Benjamin Helm Bristow

Benjamin Helm Bristow (born June 20, 1832, Elkton, Ky., U.S.—died June 22, 1896, New York, N.Y.) was a lawyer and statesman who, as U.S. secretary of the treasury (1874–76), successfully prosecuted the Whiskey Ring, a group of Western distillers who had evaded payment of federal whiskey taxes. Bristow studied law in his father’s office and was admitted to the bar in 1853. He served in the Kentucky state Senate (1864–65) and sought the reelection of...