John Brooks Henderson

A lawyer by training, John Brooks Henderson capped an influential legislative career by serving as the first special prosecutor in U.S. history. Following two terms in Missouri’s House of Representatives (1848–50; 1856–58), Henderson served in the U.S. Senate (1862–69). Though an enslaver himself, he was instrumental in ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment (1865) that abolished slavery. His vote against impeaching President Andrew Johnson, however, ended his Senate career.

In 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Henderson as special prosecutor to investigate the Whiskey Ring corruption scandal, in which distillers and officials defrauded the government of tax revenue. It was one of several scandals that ensnared Grant’s administration, and the president fired Henderson for criticizing his interference in the investigation. After retiring from law and politics in 1889, Henderson turned to real estate development in Washington, D.C., where he served as a regent of the Smithsonian Institution (1892–1911).