In 1876 during the last year of the Grant Administration, the House of Representatives impeached Grant’s Secretary of War for being receiving money for a lucrative position. The discredited cabinet secretary was William Belknap. Before the Civil War, Belknap was a lawyer from Iowa who joined the Union army after Fort Sumter was attacked. With some militia experience he accepted a major’s rank and rose to brigadier general by the end of the war.
Belknap had become the Secretary of War at the suggestion of Grant’s aide Horace Porter in 1869. The next year, Belknap’s second wife Carrie suggested to a friend named Caleb Marsh that she could help him take over the trading post at Fort Sill in Indian Country. The current trader was John Evans, who did not want to give up the position. Marsh made a deal with Evans that he could keep his license as a trader in exchange for $12,000 (approximately $250,000 in 2026 funds) per year from which he would keep half, and the Belknaps would keep half. Carrie died later later in 1870, but Marsh still gave half of the money to the Belknap family. Belknap then married Carrie’s sister Amanda who enjoyed the benefits of the money.
In February of 1876 the New York Herald published a story detailing the transfer of money from Marsh to the Belknaps. The Secretary of War claimed that this money was his wife’s personal finances, but critics asked why it was paid even after Carrie died. Marsh was called to testify in Congress about the matter. Amanda Belknap told him to lie about the arrangement saying her husband was not involved, but Marsh did not want to commit perjury. William Belknap offered to confess to the transaction if his wife was left out of the matter. The Democratic majority in the House rejected this proposal and the House of Representatives voted to impeach him.
Before the vote could be taken, Belknap rushed to President Grant and submitted his resignation. Belknap was clearly distraught and Grant immediately accepted the resignation. This move was criticized extensively in the press because his critics feared that Belknap could not be tried in the Senate. Belknap claimed that when his resignation was accepted by Grant it meant that he could not be impeached since the resignation’s acceptance occurred before the House had returned its vote for impeachment.
The House, knowing of the resignation, unanimously decided to impeach Belknap on the same day, March 2, as he resigned. Michael Kerr, the Speaker of the House, wrote a letter to the Senate that Belknap had resigned “with intent to evade the proceedings of impeachment against him.” Belknap feeling that Grant was not doing enough to help him, wrote to his sister “My resignation which was made to save the President from the abuse which might follow, and which, if I do say it, was a magnanimous act, is tortured into a confession now by those who are so anxious to convict.”
The trial for impeachment began on July 6, 1876, just two days after the Centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In the Constitution, impeachment can only be brought against the “President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” U.S. Const. art. II, § 4. Belknap’s defense counsel Montgomery Blair insisted that those falling outside of those offices were not subject to impeachment. He told the Senate that “only those persons who are specially described in the Constitution are subject to be impeached.” Belknap Trial 28. A former officer of the government could not be impeached even if his offense occurred before his resignation.
Jeremiah Black, another member of the defense team, said that when the Constitution and laws refer to specific figures in the government, it only refers to those holding current office. He gave several examples from the Constitution. He said that the Constitution gives Congressmen the power to frank their mail, meaning they can send it free. He said no one thinks this power still applies to a former Congressman after they leave the office.
The House impeachment managers argued that if someone is convicted after a vote of impeachment, then the man is permanently barred from holding any position with the Federal government. Could Belknap escape this permanent ban by resigning from the cabinet? Representative J. Proctor Knott, a Democrat from Kentucky, said that “this punishment is applicable to persons who are not officers as well as to those who are, it follows that the power of impeachment, if its extent be measured by that of the power of punishment, is applicable to all persons, whether officers or not.”
The Senate needed 40 votes to convict Belknap, two-thirds of the senators. In three votes, the number voting for conviction never exceeded 37. Twenty-five votes were for acquittal. Of those who voted for acquittal, 22 said the Senate did not have the jurisdiction to convict a former office holder.
Sources:
Hinds’ Precedents of the House of Representatives of the United States by Asher Hinds (1907)
The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant by Charles Calhoun published by University of Kansas Press (2017)
U.S. Grant: American Hero American Myth by Joan Waugh published by University of North Carolina Press (2009)
Late Impeachment: An In-Depth Account of the Belknap Trial by Thomas Berry published by Yale Journal of Regulation (Feb. 4, 2021)
The Belknap Scandal: Fulcrum to Disaster
Grant: A Biography. by William McFeely published by W.W. Norton & Company (1981)
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