The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-03-05
How Much has Belknap Made '

Gen. BrLKNAP has been for years run
ming the War Department ms private
money-making machine. His idea of 1t
was simply an adaptation Of GRANTS idea
Of the Presidency. II was his private
property, to be used for his own conve-
nience and benefit and for the benefit Of
his family.
Ono method which he adopted for rem
dering his office productive was the same
ms that employed by MIR. ISAAC HENDER-
son, Of the Evening Post newspaper, when
he was Navy Agent at this port. Mr..
HENDERSON likewise considered his Office
to be kind OF private farm, and he Guilt
waited II vigorously IL was his busin ess TO
buy naval supplies for the use OF the Gov
eminent and he required the sellers Of such
supplies to pay him share Of their profits.
This was not money taken from the Gov
ernment, because he paid these merchants
the market price of their goods, and no
more. But as they were dependent on
him for the opportunity Of making the
sale, he thought II right as a religious man
and patriot that they should hand over
TO him n portion of the gains which with
out him they could not have received. BEL
KNAP went upon the same principle. The
post traders sell goods to soldiers, cmigrants,
and Indians, who gather around the mill
tary posts in the Western wilds. There are
some twenty or more OF these traders,
Dig anu iittle, and ali OF them, except
ORvIL l. GRANT and JouN DENT, owe
their appointment 10 BELKNAP. Their
profits are very large. for they have no
competition; and what BELKNAP has done
is to require these gentlemen to share with
him the gains which, without him, they
would not have the opportunity Of maxi
ing. II is plainly another application Of
HENDERSON, principle.
In the case of HENDERSON II was never
determined how much money he actually
made by this ingenious method. We re-
member. however, seeing In the Navy
Department one day, when that old-fash-
Toned Secretary GIDEON WEILEs was
there, the stubs Of checks which various
contractors had paid to HENDERSON out of
their current profits, and the aggregate of
these checks was In round numbers about
$780, most probably representing only
part Of the fortune which this good man
accumulated In that way.
Has BELKSAP been as lucky as HENDER-
SOM Do his savings amount to more than
half millioni 1t is impossible at present
to tell, because we only know q small por-
ton OF the truth. There is no reason.
however, why he should not have made
ms much money rs he wanted. He took
from one post trader at a post OF small i'm
portauce the sum of $1,000 year
At the large post known as Fort
ID. A. Russell, near Cheyenne. we
are told that his share exceeded 800, 900 a
year; and out OF the eighteen or twenty
traders upon whom It was his privilege to
levy-of course the members Of GRANTS
family were not subject to any exactions
from him-he may easily have collected in
the aggregate the handsome sum OF
quarter of million annually. But this does
not complete the list of possible sources
OF revenue 10 a Cabinet Minister so accom-
plished In Grantism. All the contractors
OF the army are subject 10 him and can be
required to stand and deliver. The COM
missary stores, the meat, the sugar, the
coffee; the quartermaster's supplies OF
clothing, blankets, tents, hay, oats mules,
wagons, harness. horseshoes and the
tombstones for the dead soldiers OF the
war; the ordnance materials, the iron,
steel, lead gunpowder; the medical stores
in short the whole immense round OF the
articles necessary for the army may oil
be made TO surrender share OF their
sellers profit 10 secretary who
knows how TO make the most Of his
chances. Besides, he gets occasionally a
chance TO pick up hundred thousand or
so out Of such special bargain as the sale
Of arms to the French Government
II BELKNAP has not made a million by
being Secretary Of War, he must be pro-
nounced man OF very moderate ambi-
ton.