869. Grant reduced the number of employees working in the government by 2,248 persons from 6,052 on March 1, 1869 to 3,804 on December 1, 1871. He increased tax revenues by $108 million from 1869 to 1872. During his first administration the national debt fell from $2.5 billion to $2.2 billion.
In 1869, Grant proposed to annex the independent largely black nation of the Dominican Republic, then known as Santo Domingo. In 1868, President Andrew Johnson had attempted to annex the Dominican Republic and Santo Domingo, but the House of Representatives defeated resolutions to accomplish this. In July, 1869 Grant sent Orville E. Babcock and Rufus Ingalls who negotiated a draft treaty with Dominican Republic President Buenaventura Báez for the annexation of Santo Domingo to the United States and the sale of Samaná Bay for $2 million. To keep Báez secure in power, Grant ordered naval ships, unauthorized by Congress, to secure the island from invasion and internal insurrection. Báez signed an annexation treaty on November 19, 1869 offered by Babcock under federal State department authorization. Secretary Fish drew up a final draft of the proposal and offered $1.5 million to the Dominican national debt, the annexation of Santo Domingo as an American state, the United States' acquisition of the rights for Samaná Bay for 50 years with an annual $150,000 rental, and guaranteed protection from foreign intervention. On January 10, 1870 the Santo Domingo treaty was submitted to the Senate for ratification. But despite his support of the annexation, the treaty was not ratified in Congress. Grant had not made the mistake of not informing Congress of the treaty or encouraging national acceptance and enthusiasm. On March 15, 1870, the Foreign Relations Committee, headed by Sen. Charles Sumner, recommended against treaty passage. On May 31, 1870 Grant went before Congress and urged passage of the Dominican annexation treaty. Sumner successfully led the opposition in the Senate. On June 30, 1870 the Santo Domingo annexation treaty failed to pass the Senate.
In 1869, Grant was urged by popular opinion to support rebels in Cuba with military assistance and to give them U.S. diplomatic recognition. Grant attempted to use arbitration with Spain with minister Daniel Sickles negotiating. Grant wanted Cuban independence and to end slavery without U.S. military intervention. Sickle's peace negotiations failed, but Grant resisted popular pressure for U.S. military involvement in the Cuban rebellion. Grant sent a message to Congress calling for strict neutrality not to officially recognize the Cuban revolt.
Later in Grant's first term, he would be faced with a number of accusations of corruption. But when Republicans gathered for their 1872 national convention he was unanimously nominated for a second term. During Grant's first term a significant number of Republicans had become completely disillusioned with the party. Weary of the scandals and opposed to several of Grant's policies, split from the party to form the Liberal Republican Party. They advocated civil service reform, a low tariff, and granting amnesty to former Confederate soldiers. They also wanted to end reconstruction and restore local self-government in the South. But despite this, Grant was elected to a second term as president. As many presidents would experience, second terms can be even more challenging than the first.