Whiskey Ring was a group of whiskey distillers and United States government officials who cheated the government out of millions of dollars in federal liquor taxes during the 1870’s. Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow exposed the conspiracy in 1875. The Whiskey Ring became the most notorious and extensive of a number of scandals that plagued the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant.
The Whiskey Ring began in St. Louis, Mo. Grant had appointed a long-time acquaintance, General John D. McDonald, as collector of internal revenue in the district that included St. Louis. McDonald accepted bribes from distillers to excuse them from paying the federal tax on whiskey. Tax collectors in Chicago, Milwaukee, and other cities also took payoffs from distillers. The ring even involved Grant’s trusted adviser Orville E. Babcock and other important government officials. The President, however, seemed never to realize the seriousness and extent of the frauds.
The trials of the conspirators demanded much of Grant’s attention during his last two years in office and resulted in many convictions. The ringleaders received only mild punishment, however. Babcock, Grant’s private secretary, was acquitted after the President went to great lengths to protect him.
