Today in History:

390 Series III Volume IV- Serial 125 - Union Letters, Orders, Reports

Page 390 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

May 18, 1864-6.30 p.m.

Major-General DIX,

New York:

Your telegram of 5.40 is just received. A great national crime has been committed by the publication. The editors, proprietors and publishers, responsible and irresponsible, are in law quilt of that crime. You were not directed to make any investigation, but to execute the President's order; the investigation was to be made by a military commission. How you can excuse or justify delay in executing the President's order until you make an investigation is not for me to determine.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, May 18, 1864-8.30 p.m.

Major-General DIX,

New York:

The officer in charge of the investigation, respecting the forged proclamation reports that he is led to believe it originated in this city, and that the New York publishers were not privy to it. If your conclusions are the same you may suspend action against them until developments are made.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

NEW YORK, May 18, 1864.

(Received 10.40 p.m.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

The investigation was made by me as commanding officer of the department before the President's order was received, as my dispatch showed. There has been none since. I understood the President's orders as commands to be executed, and there has been no unnecessary delay in the execution. The telegraphic offices were seized as soon as my officers could reach them. The World and Journal of Commerce printing offices are in possession of my men. Two of my officers, Major Halpine and Captain Barstow, are engaged in the arrest of the editors, proprietors and publishers, and a steamer is waiting at Castle Garden to take them to Fort Lafayette. The only delay has been in making proper arrangements to secure, as nearly as possible, simultaneous and effective action.

J. A. DIX,

Major-General.

NEW YORK, May 18, 1864

(Received 10.40 p.m.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

Your dispatch in regard to the probable origin of the forged proclamation is just received. I am satisfied the publishers of the World and Journal of Commerce had no knowledge of it. I shall, therefore,


Page 390 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.