Whiskey Ring

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. Whiskey distillers bribed officials from the U. S. Department of the Treasury to increase profits and evade taxes. Grant's Justice Department prosecuted members of Grant's own Republican Party who were part of the Ring. The kingpin of the Whiskey Ring was the notorious General John McDonald, whom Grant had appointed Revenue Collector of Missouri District in 1869. Under the leadership of Grant's Secretary of Treasury, Benjamin Bristow, a reformer, the Ring was uncovered and broken up.

Prosecutions of members of the Ring started in 1875 and ended in 1876. McDonald was indicted, put on trial, found guilty, fined $5,000, and sentenced to federal prison for 18 months. Grant's private Secretary Orville Babcock was indicted, put on trial in St. Louis, but acquitted in February 1876. Grant pardoned McDonald from prison on March 3, 1877, the last full day Grant was in office. In 1880, an angered McDonald authored a salacious book The Secrets of the Great Whiskey Ring, in an effort to keep Grant from getting a third term nomination. McDonald also believed Babcock was guilty and had deserved to go to prison with him. How much Grant knew about the Whiskey Ring is a matter of speculation by historians. Three million dollars of stolen tax revenue was recovered by Bristow, with 110 convictions.