Grant was the famous General of the Civil War, but despite being on the $50 most Americans forget he was even President.
It must have been a hard time to be President during reconstruction. The pissed off south had already produced hate groups such as the KKK to deal with. So that was just another bunch of bullcrap for Grant to deal with.
He did sign the Naturalization Act of 1870 which gave African Americans citizenship.
There was also the Panic of 1873 where the United States and Europe faced financial peril when the demand for Silver fell when the German Empire stopped minting their coins with it. This lead the U.S. to go to a more solid "gold standard" where all the money is backed by gold. However this led Silver to drop even more, and the money supply also shrunk which put people in more debt.
Despite mistakes in fiscal policy, Grant was upstanding for civil rights time and time again. He saw the passage of the 15th amendment which gave freedmen the right to vote (women still left out in the cold though), and stood up for the rights of Native Americans.
One of Grants notable vetoes was the Inflation Bill which is similar to what we would call a Stimulus bill today. It was hoping that the U.S. would send money into the economy, but Grant unexpectedly vetoed it saying that it would hurt the nation's credit.
Despite being an honest man himself, he had too much trust in others. He favored his war buddies over politicians and many of them committed scandals. One such of them being the Black Friday of 1869 where two guys tried to corner the gold market. 10 more major scandals happened during his tenure.
I think Grant had the best intentions as President, but besides standing up for civil rights, most of his presidency sucked. That's what you get for trusting people.
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