Case of Thomas W. Hall, Jr., and S. S. Mills, of The South Newspaper.

Thomas W. Hall, Jr.,* of Baltimore, editor of The South, a disloyal newspaper of that city, was arrested by order of the Secretary of War on the night of the 12th or morning of the 13th of September, 1861, and immediately placed in confinement at Fort McHenry. He was afterward transferred successively to Fort Monroe, Fort Lafayette and Fort Warren. The arrest of this person was a military precautionary measure of great necessity for the preservation of the peace and maintenance of order in Maryland. His paper was openly and zealously advocating the cause of the insurrection and largely contributing to unsettle and excite the public mind. A mass of correspondence and manuscripts were found in Hall's possession in prose and poetry, much of it intended for The South newspaper and all of intensely disloyal character. The said Hall was detained in custody at Fort Warren February 15, 1862, when in conformity with the order of the War Department of the preceding day he was transferred to the charge of that Department. - From Record Book, State Department, "Arrests for Disloyalty. "

BALTIMORE, January 19, 1862.

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington.

SIR: I am resident of Pennsylvania; here only for a few hours. I find the newsboys selling the inclosed pamphlet. Is it not time that The South where this thing is printed should be suppressed and its publishers imprisoned? Can anything be better calculated to stir up trouble in Maryland than this publication?

With respect, yours, &c.,

B. RUSH PETRIKIN,

Lock Haven, Pa.

[First indorsement.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, January 20, 1862.

Respectfully referred by the Secretary of State to Major-General Dix. Please return.

E. D. WEBSTER.

[Second indorsement.]

FEBRUARY 10, 1862.

Major-General Dix will see the Department of State in person on this subject.

[Inclosed pamphlet.]

Captain Maury'sl etter on American affairs; also the address of Hon. John C. Breckinridge to the peopole of Kentucky.

[NOTE. - This pamphlet is ommited, except its title. The letter signed "M. F. Maury, Confederate Navy," dated "Richmond, Va., August -, 1861," and addressed "Admiral Robert Fitz Roy, Royal Navy, London," is a long explanation of the relations of the States, their constitutional rights, the cause of secession and cognate subject, and his reasons for

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*Hall was arrested with the Baltimore members of the Maryland legislature by order of General McClellan. See Vol. I, this series, p. 688, for report of these arrests by Allan Pinkerton; also p. 590 for Dix to Blair, and Blair's indorsement thereon to McClellan recommending the suppression of The South and other Baltimore newspapers. - COMPILER.

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