In the United States, the Whiskey Ring is a scandal, exposed in 1875, involving the transfer of tax revenues in conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey refiners and distributors. The Whiskey Ring starts at St. Louis but also held in Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Peoria. This scheme involves a wide network of bribes involving refiners, rectifiers, gauges, shop owners, and internal revenue agents. Essentially, refiners bribe government officials, and the officials help refiners avoid federal taxes on the whiskeys they produce and sell. Whiskey should be taxed 70 cents per gallon, but refiners instead pay officials 35 cents per gallon and whiskey is not allowed to be labeled as paid tax. Before they get caught, a group of politicians can suck up millions of dollars in federal taxes.
US Treasury Secretary Benjamin Bristow, working without the knowledge of the President or the Attorney General, broke the tight and politically strong ties in 1875 using secret agents from outside the Treasury to conduct a series of raids across the country on May 10. , 1875. The trial began in Jefferson City, Missouri in October 1875. In the end, 110 penalties were made and more than $ 3 million taxes were restored. President Grant appointed General John Brooks Henderson (former US Senator from Missouri) to serve as a special prosecutor responsible for charges and trials, but Grant eventually dismissed General Henderson for challenging Grant's intervention in prosecution. Grant replaced Henderson with James Broadhead's lawyer.
The Whiskey Ring is seen by many as a sign of corruption under Republican rule that seizes power throughout the nation after the American Civil War. General Orville E. Babcock, the president's private secretary, was indicted as a ring member - for this reason, President Ulysses S. Grant, though not directly involved in the circle, was seen as a symbol of Republican corruption, and subsequent scandals involving his Secretary of War William W. Belknap just affirms that perception. The Whiskey Ring along with alleged abuse of power by the Republican party, contributed to the National Reconstruction's fatigue, which put an end to Grant's presidency with Compromise 1877.
Video Whiskey Ring
Further reading
- Cooper, Edward S. (2016). John McDonald and the Whiskey Ring: From Thug to the Inner Circle of Grant. Rowman & amp; Littlefield. ISBN: 978-1-6839-3013-6.
- McDonald, John (1880). The secret of a large whiskey ring; and Eighteen months in jail . St. Louis, M., WS Bryan. Felton, Franklin Eliot (1870). Internal Revenue Secret: Expose the Whiskey Ring, Gold Ring, and Fraud Weakness . William Flint, philadelphia. Ã,
Maps Whiskey Ring
External links
- Rives, Timothy, "Grant, Babcock, and the Whiskey Ring," Prologue , Fall 2000, Vol. 32, No. 3.
- Whiskey Ring Scandal
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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