The Whiskey Ring, Part Two

Last month, I told you all about the Whiskey Ring, a tax evasion scandal that plagued Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency in the 1870’s. If you missed the post, you can read it here. So let's continue the story!

Political Cartoon on the Whiskey Ring,
drawn by Thomas Nast

Orville E. Babcock

Thanks to the help of a St. Louis newspaper reporter named Myron Colony, Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin Bristow was able to gather enough information to blow the Whiskey Ring scandal wide open. By the Spring of 1875, over 300 arrests were made in strategic cities throughout the United States, and a grand jury sifted through the evidence during that summer. At first, President Grant backed up the grand jury, stating “Let no guilty man escape if it can be avoided.” However, the grand jury’s investigations soon exposed the President’s personal secretary, Orville E. Babcock, as having intimate knowledge of the scandalous Whiskey Ring dealings. The most incriminating evidence were several telegrams exchanged between Babcock and two of the ringleaders in St. Louis. As the grand jury found more and more evidence against Babcock, Grant flip-flopped with his approval of the jury’s investigation. He grew suspicious, especially when those same ringleaders in St. Louis were convicted and sentenced to three years in the state penitentiary. The investigation led nearer and nearer to the President’s secretary.

By early 1876, Babcock was put on trial for his involvement in the scandal. But this is where things grow truly interesting. President Grant felt the trial was as much an attack against him as it was against his secretary, and Grant went to great lengths to help his friend. First, just ten days before Babcock’s trial began, the President secretly created a “no deal” policy, stating that prosecutors could not give convicted criminals immunity in exchange for their testimony. Without that incentive, no one wanted to testify against Babcock. Also, it appeared that the jury was stacked with those who would vote to acquit Babcock. But the greatest help to Babcock’s case came when the President of the United States chose to testify on his friend’s behalf—something no President had ever done before, nor since.

Political Cartoon on the Whiskey Ring, drawn by Thomas Nast

President Ulysses S. Grant

Grant wanted to personally take the stand, but he was persuaded to testify by deposition done within the controlled setting of the White House instead. The prosecution and the defense settled upon a list of questions, and on the appointed date, President Grant testified. The President was said to have a photographic memory, but that memory failed him over and over during the deposition when he was asked about particular circumstances or pieces of evidence. But when it came to painting his friend in a good light, his memory did not fail him. In addition to Grant’s testimony, Babcock’s defense team provided numerous other character witnesses to state what a good, honest, and upstanding man he was.

The final help to Babcock’s case came when the judge instructed the jury before they went into deliberations. The jury was told to place more weight on the character witnesses for the defendant than on the evidence against him. Since the President of the United States had been one of those character witnesses, it took the jury only two hours to deliver their verdict. Not guilty.

While he was acquitted in the Whiskey Ring case, Babcock was forced to resign his position as Secretary by the rest of the President’s cabinet. Just ten days later, he was indicted for his suspected involvement in another scandal of the Grant administration. Once again, he was acquitted in the second case, and not surprisingly, the President took care of his friend. Babcock was appointed to the position of Chief Inspector of Lighthouses by President Grant, a position which he held until his death a handful of years later. Death by drowning in the line of duty.

So what do you think? Last month, many of you said you hadn't heard of the Whiskey Ring scandal, although most who commented were aware that President Grant's administration was wracked by scandals. Does this outcome surprise you? Why, or why not?

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won five writing competitions and made the top 10 and top 3 in two other competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and four fur children.

The Whiskey Ring

In researching a new novel idea, I stumbled across an interesting piece of American history that I’d never heard of--the Whiskey Ring. I found the details fascinating, so I thought I would share them with you.



President Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant became President of the United States in 1869. It was a difficult time for America. The Civil War had ended four years earlier, and Reconstruction was still the law of the land. Grant won the presidency on promises of peace, prosperity, and progress. And there was progress. It was during this time that the first Transcontinental Railroad was finished, people flocked to the western territories, and American manufacturing skyrocketed. However, Grant’s presidency was plagued by scandal, and one of the biggest scandals was The Whiskey Ring.



After becoming President, Grant surrounded himself with friends he’d made during the war. One such friend was Orville Babcock, whom he’d served with from the Battle of Vicksburg on through the end of the war. Grant made Babcock his personal secretary while in office.

As Grant came to the end of his first term, a former supporter was causing problems for the President. Senator Carl Schurz led liberal Republicans in trying to vote Grant out of office in the next election. The Republican Party realized they would have a fight to secure Grant’s reelection, so they set about raising funds for his campaign. The Whiskey Ring was born in 1871.

In its simplest form, those involved in the ring sold more whiskey than what they reported to the government for tax purposes. The difference then filled the Republican Party’s campaign accounts, and was, among other things, used to pay off newspapers which would print articles favoring the Grant administration.

But the Whiskey Ring was hardly simple. It stretched across the nation to cities like St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, and many others. In each city, people at every level of the whiskey-making and selling process were involved, either by choice or forced through coercion or blackmail. From the whiskey distillers and rectifiers on to the storekeepers and tavern owners, all the way to U.S. Treasury agents were involved. For one year starting in November 1871, the principle members of the ring received between $45,000 and $60,000 each. To put that in perspective of today’s dollars, that’s equivalent to $865,000 to almost $1,154,000. Needless to say, with that much money and power behind him, Grant won a second term in office in 1872.

Once Grant’s reelection was secured, it became a venture purely based on greed, defrauding the government of over a million and a half dollars a year for the next several years. It wasn’t until Grant appointed Benjamin H. Bristow to be the Secretary of the Treasury in June of 1874 that the tide began to change.



Benjamin Bristow

It took little time for Bristow to realize there was a case of fraud going on, and he set out to end it. However, high-level interference prevented him from doing so easily. In January of 1875, Bristow ordered the transfers of Internal Revenue supervisors in several major cities, including St. Louis. At first, President Grant seemed to go along with the transfer plans, but within a week, he reneged and told Bristow to leave things as they were. Other such moves were also blocked, either by Grant or his secretary, Babcock. Bristow was getting nowhere fast.



Orville Babcock

It was only when the owner of the newspaper, the St. Louis Democrat, contacted Bristow privately with an offer to help, that his goal could be realized. The newspaper owner put Bristow in contact with the commercial editor for the Democrat, a man named Myron Colony. He was well respected in St. Louis, and known to ask detailed questions and make copious notes on St. Louis business statistics for his articles in the paper. Colony secretly investigated the businesses involved in St. Louis’s Whiskey Ring starting in March of 1875, then handed his findings off to Bristow. By May, Bristow had the proof he needed to end the corruption for good. Federal lawmen arrested over 300 participants for involvement in the ring, as well as seized distilleries and rectifiers. There was even proof that the fraud reached all the way to the White House. Grant’s personal secretary, Orville Babcock, was found to have intimate relations and confidential correspondence with the worst and most connected offenders of The Whiskey Ring.

Next month, I’ll continue the story of Orville Babcock’s arrest and trial. For now, I’d love to know if you’ve heard of the Whiskey Ring before today, and what you think of this piece of our nation’s history.


Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won five writing competitions and made the top 10 and top 3 in two other competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and four fur children.