White House gossip

by Edna M. Colman

Although the Whisky Ring had in some way evaded prosecution by the secretaries of the Treasury who preceded Secretary Bristow, this gentleman had a clear case against them before they were aware of his intentions. The task had not been easy, as the distillers guarded their movements with great care and saw to it that some of the highest officers in government service were in their pay, and therefore kept the leaders of the Ring forewarned as to possible investigation, so that they might have all matters ready for examination.

The tax levied by Congress was 50 cents per gallon. The distillers paid the collectors 30 cents; they in turn fixed their returns, giving to the government the smallest possible amount and dividing the balance among themselves.

Secretary Bristow laboured diligently to break up this Ring, and great secrecy was imposed, even to the point of using a new cipher. The cleverest surveillance was exercised, and when information was in hand, distilleries were seized in St. Louis, Milwaukee, Indiana, and New Orleans, and men of highest social position were indicted. The trials were quiet and decisive. Many of those implicated were sent to the penitentiary; others fined. Interest was centred in St. Louis because it seemed to be the heart of the conspiracy. Against all persons, the evidence was sufficiently conclusive to bring a conviction, save in the case of O. E. Babcock, the private secretary to the President. While strong charges were made that he shared in the profits of the Ring, conclusive proof strong enough for conviction was lacking. It was also charged that he furnished information, but while his innocence was not established, neither was his guilt confirmed, and he was acquitted owing to the influence of the President, who resented his implication very strongly. He always believed implicitly in the men he selected for his confidence and service. He felt the same sense of indignation and personal resentment when it was proved that his Secretary of War, W. W. Belknap, shared in the profits of a sutler’s shop on an Indian reservation. Belknap would undoubtedly have been impeached but for submitting his resignation, which was accepted by the President with great regret.

Secretary Belknap’s weakness and fall have often been laid to the door of a young, attractive, and socially ambitious wife, whose love of jewels and pretty clothes made her demands exceed her husband’s income. Because of his pride in her and the desire to gratify her in her vanity, he was led into a step that destroyed all the splendid record of a lifetime.

William Worth Belknap came from an old and prominent family. His career in the Civil War had been conspicuous for his gallantry in action. From the post as Internal Revenue Collector in Iowa, he was called to the Cabinet. This new honour inspired a natural desire to look after old friends. This attitude was shared by his first wife, and led to difficulties.

Many stories have ascribed various reasons for the disgrace of this previously splendid man. According to some accounts, the jealousy of a woman acquaintance of Mrs. Belknap started the rumours and charges that led to the investigation of the private transactions of the Secretary of War. Owing to the fact that the charges made were proved, the nation was served with another scandal of most distressing type.

The disclosures made by the lady seeking to destroy the prestige of the Belknaps caused it to be known that the first Mrs. Belknap persuaded her husband to appoint Caleb Marsh, husband of a friend of hers, post trader on the Indian Reservation at Fort Sill. Marsh secured the appointment and then made an agreement with the incumbent, who was preparing to bring political influence to keep the place, but who knew he could not compete with the appointee of the Secretary of War, allowing him to remain as long as $12,000 of the annual profits were paid over to him in quarterly instalments. This money was divided with the Secretary of War for two years, the payments being sent to Mrs. Belknap. Later, when it seemed advisable to reduce this annual bonus to $6,000, this sum was likewise so divided.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Belknap died, and after the lapse of the proper period of mourning, the handsome widower with a young child to care for sought another wife, selecting the younger sister of his late wife, Mrs. Bowers, of Harrisonburg, Ky., widow of Colonel Bowers of the Confederate Army. They came to Washington and set up such lavish style of living as to lead people to believe Mrs. Belknap possessed of ample means.

The disclosures of the investigation showed that Belknap, when Secretary of War, not only knew that $1,000 a month was being profiteered from the private soldiers, the coloured troops, 600 of them, of the Tenth Cavalry stationed at Fort Sill, for the small supplies they purchased at the trader’s shop on the reservation, but he also knew that one half of it came regularly to him to help him keep up his sumptuous quarters and extravagant style of living and enable his gay young second wife to continue indulging her taste for gowns from Worth of Paris. When an officer of the coloured regiment, after finding it useless to apply to the War Department for redress on the exorbitant prices at the post trader’s shop, wrote the details to Senator Sumner, then charges were formally made, and full investigation followed, showing that in the five years before this fraud was discovered $40,000 had been taken from these private soldiers, many of them freedmen, receiving their first pay of thirteen dollars a month.

As soon as the charges were filed, General Belknap resigned. He appeared at a Cabinet meeting as usual one day, and the next was a prisoner at the desk in the police court. He was so distressed in his disgrace that he contemplated suicide. His resignation prevented impeachment.