The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1876-03-09
BkLKNAP, SEURETART OF WAR. IN
DISGRACE.

The House Comm ittee on EXpendi-
lures in the War Department, who
have been investigating tue conduct
of Gen. Belknap, Secretary of War,
were startled on Wednesday after
noon at the testimony OF Caleb P
Marsh, q man who testified to having
paid the Secretary of War SIC, 900 for
a post leadership, and 5000 annually
since. The following is the testi-
mony reported to the House at P.
NJ. yesterday:
Question by the Chsirman-Where
do you reside?
Marsh-I reside at No. 80 West
Fifty-seventh street, New York.
Have resided in New York about
eight years.
Chair-Were you or not appointed
or rendered an appointment as post
trader st Ft. Sill, Indian Territory, in
the fall of 1870 by the Secretary of
War ? II so, under what cireum-
stances was said appointment offered
to you. State also ifyou were commits.
stoned by the Secretary as such post
tender, or if not, who was 50 COM
missioned, and if any other person
than yourself, was so commissioners.
Give his name, and the reason he
was commissioned. If any agree
ment was made between you and tie
appojntee, state it, or produce it, il in
writing and was such agreement
made with the knowledge of the
Secretary OF War, and stIts-the cir
cumetances connected with the MAX
ing of that agreement, and all trans
sctions IN detail there under fully
and particularly, as IL you were
specially interrogated in regard to the
several transactions, aud 5 fully as
b save the necessity of repeated in-
terrogstories. tg9s .aaz
STATEMENT OF MARSH
In reply to your question, 1 would
state that in the summer OF 1870 my
self and wife spent some weeks at
Long Branch, and on our return to
New York, Mrs. Belknap aud Mrs.
Bower, by our invitation cana for 8
visit to our house. Mrs. Belknap was
| i'll, during this visit, soma three or
| four weeks and, I suppose in cOase-
queHee Of kindness to her, she felt un-
der obligations, for she asked me one
day, in the course Of = Conversation,
why 1 did not apply for a post-trader-
ship on the frontier. / asked what
they were, and was told that many
of them were very lucrative offices I;
that the position was ia the gift ofthe
Secretary of War, and that il want
ed enc she would ask the Secretary
for one. Upon my replying that I
/ thought such offices belonged to disa-
bied soldiers, and beside that 1 was
without political inhaenes, she an
swered that politicians got such
places, &c, &c. I do not remember
saying that If had q valuable post of
that kind 1 would remember her, but
1 do remember her saying something
like this, "If can prevail upon the
Secretary OF War to award you a post
you must be careful to say nothing to
him about presents, for s man once
offered him $40, 900 for leadership OF
this kind, and he told him that If he
did not leave the office he would kick
him down stairs. Remember as l do
this story, L presume the antecedeut
statement to be correct.
Mrs. Belknspsnd Mrs. Bower re.
turned to Washington, and a few
weeks thereafter Mrs. Belknap sent
me word to come over. 1 did So
She told me that the post trsdershir
at Fort Sill was vacant that it was
q valuable post, as she understood,
land she had either asked for it for me,