29. Whiskey Ring – In 1875 Whiskey manufacturers had to pay a heavy excise tax. Most avoided the tax, and soon tax collectors came to get their money. The collectors were bribed by the distillers. The Whiskey Ring had robbed the treasury of millions in excise-tax revenues. The scandal reached as high as the personal secretary to President…
Teapot Dome- An oil reserve scandal that began during the administration of President Harding. In 1921, by executive order of the President, control of naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and at Elk Hills, CA, was transferred from the Navy Dept. to the Dept. of the Interior. The oil reserves had been set aside for the navy by President Wilson. In 1922, Albert B. Fall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior leased, without competitive bidding, the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills fields to Harry F. Sinclair, an oil operator and Edward L. Doheny. It was found in 1921 that Doheny had lent Fall 100,000 dollars interest free. Fall was indicted for conspiracy and accepting bribes.…
Sadie Nussbaum, an eighteen-year-old Jewish girl who had lived in the United States of America her entire life along with 148 of her fellow workers, was killed in the fire in the Triangle Shirt Factory(Nussbaum death certificate). Ever since, historians and advocates have asked the question, “Who should be held responsible for their deaths?” After looking at many sources it seems that the owners of the building, Blanck and Harris, were ultimately responsible for the fire. This is because they failed to keep the building properly inspected, had terrible working conditions and over crowding, and only had one exit door.…
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Scandal in Bohemia,” the content of the photograph causes problem for the king. In addition, Holmes’s reaction to the photograph creates suspense, and Doyle’s tone achieves this suspense. I believe the content of the photograph causes a problem for the king because the king will be married to Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the King of Scandinavia, and the photograph contains the picture of the king when he was still a prince and a woman named Irene Adler. “Threatens to send them the photograph.” Irene Adler threatens the king that she will send the photograph to Clotilde’s family that’s why the king is having a problem. Next, Holmes’s reaction to the photo creates suspense. “Oh, dear! That…
The purpose behind John Marszalek’s book, The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House, is to thoroughly examine the Petticoat Affair, the notorious political sex scandal that plagued Andrew Jackson’s first term, and which historians claim led directly to the dissolution of President Jackson’s cabinet in 1831 and, “the worst split between a president and vice president in American history.”…
The obvious problem with Centralia No. 5 is that an explosion killed 111 people. However, prior to the actual explosion, the problem is less obvious, especially since Centralia No. 5 was similar to so many mines that did not explode. In this analysis, I will examine the possible roles and responsibilities of Driscoll O. Scanlan, the mine inspector, given the "corruption of modern administrative enterprises" prior to the accident. From this perspective, the perspective of a public official in the field, the problem is that a potential danger exists and the regulatory machinery in place to address the danger is ineffective. As an expert, Scanlan recommended that the mine be "dusted" with non-explosive, pulverized stone to diminish the possibility of the coal dust's exploding. However, his expert advice alone was not enough to motivate a response.…
The Corrupt Bargain in the election of 1824 was a deal struck between Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams. Basically, Henry Clay decided to drop out of the election and let John Quincy Adams win in return for Adams making Clay…
Andrew Jackson, already famous for his temper, was furious. And when John Quincy Adams named Henry Clay to be his secretary of state, Jackson denounced the election as "the corrupt bargain." Many assumed Clay sold his influence to Adams so he could be secretary of state and thus increase his own chance of being president…
This time, however, it was not the votes of immigrants but the pockets of the captains of industry which facilitated such graft. In his political cartoon “The Bosses of the Senate,” editor and cartoonist Joseph Keppler epitomizes the susceptibility of the Senate to the interests of big business trusts. In it, one can discern the intimidating faces of the large trusts overlooking their browbeaten puppets(G). A sign hangs above them proclaiming “this is a Senate of the monopolists and for the monopolists.” Because monopolists donated to politicians ensuring their election, they expected a return investment therefore intimidating them into protecting the trusts and such horizontal integration which enables their profiteering. A prime example of said monetary expenditures is the election of 1896 which fostered the emergence of the fourth party system. Marcus Hanna was the monopolist responsible for greasing McKinley’s election into the White House through his donations of $16 million. Industrial tycoons undermined the virtues of capitalism, overwhelming smaller competition by bribing railroads and the government alike. Indeed, George Rice, a competing oil company owner to Rockefeller's Standard Oil described how Rockefeller colluded with railroad companies which offered Standard Oil lower rates to transport his oil (J).…
Increasing industry also led to political changes, such as those shown in document E which depicts John D. Rockefeller, an oil tycoon, holding the government in the palm of his hand. As more men grew rich and powerful from industry, they began to exercise their control over the government. They took advantage of the lower classes to increase their wealth and power, as seen in document H where Boss Tweed and other Tammany Hall collaborators “feast” on the corpse of New York.…
The investigation, and ensuing drama that took over two years to conduct would hence forth be referred to as “The Watergate Scandal” .…
In an effort to make sure his decision regarding the federal deposits had been carried out, he fired his secretary of state that opposed this decision in order to hire another which did (Andrew Jackson’s Shifting Legacy). This action served not only as a moral atrocity, but an illegal one as well. Jackson, as it can be seen with this situation, as president, persisted in making these decisions based off of his prideful disobedience at the expense of many…
This was the era of monopolies which allowed these, “Big Business”, men to control the federal government and get away with their wrongdoings (Doc 8). Even though the corruption ruined people’s lives and went against the morals our Founding Fathers established, all the wrongdoings showed America where we needed to change.…
After the soaring ideals and tremendous sacrifices of the Civil War, the post-War era of the United States was generally one of political disillusionment. Even as the continent expanded and industrialized, political life in the Gilded Age was marked by ineptitude and stalemate as passive, rather than active, presidents merely served as figureheads to be manipulated rather than enduring strongholds. As politicians from both the White House to the courthouse were deeply entangled in corruption and scandal during the Gilded Age, the actual economic and social issues afflicting urbanizing America festered beneath the surface without being seriously addressed.…
The story of the City of Bell scandal is one of corruption and deceit where top city council officials are the perpetrators and the residents, their victims. The city of Bell was a prime and easy target for Robert Rizzo, Bell city manager, and several other city officials, including some within the Bell police force. This small town in the County of Los Angeles has a population of less than 40,000, and over the past decade there has been a substantial decrease in public awareness. Rizzo strategically embarked on a mission in 2005, to make the City of Bell a charter town. This went virtually unnoticed as only 4% of the residents voted. This allowed the city to be exempt from new government legislation, creating an open playing ground for the corrupt city manager. In a short time, he would seek every avenue of illicit revenue that would pad the already enormous council salaries; eventually bringing city official payrolls to a staggering number. The residents of Bell were charged with outrageous property taxes, business taxes and permits, unwarranted citations and countless other city induced fines. This scandal was a correlation of the lack of resident involvement in local government to the political avarice that overtook this small community.…