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Political cartoon by Thomas Nast, March 1876. The Whiskey Ring took place from 1871 to 1876 centering in St. Louis during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. The ring was an American scandal, broken in May 1875, involving the diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors.
Grant's reactions to the scandals ranged from prosecuting the perpetrators to protecting or pardoning those who were accused and convicted of the crimes. For example, when the Whiskey Ring scandal broke out in 1875, Grant, in a reforming mood, wrote: "Let no guilty man escape". However, when it was found out that Orville Babcock was indicted ...
Crédit Mobilier scandal. The Crédit Mobilier scandal (French pronunciation: [kʁedi mɔbilje]) was a two-part fraud conducted from 1864 to 1867 by the Union Pacific Railroad and the Crédit Mobilier of America construction company in the building of the eastern portion of the first transcontinental railroad from the Missouri River to Utah ...
Benjamin Bristow. Benjamin Helm Bristow (June 20, 1832 – June 22, 1896) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 30th U.S. Treasury Secretary and the first Solicitor General. A Union military officer, Bristow was a Republican Party reformer and civil rights advocate. During his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury, he is ...
Grant and the Whiskey Ring. A group led by President Ulysses S. Grant’s private secretary Gen. Orville E. Babcock conspired to skim tax revenue to help fund Grant’s re-election campaign in 1871.
Scandals and frauds continued to be exposed during Grant's second term in office, although Grant's appointments of reformers to his cabinet temporarily helped his presidential reputation, cleaned up federal departments, and defeated the notorious Whiskey Ring. Grant, however, often remained loyal to cabinet members or appointees involved in ...
Although Grant and Bristow were not on friendly terms, Bristow sincerely desired to save Grant's reputation from scandal. [7] At the end of the Whiskey Ring prosecutions in 1876, there were 230 indictments, 110 convictions, and $3 million in tax revenues returned to the Treasury Department. [8] [9]
Trader post scandal. The trader post scandal, or Indian Ring, took place during Reconstruction and involved Secretary of War William W. Belknap and his wives receiving kickback payments from a Fort Sill tradership contract. In 1870, Belknap was granted the sole power to appoint and license sutlers with ownership rights to highly lucrative ...