Pen used by Ulysses S. Grant to sign the presidential proclamation of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, 1870

Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) · mid-19th century

President Ulysses S. Grant used this pen to sign the presidential proclamation of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870. It guaranteed that the right to vote could not be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”