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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's vigorous and thorough prosecution and destruction of the Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstructed South.〔Department of Justice, (Benjamin Bristow )〕 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 by President Grant's order thoroughly prosecuted and shut down the notorious Whiskey Ring, a tax evasion scheme that depleted the national treasury. As a strong reformer, Secretary Bristow was one of the most popular Grant Cabinet members among other reformers in the nation. Secretary Bristow was also behind the Resumption of Specie Act of 1875, that helped stabilize the economy during the Panic of 1873. 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. Secretary of the Treasury by President Ulysses S. Grant. Initially Grant gave Bristow his full support during Bristow's popular prosecution of Whiskey Ring. However, when Bristow and Grant's Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont, another reforming Cabinet member, uncovered that Orville Babcock, Grant's personal secretary, was involved in the ring, Grant's relationship with Bristow cooled. 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 arguing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court until his death in 1896. ==Early life== Born in Elkton, Kentucky, Bristow was the son of Francis Bristow, a Whig member of Congress in 1854–1855 and 1859–1861,〔 This work in turn cites: * Willcox, David, ''Memorial of Benjamin Helm Bristow'', Cambridge, Mass., privately printed, 1897. * ''Whiskey Frauds'', 44th Congress, 1st Session, Mis. Doc. No. 186. * McDonald, John, ''Secrets of the Great Whiskey Ring'', Chicago, 1880. A book by one concerned and to be considered in that light: John McDonald was supervisor of internal revenue at St Louis for nearly six years.〕 and his wife Emily. He was born in Edwards Hall, which had been the home of his late grandfather, Benjamin Edwards.〔Boone, George Street. ''(National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Edwards Hall )''. National Park Service, 1973-07-10, 3.〕 He graduated at Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1851, studied law under his father, and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1853.〔〔Find A Grave (Jul 03, 2003), (Benjamin Helm Bristow )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Benjamin Bristow」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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