Between the Lines Part 9

Colonel.--I have the honor to report that Officer Horner arrested William W. Sh.o.r.e, who is, or has been the correspondent of the New York World and News. He says he left Fort Monroe on Feb. 14, and used to forward Rebel papers to New York, until he was ordered away by General Butler.

Enclosed herewith is the telegram on which he was arrested.

I am Colonel,

Very respy. your obdt. servt., H. B. SMITH, Lieut. Comdg. D. C.

Headquarters, Middle Department, 8th Army Corps, Baltimore, May 14, 1864.

Special Order No. 40.

Guard in charge of John Gillock, political prisoner, will proceed to Fort McHenry. On arrival you will report to Commanding Officer, deliver charge with accompanying papers, receive receipt and return to these headquarters without delay.

By command, Major General Wallace.

JOHN WOOLLEY, Lt. Col. and Provost Marshal.

I remember this young man very well. He was from Richmond. Subsequently, after testing his reliability, I made use of him for detective purposes.

He was well acquainted with General Winder's men, hence his value to us.

FILE XIII.

Ordered to seize all copies of the New York "World," bringing in one of the great war episodes, the Bogus Presidential Proclamation--Governor Seymour's queer vigor appears.

Headquarters, Middle Department, 8th Army Corps, Baltimore, May 18, 1864.

Provost Guards, or U. S. Detectives.

Seize all copies of the New York World of this date, that may arrive from New York, or that you can find in the city.

By command, Major General Wallace.

JOHN WOOLLEY, Lt. Col. and Provost Marshal.

This order is innocent enough in its appearance, but it is really the executive action upon a subject almost as vital in its effects as any of the great battles of the war.

Under date of May 17th a proclamation, calling for four hundred thousand more troops, purporting to be from President Lincoln, was issued, and was published in certain papers; among them the New York "World". The following is a copy:

Executive Mansion, May 17, 1864.

Fellow Citizens of the United States:

In all seasons of exigency it becomes a nation carefully to scrutinize its line of conduct, humbly to approach the throne of Grace, and meekly to implore forgiveness, wisdom, and guidance.

For reasons known only to Him, it has been decreed that this country should be the scene of unparalleled outrage, and this nation the monumental sufferer of the nineteenth century. With a heavy heart, but an undiminished confidence in our cause, I approach the performance of a duty rendered imperative by my sense of weakness before Almighty G.o.d and of justice to the people.

It is not necessary that I should tell you that the first Virginia campaign, under Lieut. General Grant, in whom I have every confidence, and whose courage and fidelity the people do well to honor, is virtually closed. He has conducted his great enterprise with discreet ability. He has crippled their strength and defeated their plans.

In view, however, of the situation in Virginia, the disaster at Red river, the delay at Charleston, and the general state of the country, I, Abraham Lincoln, do hereby recommend that Thursday, the 26th day of May, A.D., 1864, be solemnly set apart throughout these United States as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer.

Deeming, furthermore, that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, and in view of the pending expiration of the service of (100,000) one hundred thousand of our troops, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power vested in me by the Const.i.tution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth the citizens of the United States between the ages of (18) eighteen and (45) forty-five years, to the aggregate number of (400,000) four hundred thousand, in order to suppress the existing rebellious combinations, and to cause the due execution of the laws.

And, furthermore, in case any State or number of States shall fail to furnish by the fifteenth day of June next their a.s.signed quotas, it is hereby ordered that the same be raised by immediate and peremptory draft. The details for this object will be communicated to the State authorities through the War Department.

I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of the National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Was.h.i.+ngton, this 17th day of May, one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

This was immediately contradicted by the Government, as follows:

To the Public.

Department of State, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.

May 18, 1864.

A paper purporting to be a proclamation of the President, countersigned by the Secretary of State, and bearing date of the 17th inst. is reported to this Department as having appeared in the New York "World" of this date. This paper is an absolute forgery. No proclamation of this kind has been made, or proposed to be made, by the President, or issued, or proposed to be issued, by the State Department, or any other Department of the Government.

WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Under the head "Freedom of Press" Appleton's Encyclopedia for 1864 gives twelve columns of s.p.a.ce to this matter. The excitement resulted in the greatest distress. Gold advanced four or five per cent., a panic prevailed, and great calamity, of course, followed.

Soon thereafter we seized every telegraph instrument and office record in the Department, and arrested the officers and clerks. I became so tired with the extraordinary labor and loss of sleep, that I actually fell asleep while standing at a desk in one of the offices. I had heard of such experiences, but had believed it impossible.

The object of seizing the newspapers, telegraphic instruments and records, was to prevent the disaster that must follow the further spreading of the impression created by the bogus message, that our Government was in dire distress.

Copperhead conspirators and Confederate agents here and in Canada, had been and were at work to undermine us by every means. Distress to us, however brought about, was their purpose. They sought to create in the minds of the ma.s.ses the idea that the war was a failure.

These conspirators had tried to use the conscription, in 1863, to disrupt us, and they were again trying to scare the people with a prospective draft, in 1864, to unsettle the public mind before the Presidential election, then soon to occur (in November).

Governor Seymour relentlessly pursued General Dix, seeking to have him indicted for arresting (he claimed) illegally, persons party to the fraud. But the grand jury refused to indict him. Seymour claimed that he (Seymour) was trying to preserve _personal liberty_, from the general government's encroachments, which was also his att.i.tude in Vallandigham's case in 1863.