NEW YORK, [November] 28, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD:

I have been importuned by a number of our most respectable citizens to arrest Fernando Wood in consequence of a violent disunion speech he made last night, to which I desire to call your particular attention as published in the morning papers. I await your instructions.

R. MURRAY,

U. S. Marshal.

OFFICE OF THE SUPT. OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE,

New York, November 28, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

SIR: This community was scandalized this morning on seeing in the newspapers the report of a speech made last night by Fernando Wood at a meeting of his friends at the Volks Garten. It appears to me you should have your attention specially called to it. Therefore I inclose you copies* of it as it appears in the Herald and Tribune of this morning.

Very truly, yours,

JOHN A. KENNEDY,

Superintendent.

NEW YORK, November 28, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD, State Department:

You ought to arrest Mayor Wood for using the traitorous language he did last night before a public assemblage. Do it at once and save future agonies here.

C. A. STETSON.

NEW YORK, November 29, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

DEAR SIR: Although I am aware that your time is engrossed by the pressing anxieties of your position I can not refrain from intruding upon you a minute on a subject of pith and moment. I ask your attention to this infamous speech delivered by Fernando Wood on Wednesday night last. I inclose you a copy.

Of course you are aware that Wood before he was frightened into an appearance of loyalty by the people here had strong secession sympathies, and that whenever since that unpleasant event he has dared expose the cloven foot he has been delighted to exhibit it. Colonel Burnham, a New Yorker by birth, is Wood's marshal and next door neighbor. He under the manipulation of Wood, who seems to have fascinated this otherwise estimable man, has become and continues to be a stubborn secessionist, and submits as though he were acting a martyr's part to loss of friends and destruction of his business. He used to be proprietor of the famed Burnham's, at Bloomingdale, but has been driven from it by loss of business consequent upon the knowledge of his want of loyalty.

The Daily News which you suppressed was owned in part by Wood. Ben Wood who is but as potter's clay in Fernando Wood's hands was

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*Not found, but see inclosures in Haskins to Seward, December 2, post.

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