Whiskey Ring

Whiskey Ring, in U.S. history, secret association of distillers and federal officials that operated during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant to defraud the government of the excessively high tax imposed on distilled spirits. Tax abatements were shared between distillers and tax collectors, and newspapermen, storekeepers, and officials of various kinds were bribed. The conspiracy was public knowledge, but the political importance of those involved protected them from prosecution until the secretary of the treasury, Benjamin Helm Bristow, used secret investigators to gather evidence.

On May 10, 1875, at Bristow's direction, 16 distilleries in St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Chicago were seized, and indictments were promptly procured against about 240 distillers and revenue officials, and against Orville E. Babcock, private secretary to the president. Babcock was acquitted through the influence of the president, but 110 of those indicted were found guilty. The leaders among those convicted, however, were soon pardoned. A major political scandal resulted from the allegation, made at the trials, that the illegal abatement of taxes had been for the purpose of increasing the campaign funds of the Republican Party.