Louisiana capitolian., 1880-08-19
The New Orleans Whisky
I{H Ring.
fTS OPERATIONS.
New York SIM.


the government, was made familiar to
the public IN the second year Of Hayes
administration. BY their influence a
district attorney was removed who had
evidence to convict and tho iiDnliess and
integrity necessary to conduct the suits
begun by Sccretaryl'ristow under Grant,
and another man whom the ring could
control was appointed. The suits
against thirty persons over whose heads
indictments still hang were, after tho
removal Of District Attorney Beckwith,
and by the consent of United States Dis
trict Judge Billings and District Attor-
NY Lacey, Mr.. Hayes appointec, econ
tin,ed indefinitely"
The operations of the Now Orleans
whiskey ring were the first of the w}'is-
kew frauds 10 come under thu Official
notice of Gen. BristOw when he was
secretary of the treasury. The story has
never been fully told, although hints
of it's main features leaked out at the
time.
Mr. Bristow was informed by promi-
mont Western inanufacturcr--Mr. George
Buchanan, Of l.ouisville--wlo know Of
tho transactions through his business
operations, that whiskcy was being
made and put upon the market in such
quantities AM, ut such u low price as to
make the conclusion certain that it had
never paid the government tax. There
fore uudcr the stringent provisions OF
the law, 1t was equally certain that
government otticil,s must he parties to
the fraud. Honest dealers found il in,-
possiblc:to compete with tho man,faC-
turers and rciincrs of this irregular wllis-
key and they were crowded ont Of the
business.
A very slight investigation satisfied
Mr.. Bristow that New Orleans and St.
Louis were the localities where u largo
part Of these frauds were pcrpciratcd.
II WAS certain that immense quantities
of whisky wcrc manufactured and re-
fined i'm tho New Orleans distillcries,
whereas every one i'll tho business knew
that the manufacture of whisky in that
far Southern city, remote from the coal
supply and from the material was wholly
unnatural. Yet next to st. Louis, Now
Orleans was producing more whisky
than any other city in the United States ;
far more than LD,lisville and Frankfort
combined, which cities paid something
like onc-tifth of tho entire revenue raIs-
ed from the manufacture of whisky.
The Now Orleans manufacturers, although
compelled to transport their corn thou
sands Of miles, wcrc undcrsclling their
Kentucky competitors. Besides, this
development of New Orleans as u great
whisky manufacturing centre was very
sudden. Three or four years before no
whisky was made there.
With these facts before him the secre-
tary determined to 20 to tho bottom of
the matter. He knew % gentleman, q
former Office holder, who he believed
could master tho secret methods of the
whiskcy operators. This gentleman,
Col. Burgess Hunt, of Lexington, KY,
was asked by the secretary to accept IN
appointment rs supervisor OF Internal
revenue for tho district of which New
Orleans is . pa,t, and which included
Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and
Louisiana. Col. Hunt accepted the
appointment, and Secretary Bristow,
not knowing whom he could trust, for
he was satisfied, the deeper he looked
into tho matter, that government Off
cials every where were in the pay Of the
ring, determined to keep the appoint
mcnt an absolute secret, so far as it was
in his power to do SO. The ring, OF
course, learned of the removal of Col.
Hunts predecessor, Supervisor Cobb.
The latter was u North Carolina man, .
brother of Congressman Cobb, and him
self an cx- Confederate officer, who had
acted after reconstruction with the Re-
publicans.
Fully Informed of what was suspect
ed, Col. HUT left Washington, deter
mined to go to the very bottom Of the
iniouity. Hc knew that he had o diff
cult task, and that it would be foolish
for him to trust any official i'll New
Orleans, for l'o could not tell who was
honest and who were participants in
the frauds.
Selecting few personal friends, who,
he knew would take any approaches
Ivy the ring Us an insult, and would be
likely to knock down u man who made
an open attempt to bribc them, he ap-
,u,int.l them wtiwhcrS and yaugers