Year: 1864

files were stopped. News-rooms bundles
and files were stopped, and the agent of
the line was informed that the proclama-
ton was forgery. Our printers and
pressmen were brought from their homes
and beds to put in type and publish the
news of our misfortune. Our bulletin
boards were placarded with the offer Of
reward for the discovery of the forgcr
and to the agent of the Associated Press,
| sent telegram rociting all the facts, for
him to transmit at once to nearly every
daily paper in the North, from Maine to
California. Thus before the Scotia sailed,
before your Secretary Of State had official.
ly branded the forgery, the wings which
we had given to truth had enabled her 10
outstrip everywhere the falschood we had
unwittiogy set on foot, and in many places
the truth arrived before the forger had
come to tell his tale


For any injury done to ourselves, to
the Government or to the public, this pu b
liclty was ample antidotc. 1t indeed made
injury impossible.


Bat the insult to your excellency was
the greater in proportion to the eminence
of your station. Early in the afternoon
of Wednesday, therefore, went with Mr..
VIM, G. Prime, chief editor Of tho Jour-
nat IF Commerce, which had been deeeiy-
ed precisely as we were, to the hcadquar-
ters Of the Department of the East, and
laid before the commanding general every
clue in our possession which could lead to
the discovery of the guilty persons, All
the facts above rocted were telegraphed at
once to you through the Secretary of War
by General Dix. assert our utter blame.
lessness. assert, moreover, that have
lover known mind so prejudiced in which
acquaintance with these facts would net
enforce the conviction Of our utter blame
lossness.


Here was the absense of an attempt 10
DO wrong here was an aulidote for an in
jury unwi,tingly assisted, more complete
and eflectual than the injury itself; here
was an alacrity in search of the wrong
doer, and assistance rendered to your sub
ordinate to discover the author Of the in
sui, done to you.


With these facts set fully before y ou by
the General commanding this department,
you reiterated an order for my arrest and
imprisonment in Fort Lafayette for the
seizure aud occupation of the U,orld Office
by military guard, and the suppression
of its publications. The J0urnai of Com
mercs, its editors and publishers were in
cluded in the same order


/ believe, though | cannot state of my
own knowledge, that to the commanding
/ Generals assertion of our entire blame
lcssness it was owing that the order for
our arrest and incarceration was rescinded.
But the order for the suppression of the
I JFmN was not rescinded. Under your
orders General Dix sent strong military
force to its publication office and editorial
rooms, who elected their occupants. and
for two days and three nights held pos
session there, injuripg and abstractiug some
of their contents, and permitting no one
to cross the threshold.


Not until Saturday morning did this oc-
cupaton cease. Not until to-day has the
! UorM been free to speak. But to those
who have ears to hear its absence has been
more eloquent than its columns could ever
be.


To characterize their proceedings as
unprecedented, would be TO forget the past
history Of your Administration; and 10
characterize them as shocking to every
mind, would be to disregard that principle
, of human nature from which it arises thai
men submitting once and again to lawles:
encroachmcnts Of power, with every en-
termi ssion of a vigilance which should be
continual, loose something Of the old, free
keen sense Of their true nature and real
danger.


Charles was doubles advised to, and
applauded for the crimes by which ho lost
his crown and life. Nor can you 90 any
such outrageous, oppressive, and unjust a
thing that it will not be applauded by those
whose prosperity and power You have
created and may destroy. To characterize
these proceedings as arbitrary, illegal ,and
unconstitutional, would seem, if such
weighty words have not been emptied oi
all significance, to beft better an hour
at which you have not arrived, and a place
where not public opinion but the author
ity of law speaks, after impeachment
trial, conviction, and judgment,


But, sir, the suppression Of two daily