New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-06-01
Seizure of the TelegrapEEc DIspatches---A
Disclosure.


The Richmond Examiner, referring to the seiz-
ure of all the telegraphic messages in the North
for the last twelve months-thus violating the
sanctty of private correspondence for the sake
of hunting up " treason makes revelation
of the way in which a telegraphic operator in
Washington city got the 'sbuTgen on the Aboli-
tionists last winter. Says the Examiner:
The grand place, the central point, where the
reasonable, Southern, secession. reheious tele-@
graphic dispatches were written, sent and filed
last winter and spring, was the Washington City
Telegraph Office There was work enough done
lhere last winter to have hung any quantity of
rebels now figuring in the Confederate armies and
Congress, prepared now to do little hanging of
their own when occasion shall justify or a Yankee
deserve it., From Washington accounts were sent
giving early accounts of all the hostile stems of the
Buchanan and Lincoln Governments of their pro-
jects of invasion, reinforcement supplies trickery
fraud and. rascaity of every description. Our
friends used the telegraph to some purpose. They
did not spare money, time, or trouble They
kept the authorities and the people of the South
constantly on the alert. They advised hostile
steps whenever those steps were needed 70 protect
our people. They counseled prudence and delay
when to act might have jeoparded great cause
| They took responsibility freely, aud fought the
| good fight of the South in the enemy's camp with
| halters around their necks.
| When it became necessary for the South Caro-
lima commissioners to send their first dispatch an
| nouncing the perfdy Of Buchanan and Holt his
lnLehtlOn 10 REINFORCE Fort Sumter, and their ad
vice to their State to resist it by force, messen-
ger came to this city to send it with certainty and
seeresy. This was done about the LIST of January
| But soon after it was found that there was one
| man in the Washington office who could be trusted
| implicitly by our people, and we are glad to re-
| cord that it was young Virginian, William Col
| well, by name. This young man, by private ar
| rangement, received the Southern dispatches sent
| them himself, and filed them away in a private
| safe No one saw them hut himself and the par
| ties to whom they were addressed. All through
January February, March and part of April, this
gentleman acted for our friends. Through him the
dispatches were sent giving the movements of the
Star of the West, and also dispatches revealing
the real object and destination Of the expedition
to relieve Fort Sumter-so carefully sought to be
concealed by the enemy.
MIR. Cowell one day in pril got word privately
that the Black Republicans were coming to seize
the office. He quietly took all these reasonable
dispatches and burnt them. They have thus re-
solved themselves in their original elements. D-
vine power can alone restore the character and
signs by which the secessiouste at Washington
fought the enemy incurred treason defed the hal
ter, and saved their country. The dispatches be-
ing burnt Colwel remained at bis post with philo-
sophie compQsure. Next night the Yankee troops
came into the Office with musket and bayouet, and
he politely informed them that he surrendered at
discretion, and that al he had in the telegraphic
dispatch line was at their disposition.