Historedia
Episode 2 of 2

Senate Trial and Acquittal

When
May-August 1876
Where
U.S. Senate
Part of
Secretary of War Belknap resigns over the trader post scandal

The Senate voted to try Belknap as a private citizen, leading to his acquittal in August 1876.

Belknap testified before the Clymer Committee on February 29, 1876. In May 1876, the Senate voted that he could be tried as a private citizen. The trial began on April 5, 1876. Belknap was finally acquitted by the Senate on August 1, 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.