CONFIDENTIAL.] WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, D. C., May 18, 1864

Major General LEW. WALLACE,

Baltimore:

A forged treasonable document, purporting to be a proclamation by the President, countersigned by the Secretary of State, appeared in the New York World and Journal of Commerce this morning. Make arrangements and seize all the issues of the papers that may arrive at Baltimore by express or mail and prevent their circulation, and report to this Department.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

BALTIMORE, May 18, 1864.

(Received 9 p.m.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

Your dispatch arrived after the train from New York and the New York World had already been distributed. I have seized all the copies I could find.

LEW. WALLACE,

Major-General of Volunteers.

NINTH STREET OFFICE, Washington, May 18, 1864.

(Received 2.15 p.m.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

I have the honor to report that the arrests have been made and offices closed.

THOS. T. ECKERT,

Major and Assistant Superintendent Military Telegraph.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington City, May 18, 1864-12.30 p.m.

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq.,

U. S. Minister Plenipotentiary, London:

Orders have been given for the arrest and punishment of the fabricators and publishers of the spurious proclamation.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

(Same to William L. Dayton, Esq., U. S. Minister Plenipotentiary, Paris.)

NEW YORK CITY, May 19, 1864

(Received 2.30 p.m.)

His Excellency A. LINCOLN,

President of the United States:

SIR: The undersigned, editors and publishers of a portion of the daily press of the city of New York, respectfully represent that the