A war hero, drawn in by his duty to serve office, Grant was unanimously nominated by the Republican Party and was elected president in 1868. As president, Grant stabilized the post-war national economy, created the Department of Justice, and crushed the Ku Klux Klan. He appointed African Americans and Jewish Americans to prominent federal offices. In 1871, to help reduce federal patronage, Grant created the first Civil Service Commission. The Liberal Republicans and Democrats united behind Grant's opponent in the presidential election of 1872, but Grant was handily re-elected. Grant's Native American policy was to assimilate Indians into the White culture; the Great Sioux War was fought during his term. In Grant's foreign policy, the "Alabama" claims against Great Britain was peacefully resolved, but his prized Caribbean Dominican Republic annexation was rejected by the Senate. Grant's responses to federal corruption charges were mixed, at times defending culprits, but Grant also appointed cabinet reformers, for example, for the prosecution of the Whiskey Ring. The Panic of 1873 plunged the nation into a severe economic depression that allowed the Democrats to win the House majority. In the intensely disputed presidential election of 1876, Grant facilitated the approval by Congress of a peaceful compromise.