Benjamin Helm Bristow  (June 20, 1832 – June 22, 1896) was the 30th  U.S. Treasury Secretary , the first  Solicitor General , an  American  lawyer, a  Union  military officer,  Republican Party  politician, reformer, and civil rights advocate. Bristow, during his tenure as Secretary of Treasury, is primarily known for breaking up and prosecuting the  Whiskey Ring , a corrupt tax evasion profiteering ring that depleted the national treasury, having President  Ulysses S. Grant 's permission. Additionally, Bristow promoted gold standard currency rather than paper. 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. [1]  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.

Recipe By: frosty