Whiskey Ring Scandal

The Whiskey Ring was a scandal that was expose in 1875 through the efforts of Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow. In prior to 1875 statistics shows that United State,in St. Louis, Mo., alone, had lost about $1,200,000 of tax revenue which it should have received from whiskey, Bristow use secret agents from outside the Treasury department to conduct a series of raids across the country on May 10, 1875. The Whiskey Ring Scandal began in St. Louis, but later it was also that found there were other branches in Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Peoria. It occurred to some politicians to have the revenue officers raise a campaign to fund among the distillers. The officers later modified this idea, raising money for themselves, and giving money to people that about the scandal to keep hush. Huge corruption funds was distributed among gages, storekeepers, and tax collectors, according to a fixed schedule of prices. Because of the investigation by Secretary Bristow, arrests were made in nearly every city that were involved in the scandal. Indictments were found against 152 liquor men and other private parties, and against 86 government officials, notably the chief clerk in the Treasury Department, and President Ulysses S. Grant's private secretary, Gen. Orville E. Babcock. Babcock however escaped conviction only because of a presidential pardon

Source index
Source index 2 New York time January 16, 1921,