Connecticut western news., 1876-03-17
THE ATTACHED SECRETARY.
How the New York "Tlmes0 Vieyy~ tn
 Acts of Ex-Secretary Belkuap.

How the New York " "Times" Views tho
 Acts of Ex-Secretary Belknap.
 The New York Times (Republican)
 in it's remarks on the impeachment Oi
 United States Secretary of War Bel.
 knap, says: A member of the cabinet
 has been convicted of taking bribes.
 This IS piece of news which has all
 ready made the circuit of the world.
 and whose echoes will come back to ms
 tuu Of scornful reproach for many a day. It would be absurd to regard the
 guilty traffcking of Secretary Belknap
 as mere misfortune for the administra-
 non. It assumes tho character of 8 na-
 tional disgrace, and as such touches the
 American people without distinction of
 politics. The good name of our gov
 ernment has been smirched in a place
 where it has heretofore kept it's honor
 clear. The accusation of jobbery in the
 cabinet has been freely enough handled
 about by people whose partisan or per sonal malice led them to take up any charge, no matter how preposterous, which answered the purpose of blacken- ing an opponents character. But the sober, reflective majority of the people have never believed, until the late revelations compelled belief, that among the highest officers of this republic there was @ man who traded upon his position and farmed out his appoint ments for gain. Apart from the direct guilt of his offense against morality and public virtue, Gen. Belknap must bear the additional odium of being the first to break down public confidence in the personal integrity of the Presidents official advisers. The secretary of war has not been nnjustly attacked; it may, then, be possible, people will say, that the accusations against some of his as- soclates are not baseless Ebels after all. - Through all the wretched story of Gen. Belknap's connection with the Fort Sill leadership there runs vein of do- mestic tenderness which lends it's read ing new element of pain. The ardent, unredecting gratitude of deeply-loved wife prompts her to offer to the man whose roof had sheltered her when in sickness the use of her husbands official influence. By bargain, rather implied than understood, she takes share of the income which her friend and host ob- tained by hiring out his Indian post leadership. There is nothing in MT. Marsh's narrative to show that Secretary Be1knap knew of this arrangement till after the death of his wife, though it does appear that her sister, the present Mrs. Befknap, was perfectly cognizant of It. The little touch about these two women fondling in the nursery the baby that was soon to die, and talking about l the money which was coming to it, as the fruits of it's fathers dishonor, is a domestic episode with as much of tragic | pathos as could we'll be imagined. | 'WDther or not he knew, from the first, of the bargain between his wife and MT. | Marsh, Gen. Beiknap certainly made no scruples about taking the money when US original recipient was gone. He l seems to have thought as little as the | women ot his household about the moral | turpitude of the transaction, and 1t was only when exposure stared him in the face that he recoiled before tn, load of l shame which his act carried with it,
 When all the just indignation against Gen. Belknap's offense has been ex- hausted, 1t is impossible not to feel a certain pity, as well as scorn, for the man. He inherited an honored name. and started on public career full of promise in way worthy of the son of the sturdy old fighter of 1872. He came out of the war with the character of a brave and capable officer, and he earned, as collector of internal revenue of one Of the districts of Iowa, the reputation of rigidly faithful public servant. The people who knew him best had i'm plicit confidence in his purity of charac- ter down to the very hour when his dis honor was clearly proved. But few days ago, Gen. Belknap, with his fine physique, his luxurious home, and his high position, might we'll. have passed for one of fortunes special favorites. To-day, with blasted reputation, ruined hopes, and all the avenues of public ser vice practically shut against him for ever, there are few men in any position who would change places with the ex- secretary of war. And yet, as political morals go, his offense was a venial one. In these days of open and wholesale stealing, popular attention could not be excited by mere official jobbery. The magnitude which such an offense as- sumes when committed in high position may help to educate the public con- science to a perception of it's heinous- ness in humber stations.