DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 14, 1861.

ROBERT MURRAY, Esq.,

U. S. Marshal, Southern District of new York.

SIR: Your letter of yesterday respecting James A. McMaster has been received. You will arrest and send him to Fort Lafayette.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

NEW YORK, September 29, 1861.

His Excellency the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

It may be known to your Excellency that on the 16th instant James A. McMaster, esq., editor and proprietor of The New York Freeman's Appeal, was arrested by a State warrant and was conveyed to Fort Lafayette where he is now a prisoner. I am the wife of that gentleman and am residing in this city, having our two young children under my charge. on the supposition that the arrest of Mr. McMaster was caused by articles that appeared in his paper that journal has by his direction been suspended ever since his withdrawal from his post. Most of his worldly means and the fruit of a many years of arduous and unremitting labor are deposited in his paper and his whole future career as a journalist may depend upon the preservation of his interests in it. The character of the paper has been such that its circulation was a wide though not a very large one and few could have suffered proportionately more than it did by the interruption of communications between the North and the South. I am now advised by friends that the continued suspension of The Appeal will be followed by the complete loss of its subscription list, its advertising patronage and by such pecuniary damage as will require the discharge of its employes.

Under these circumstances and under favor of a permit given me by the Secretary of State I have sought Mr. McMaster at Fort Lafayette with his consent I have arranged to purchase his interest in the journal as a bona fide transaction and with the assistance of a few friends to carry it on in my own name. / This seems to be the best if not the only way to save his business from destruction.

I promise and am willing to guarantee that the paper will not be in any way obnoxious to the charge of hostility to the administration of the Government; and I respectfully ask that it may be allowed to pass through the mails. I request his of the President because there is positive reason to doubt that the postmaster of new York will feel himself authorized to permit it on his own sole authority. At the et extremely to be obliged to propose consuming any part of the time of your Excellency with this memorial when one is sure that there are so- constant and pressing demands upon it.

I have the honor to be, Mr. President, your obedient servant,

GERTRUDE G. McMASTER.

NEW YORK, October 9, 1861.

His Excellency the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

The undersigned had the honor to address Your Excellency on the 29th ultimo a communication relating to the paper lately edited by James A. McMaster, esq. The subject is one of great important to his private interest and to his family and delay in deciding what course