Year: 1876




The Belknap Statement.


The following is the testimony given
before the Congressional Committee by
@. p. Marsh in regard to the sale of the
Post Trade position at Fort Sill:


l would state, that in the summer of
1870, myself and wife spent some weeks
at Long Branch, and on our return to
New York, Mrs. Belknap and Mrs. Bower,
by our invitation, came for visit to our
house. Mrs. Belknap was i'll during this
visit some three or four weeks, and
suppose in consequence Of our kindness
to her, she felt under some obligations,
for she asked me one day, in the course
of conversation, why / did not apply
for post leadership on the frontier. l
asked what they were, and was told that
many of them were very lucrative offices
or positions, the gift of the Secretary of
War, and that if wanted one she would
ask the Secretary for one. Upon my re-
plying that l Thought such Offices be-
longed to disabled soldiers, and besides l
was without political influence, she an
swered that politicians got places, etc.
| do not remember saying that if had a
valuable post of that kind that l would
remember her, but / do remember her
saying something like this: off l
can prevail on the Secretary of
War to award you post, you must
be careful to say nothing to him about
presents, for man once offered him
$40, 900 for a leadership of this kind,
and he told him that if he did not leave
the Office he would kick him down
stairs" Remembering as do this story,
/ presume the antecedent statement to
be correct. Mrs. Belknap and Mrs. Bower
returned to Washington, and few
weeks thereafter Mrs. Belknap sent me
word to come over; did So She then
told me that the post leadership at Fort
Sill was vacant, and it was valuable
post, as she understood, and that she had
either asked for it for me, or had pre-
vailed upon the Secretary of War to
agree to give it to me. AT all events, l
called upon the Secretary of War, and,
as near as l can remember, made appli-
cation for this position on regular
printed form. The Secretary said he
would appoint me if l could bring the
proper letters and recommendations and
this saidI could do. Either Mrs. Bel
knap or the Secretary told me that the
present trader at the post, John s. Evans,
was an applicant for reappointment, and
that had better see him, he being in
the city, as it would not be fair to tuln
him out of office without some notice, as
he would lose largely on his buildings,
merchandise, ETC., if the Office was taken
away from him, and that it would be
proper and just for me to make
some arrangement with him for
their purchase, if l wished to
run the post myself l saw
Evans, and found him alarmed at the
prospect of losing the place. | remember
that he said that firm of Western post
traders, who claimed good deal of in
Auence with the Secretary of War, prom
ised to have him appointed, but he
found, on coming to Washington, this
firm TO be entirely without influence.
Evans first proposed a partnership,
which 1 declined, and then bonus of a
certain portion ofprofits, ifI would allow
him to hold the position and continue the
business. We finally agreed on $l5, 900
per year. Evans and myself went on to





was made and executed. During our
trip over, however, Mr. Evans saw some
thing in the Army and Nary Journal
which led him TO think that some of the
troops would be removed from the fort,
and that he had offered too large a sum,
and before the contract was drawn il was
reduced, by agreement, to $l2, 900, the
same being payable quarterly, in ad-
vance. When the first remittance came
to me-say probably in November, 1870
i sent one half thereofto Mrs. Belknap,
either, ] presume, by certificate of de-
pOsit or bank notes by express. Being in
Washington at funeral, some weeks
after this, had a conversation with Mrs.
Bower to the following purport, as far as
l can now remember, but. you must say
that just here my memory is exceedingly
indistinct, and judge in part from what
follows as to details from the converse
tion. / went up stairs in the nursery
with Mrs. Bower, to see the baby. /
said to her, "This child will have
money coming to it before great while"
She said, eyes, the mother gave the
child to me, and told me the money COM
ing from you she must take and keep for
it," / said "All right" and it seems to
me | said that perhaps the father ought
to be consulted. l say it seems so, and
yet / can give no reason for it, for as far
as knew the father knew nothing of
any money transactions between the
mother and myself / have a faint re-
C, Election of a remark of Mrs. Bower,
that If sent the money to the father that
it belonged to her and she would get it
anyway. certainly had some under
standing then or subsequently with her
or him, for when the next payment came
due and was paid, sent one half thereof
to the Secretary of War, and have con-
tinued substantially from that day for
ward to the present time to do the same
about, should say, one and half to two
years. After the commencement of
these payments / reduced the amount to
$6, 900 per annum. The reason of this
reduction was partly because of the COM
bined complaints on the part of Evans
and his partner, and partly, SO far as l
now remember, in consequence of an ar
ticle in the newspapers, about that time,
rejecting on the injustice done to sol
diers at this Fort, caused by exorbitant
charges, made necessary on the part of
the trader by reason of the payment OF
this bonus. To the best of my knowledge
and belief the above is true statement
of all the facts in the case, and as COM
pletc as can remember occurrences OF
80 many years ago.