Benjamin Helm Bristow (1832-1896) was an American lawyer, Kentucky unionist, and Federal official. As U.S. attorney in Kentucky, he fought the Ku Klux Klan, and as U.S. secretary of the Treasury, he crushed the Whiskey Ring.

On June 20, 1832, Benjamin H. Bristow was born in Elkton, Ky. His choice of career and politics was influenced by his father, a lawyer and Whig unionist who served in the U.S. Congress. Bristow graduated from Jefferson College in Pennsylvania in 1851, read law in his father's office, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. When Kentucky was torn apart by the outbreak of the Civil War, Bristow raised a regiment for the Union--the 25th Kentucky Infantry--and became its lieutenant colonel. He was wounded at Shiloh but returned to service as lieutenant colonel and then colonel of the 8th Kentucky Cavalry.

The need for Union men in the Kentucky Legislature brought...