Benjamin Bristow

Benjamin Bristow

Benjamin Helm Bristow (June 20, 1832 – June 22, 1896) was an American lawyer and Republican Party politician who served as the first Solicitor General of the United States and as a U.S. Treasury Secretary. As the United States first Solicitor General, Bristow aided President Ulysses S. Grant and Attorney General Amos T. Akerman vigorous and thorough prosecution and destruction of the Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstructed South. Sol. Gen. Bristow advocated African American citizens in Kentucky be allowed to testify in a white man's court case and that education was for all races to be paid for by public funding. As Secretary of the Treasury, Bristow promoted gold standard currency and thoroughly prosecuted and shut down the notorious Whiskey Ring, a tax evasion scheme that depleted that national Treasury.

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 would be 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. Treasurer by President Ulysses S. Grant. 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. During the Presidential Election of 1876, 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 forming a successful law practice in 1878, often argueing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court until his death in 1896.