Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Resignation and Impeachment

When
March 2-3, 1876
Where
U.S. Capitol
Part of
Secretary of War Belknap resigns over the trader post scandal

Belknap resigned and was impeached simultaneously on March 2, 1876, following the House investigation into tradership kickbacks.

On March 2, 1876, Belknap tendered his resignation to President Grant. The House committee unanimously passed resolutions to impeach him, drawing up five articles. This caused considerable commotion. The House committee, headed by Clymer, presented the articles to the Senate on March 3, 1876.

Sources

  1. Trader post scandal Wikipedia, revision of 2025-07-11
  2. William W. Belknap Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-09

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.