Presidential Run, New York Attorney, and Death
Bristow was a prominent reforming candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1876 (see U.S. presidential election, 1876). He was defeated at the Republican convention; Rutherford B. Hayes having received the nomination. During the 1876 Republican Presidential Convention, Stalwart members of the Republican party, friends of President Grant, believed Bristow had been disloyal to Grant during the Whiskey Ring prosecutions, by going after Babcock. Rumor spread that Bristow had prosecuted the Whiskey Ring in an attempt to gain the 1876 Presidential Republican nomination. Bristow, however, proved to be a loyal statesman and had desired to keep President Grant and the nation from scandal. When Sec. Bristow testified in front of a congressional committee on the Whiskey Ring, he would not give any specific information regarding his conversations with President Grant, having claimed executive privilege.
Bristow was upset over not winning the Republican presidential nomination and over the rumor he had been disloyal to President Grant. Bristow retired from politics, never again to run for political office. After 1878 he practiced law in New York City and on October 16 he established the law partnership of Bristow, Peet, Burnett, & Opdyke. Bristow was a prominent leader of the Eastern bar and was elected the second President of the American Bar Association in 1879. Having remained an advocate of Civil Service reform, Bristow was vice President of the Civil Service Reform Association. Bristow often ably argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1896, Bristow suffered appendicitis and died at his home on June 22, 1896.
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