Wow.. no matter what you think of the guy, this isn't the type of editorializing that one should find on a government historical site. "Vigor" & "Bewildered" are both statements of opinion that aren't measurable.
Whitehouse.gov was launched during the Clinton Error. It was WAY politicized in its account of previous presidencies (the coverage of 12 years of “Reagan-Bush” served as a campaign ad for what Bill Clinton would bring in his second term undoing their “mess”).
I can agree with that, but the larger issue is that characterization of Grant is simply not accurate. Grant basically forced congress the pass the anti-Klan laws, and Grant smashed the Klan in the South so thoroughly, it did not reemerge again for another 40 years -- not so ironically under the 'Progressive" Wilson administration.