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Benjamin H. Bristow

Also Known As Benjamin Bristow, Bristow

Former United States Secretary of the Treasury

Education

  • Graduated - Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania
  • law -

Overview

Benjamin Helm Bristow was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 30th U.S. Treasury Secretary and the first Solicitor General.

A Union military officer, Bristow was a Republican Party reformer and civil rights advocate. During his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury, he is primarily known for breaking up and prosecuting the Whiskey Ring at the behest of President Grant, a corrupt tax evasion profiteering ring that depleted the national treasury. Additionally, Bristow promoted gold standard currency rather than paper money. Bristow was one of Grant's most popular Cabinet members among reformers. Bristow supported Grant's Resumption of Specie Act of 1875, that helped stabilize the economy during the Panic of 1873. As the United States' first solicitor general, Bristow aided President Ulysses S. Grant and Attorney General Amos T. Akerman's vigorous and thorough prosecution and destruction of the Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstructed South. Solicitor General Bristow advocated for African American citizens in Kentucky to be allowed to testify in a white man's court case. He also advocated education for all races to be paid for by public funding.

A native of Kentucky, Bristow was the son of a prominent Whig Unionist and attorney. Having graduated Jefferson College in Pennsylvania in 1851, Bristow studied law and passed the bar in 1853, working as an attorney until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. Fighting for the Union, Bristow served in the army during the American Civil War and was promoted to colonel. Wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, Bristow recuperated and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1863, Bristow was elected Kentucky state Senator, serving only one term. At the end of the Civil War, Bristow was appointed assistant to the U.S. District Attorney serving in the Louisville area. In 1866, Bristow was appointed U.S. District attorney, serving in the Louisville area.

In 1870, Bristow was appointed the United States' first U.S. Solicitor General, who aided the U.S. Attorney General by arguing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1874, Bristow was appointed U.S. Secretary of the Treasury by President Ulysses S. Grant. Initially Grant gave Bristow his full support during Bristow's popular prosecution of the Whiskey Ring. However, when Bristow and Grant's Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont, another reforming Cabinet member, uncovered that Orville Babcock, Grant's personal secretary, was involved in the ring, Grant's relationship with Bristow cooled. In June 1876, due to friction over Bristow's zealous prosecution of the Whiskey Ring and rumor that Bristow was interested in running for the U.S. Presidency, Bristow resigned from President Grant's Cabinet on his 44th birthday. During the 1876 United States presidential election, Bristow made an unsuccessful attempt at gaining the Republican presidential ticket, running as a Republican reformer. The Republicans, however, chose Rutherford B. Hayes. After the 1876 presidential election, Bristow returned to private practice in New York. He formed a successful law practice in 1878, often arguing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court until his death in 1896.

Bristow was credited, by historian Jean Edward Smith, as one of Grant's best cabinet choices. Reformers were generally pleased by Secretary Bristow's overall prosecution of the Whiskey Ring, and looked to him for cleaning up government corruption. Historians have also given credit for Bristow, America's first Solicitor General, for prosecuting the Ku Klux Klan. Bristow, however, had an ambitious, contentious nature, and at times this led to various feuds with Grant cabinet members. Bristow, a native of Kentucky, represented the Southern United States on Grant's cabinet, during Grant's second term.

Secretary of the Treasury :

On June 3, 1874, President Grant appointed Bristow Secretary of the Treasury after William A. Richardson was removed in light of the Sanborn incident that involved Treasury contract scandals. Bristow was hailed by the press as a much needed reformer. Bristow took control of the Treasury during the Long Depression, that was started by the Panic of 1873. The Republican Party at this time was divided over currency. Bristow supported the hard money North Eastern Republicans and favored a resumption of species (coin money) to replace greenbacks (paper money). President Grant had vetoed the Inflation Bill, on April 22, that would have increased paper money into the collapsed economy. Bristow's support of Grant's veto helped him get nominated for the Treasury by Grant. Sixteen days after Bristow took office, on June 20, Bristow's 42nd birthday, Grant signed a compromise act that legalized $26 million greenbacks released by previous Treasury Secretary Richardson, allowed a maximum of $382 million greenbacks, and authorized a redistribution of $55 million national banknotes. The act had little affect to alleve the devastated economy.

Early Life

Benjamin Helm Bristow was born in Edwards Hall on June 20, 1832, in Elkton, Kentucky, United States. Bristow was the son of Francis M. Bristow and his wife Emily Helm. Francis was a prominent lawyer and Whig member of Congress in 1854–1855 and 1859–1861. Edwards Hall was the home of his late grandfather, Benjamin Edwards. Bristow graduated at Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1851, studied law under his father, and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1853. For a while Bristow worked as a law partner for his father. His father later became a strong anti-slavery Unionist. His father's political anti-slavery and Whig views strongly influenced Bristow's own political outlook.

Career

  • United States - Former Secretary of the Treasury

Reference

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