Litchfield enquirer., 1864-05-26
THE BoGus PRocLAMAr1oN.-Inten excite

THE BoGus PRocLAMAT1oN.-Ihtense excite ment was created throughout the country on Wednesday last, by the publication ia the New York World and Journal of Commerce, of what subsequently proved to be forged Proclama- ton, signed by President Lincoln and coun- tersigned by Secretary Seward, calling upon the people of the United States to observe the 25th of this month as National Fast, in view of recent calamties to our arms, and calling for four hundred thousand more troops to be raised before June lst. The. steamer for Eu- rope was to start at noon, which would carry abroad the unfavorable news, and the panic calculated to be produced there would be great ly increased in the absence of contradiction Happily, however, the sensation was short lived, as dispatch from Secretary Seward was received early in the day, pronouncing the Proclamation a base forgery. The World and the Journal ef Commerce, which had promul- gated the hoax, were suppressed by military authority, and their public. ..tion prohibited. Meanwhile gold and stocks of every description had taken jump upward of four or five per per cent, and then as sudden a jump back again.
 Of course, as soon as the bogus character of the dispatch was known, the Government, as well as the parties imposed upon, commenced the most strenuous efforts to detect and bring its author to summary and condign punishment. Rewards to the amount of 5000 were offered for his detection and arrest, which were sufi. cient to arouse the officers of law and Govern. ment to the fullest exercise of their ingenuity and acumen. These efforts were finally crown ed with success,and on Friday afternoon ,the au- thor and perpetrator of the atrocious fraud was arrested It turned out to be Mr. Joseph Howard, Jr, the city Editor of Brooklyn copperhead paper. After his arrest he made clean breast ot the matter, and gave as a reason for the fraud, that he hoped to and sue. ceeded in making some money out of 1t at the Stock Exchange Board in New York.
 Howard, who is very we'll. known in Wash ington, in this county. where he has spent parts of seve al summers, is between thirty and thirty-fve years of age tall and thin in per son. His features would be called handsome, and are improved by jet black mustaches and hair, although the latter folms but thin cov- ering over that portion of his cranium where the "brains" of the man are deposited. He usually wears an eye-glass and neat suit of fine black broadcloth. A broad brinmed slouched hat completes the costume of the man who has been made in-famous in connection with the bogus Proclamation. He is the son of MT. John T. Howard, of Brooklyn, N. Y, very worthy and respectable gentleman, and is very respectfully connected.
 Howard is now an inmate of the castleated mansion in New York bay, known as Fort Lafayette, and what appeared to him at the time perhaps, as very good joke and capit very different character, as he is subjected to two charges, one of forgery, and the other of treason, and will be likely to suffer the pen alty of long imprisonment on either charge, if he does not iucur the more serious penance ct dancing minuet upon thin air.
 The order suspending the publication of the two papers publishing the hoax has since been revoked, and they have been restored to their former status it not appearing that they were other than innocent victims of the hoax. The reliability, however, of either of those journals, will hereafter be matter as doubtful to the public, as their principles and professions of loyalty have been hitherto to everybody but copperheads.