DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, January 20, 1862.

Honorable MONTGOMERY BLAIR, Postmaster-General.

SIR: Referring to your letter of the 18th instant* relative to Dr. Charles Macgill and C. J. Durant I have the honor to inform you that the report of Major-General Dix in reference thereto has been received. General Dix does not recommend any modification of the terms upon which their discharge was heretofore tendered them, viz, taking the oath of allegiance.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

F. W. SEWARD,

Assistant Secretary.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, January 22, 1862.

Major General JOHN A. DIX, Baltimore.

GENERAL: Will you have the goodness to inform this Department whether in your judgment there is any well-founded reason for continuing to hold Philip F. Rasin and Robert W. Rasin in confinement, and upon what terms if any you would recommend their discharge.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

F. W. SEWARD,

Assistant Secretary.

WASHINGTON, January 22, 1862.

[F. W. SEWARD.]

DEAR SIR: I have your of the 20th relative to Durant and Macgill. You will see by reference to my first letter that I did not propose that they should be released without taking the oath of allegiance and if I had thought the form in which they proposed to take it differed in substance from that prescribed at the Department I should not have interposed.

Yours, truly,

M. BLAIR.

ANNAPOLIS, January 24, 1862.

Governor SEWARD.

DEAR SIR: I place in your hands the inclosed papers and submit that Mr. Claggett's case is a fit one for parole.

Yours, with respect,

REVERDY JOHNSON.

[Inclosure Numbers 1.]

WOODLIE, WASHINGTON COUNTY, MD.,

January 22, 1862.

Honorable REVERDY JOHNSON.

DEAR SIR: Peculiar circumstances will I hope justify a stranger in calling your attention to an important event now transpiring.

Thomas J. Claggett, a delegate to the last Legislature of our State, is now a prisoner at Fort Warren. He was arrested at his house on

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*Not found.

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