The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-03-09
DETAILS OF THE STORY OF BELKNAP's
SHAME.
From Ms Charleston Nep, and Courier.

DETAILS OF THE STORY OF BELKNAP's
SHAME.
From The Charleston Negs and Courier.
All the accounts from Washington
agree that no event since the assassina-
ton of President Lincoln has produced
an effect so profound as was made by the
revelations of the corruption of Secretary
Belknap. For the first time in the histo-
ry of the country has a member of the
Presidents cabinet been impeached by
the House of Representatives, and it
seems as though the disgrace and degra-
dation into which Gen Grants Admins
tration has dragged the public service
cannot be greater than at the present
moment. The news came to the public
in an unusual form. All the great scan
dals of past years have been preceded by
accusations, which have generally been
followed by denials; then committees of
investigation have been raised, and they
have toiled weeks and months in drag
ging from unwilling witnesses little drib-
lets of the truth. By these proceedings
the public has been prepared for the re-
port of the committee when it has come,
and indeed has generally reached its
conclusions long before any official re-
port has been made. But in this case
there were no recent preliminary publi-
cations giving warning of the coming
storm. Nobody had heard that the COM
mittee on expenditures in the war de-
partment had been making any investi-
cations at all, or that any accusations
against Secretary Belknap had been made
by any one, before it was announced that
the secretary of war was to be impcached.
THE STORY OF BELKNAp's FALL
is soon told. By the act recognizing
the army passed by Congress in 1866, the
Office of sutler in the army and at militia
ry posts was abolished, and the following
year the commanding general was au-
thorized to permit trading establish
ment to be maintained after the lst day
of July, 1867, at any military post on the
frontier not in the vicinity of any city or
town, and situated at any point between
the Tooth meridian west from Greenwich
and the eastern boundary of California,
when in his judgment such an establish
ment vas needed for the protection of
emigrants, traders and other citizens;
provided that after the commissary de-
partment was prepared to supply stores to
soldiers, as required by law, any trader
permitted to remain at such post should
not sell any goods kept by the commissa-
ry department to any enlisted man. By
an act passed July Is, 1870, and now
embodied in Section l, ,l13 of the Revised
Statutes of the United States, the law
regulating the appointment of post
traders was amended so as to give to the
secretary of war instead of the command
ing general of the army the authority to
permit one or more trading establish
ments to be maintained at any military
post on the frontier. "The persons to
maintain such establishments" the law
says, "shall be appointed by him (the
secretary of war; and shall be under
protection and control as camp followers"
Soon after the passage OF this act the
secretary of war went to Long Branch to
spend a portion of the summer. The
privilege of maintaining trading estab-
iishment at these frontier posts was a
very valuable one, and no doubt nume-
rous applications were at once made to
Secretary Belknap by traders and specu-
lators to be allowed to avail themselves
of the opportunities thus presented for
profitable trading. While at Long
Branch the secretary and his family be-
came acquainted with Mr.. G. P. Marsh,
of New York, and before their return to
Washington, in the fall, made visit at
Mr.. Marsh's house, where Mrs. Belknap
was taken seriously i'll. During her stay
there she informed her host Of the valua-
BILE franchises in the gift of her husband,
and proposed that he should apply for
one of them. This must have been with
in two or three months after the passage
of the act giving the appointment Of these
traders to the secretary of war. Whether
an understanding was arrived at that
Mrs. Belknap should have share of the
profits should Mr.. Marsh receive such an
appointment, or not, does not clearly ap-
pear in the testimony. But it does ap-
pear that few weeks later Mr.. Marsh
did receive the appointment, through
Mrs. Bclknap's influence, of post-tradcr
at Fort Sill, and sold the privilege thus
obtained to n trader already on the
ground with stock of goods for $4,000
Il year. When the first quarterly pay
mcnt under this contract WAS made to
Mr.. Marsh he Immediately forwarded
one-half of tho money to Mrs. Bclknap,
but before the second payment was due
the latter died. Mrs. Bowers, the first
Mrs. Belknap's sister, and the lady whom
the secretary subsequently married, seems
to have arranged with Mr.. Mrsh on the
day of Mrs. Belknap's funeral that the
payments should be continued, and they
were continued from that day until the
end of the last quarter in December, 1875.
The money, with the exception of the
first payment (madc in November or De
ccmber, 1870, and the last (madc in De-
ccuibcr, 1881 was always sent directly
to the secretary of war, sometimes in the
form of checks or certificates OF deposit,
sometimes in the bank note forwarded
by express, and on numerous occasions it
was paid to him in person in New York
City. The testimony of Mr.. Marsh and
the documents which Reproduced to sus-
tain it arc of such n character as to
leave no room for doubling the entire ac-
curacy of his whole story. And if it
were possible to entertain for n moment
the opinion that the Secrctary's acts
might have been misconstrued, or that
he wns innocent of any Intentional wrong,