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Corruption And Scandal In Ulysses S. Grant's Presidency

2709 Words11 Pages

Katelyn Jackson U.S. Roots & Reform

Corruption and Scandal in Ulysses S. Grant’s Presidency:
Gilded Age Politics on Black Friday & in the Whiskey Ring

President Ulysses S. Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant, was president of the United States from 1869-1877. He is arguably best known for his success as General-in-Chief of the United States Union Army during the Civil War, not his presidency. Though he was an unexceptional student at West Point Military Academy, and was a heavy drinker, his performance as a Union Army leader gained him great rapport with the biggest names in politics. Under President Lincoln, Grant was elevated from the rank of Brigadier General to Lieutenant General following the hard-fought victories at …show more content…

Bristow (who was personally appointed by Grant) discovered that millions of dollars in funds from bad taxes were being funneled into an illegal network of politicians and whiskey manufacturers. Originally, this Whiskey Ring began as a slush fund, taking less than a dollar per barrel of whiskey that was sold unreported. Eventually, the activity developed into full-fledged criminal activity, robbing the United States Treasury and Internal Revenue Service more than million dollars a year. That million dollars a year was divided among a complex network of distillers, storekeepers, revenue agents, and Treasury clerks in on the operation. They split the stolen tax money in a number of ways, and corruption was carried out in various …show more content…

Louis in 1871. He was sent to distilleries in the city to collect liquor taxes from the distributors of alcohol. The required tax at that time was seventy cents per gallon sold of whiskey. It was common sense to McDonald, it seemed, that he should simply report fewer alcohol sales and keep the profits of the unreported liquor. If fifty gallons of liquor were sold, for example, but he only reported twenty-five gallons back to the Bureau of Revenue, he could keep the tax on the unreported twenty-five gallons as profit. It started out on a much smaller scale, however, with only small ranges of percentages going unreported. Eventually though, in his greed, more and more participants were recruited, blackmailed, and convinced of the immeasurable profits possible from this whiskey

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