Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1858 — The Fort Shelling Fraud. [ARTICLE]

The Fort Shelling Fraud.

This alleged fraud has caused a great deal of comment throughout the newspaper press jof the country.. The factjs of the case, es developed by the testimony taken before the Congress Comnfettee, aro-brfrfly as follows: An act through Congress near the close dt President Pierce’s administration, authorising the War Department to sell any old forts not required for military purposes. Under this vague clause, Mr. Secretary Floyd. sold to Richard Shell, broker of New York, and brother of the United States Senator, to Mrs. Shell, his wife, to John G. Mather, also State Senator and Government Warehouse Man, to Frank Steele, and to one Dr. Graham, Fort Snelling and eight or ten thousand acres of adjoining land, valued at $200,000 and upward, for $90,000. The sale was made privately, and without any public notice or intimation that the property was; in market. So' far from its not being needed for military purposes, tiie late Secretary of War, Mr. D avis, |ki*(l distinctly declined to entertain proposals for its purchase under the act, becapse it waS needed for. such purposes; while the present Secretary lias also recog-.' sized the necessity lor usirtg part of it for the military service of the country. ■ It was sold in a body, and not in sections, after the usual Government Surveys, as provided by law. By tlie terms of sale, the purchasers are to have their deeds upon paying the firsjt instalment, and without a mortgage, in dire'ct* violation of Die law, which lorbids'a patent being issued for any Government lands until the entire price is paid. These being the facts in the case, the whole transaction of the sale exhibits a shocking degree of official corruption.