The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-05-15
A GIGANTIC RING EXPOSED

The best planned and most skillfully
executed campaign ever made by the Gov
eminent against the Whisky Ring culmi-
mated on Monday, in the seizure of more
than thirty of the largest dstileries and
rectifying houses in the West. The head
quarters of the Ring have been at St.
Louis, but its ramitications have extended
to Chicago and Milwaukee, and thence all
over the East. West, and South. The
establishments seized are in the three cities
named, but the unimpeachable evidence
that has been obtained by the Secretary of
the Treasury during his Investigations at
these three points will make it an easy
matter to root out the frauds practiced
elsewhere. The overthrow of this gigantic
combination is the result of nine weeks of
hard work performed by Secretary Bristow
through the Solicitor of the Treasury,
Major Bluford Wilson. No other officers
of the Department, not even those in the
office OF the Secretary himself, were i'll
trusted with the secret. All knowledge of
the plans and operations was kept with
especial care from everybody connected
with the Internal Revenue Bureau, from
Commissioner Douglass down. This was
made necessary by the discovery, before
any active or very important steps were
taken. that some one, supposed to be in
that Bureau, was in the habit Of telegraph
ing Immediately to the agents of the Ring
every official secret that could be of the
least value to it. No order, however secret
and confidential, could be issued to any of
the officers or agents of the Bureau; no
investigation or examination of reports or
returns could be made, and no movement
in any way affecting the Ring could be
contemplated in any Department of the
Bureau, without being Immediately re-
ported to the men who were engaged in
defrauding the Government, or to their
agents. 1t therefore became absolutely
| necessary, in order to prevent the manu-
facturers of "crooked' whisky, as t ne
illicitly distilled article is called, from de-
Stroying the evidence of their frauds almost
before the Secretary's investigation began,
that the work should be done, not only
without the aid of the Internal Revenue
Bureau, but without its knowledge.
During the last ten days, however, it
became necessary for the Solicitor and
those whom he employed to obtain some
papers and documentary information from
MIR. Douglass's office, and the outlines of
the case were communicated in the stricteSt
confidence to the Commissioner and to a
few others in his office who it was thought
could be trusted. Then the wisdom of the
plan of working up the case independently
of the Internal Revenue Bureau was fully
demonstrated, for almost Immediately the
secrets that had been successfully kept by
all those engaged in the work, and by sew
eral journalists for eight weeks, began to
leak out. Stray paragraphs appeared in
the newspapers and frequent dispatches
were sent to the members of the Ring, so
that the most difficult work which the
Secretary and those who have been assisting
him have had to perform during the last
week has been to prevent such premature
publications as would seriously interfere
| with the success of the movement, if not
in a measure defeat it. Fortunately all the
before any hint of the matter was given to
the Internal Revenue Bureau OF to the
public.
In view of these stupendous frauds in
which over $1,000, 900 annually was stolen
from the Government, under the very nose
of the Internal Revenue officers, the ques-
ton suggests itself, of what use is that
Department? The frauds carried on within
its sphere of action in which large numbers
of it's officers were implicated, had to lie
exposed by officers of another Department,
and all information of what was being done
kept profound secret from the officers of
Internal Revenue. The Department seems
to be we'll nigh rotten to the core.