positively made by the friends of the prisoners that they are entirely innocent will and do have their effect on the community. Thinking men among us feel uneasy lest the confidence of the people in the Government should be impaired and will be glad to have it in their power to justify these arrests. For every arrest made for good cause you may be assured the people of New Jersey will justify and approve of the action of the Government. It is to be regretted that you have not given me more precise information in regard to the cases of arrest in New Jersey which are represented to have been made upon insufficient grounds so that corrections might be applied in those cases if injustice should be found to have been done. I appreciate the motive which prompts the suggestions which you have thus made with a view that the Government may justify itself for any arrests that it may find itself obliged to direct in counteracting and defeating treason which is already in arms in one-third of the States and which finds aiders and abettors and sympathizers I regret to say in every State in the Union. The suggestions themselves will be submitted to the President and I have no doubt that they will receive from him the consideration due to their intrinsic importance and to the high respect which I am sure he entertains for your character as the enlightened and patriotic chief. magistrate of one of the most loyal States in the Federal Union. I am, your excellency's most obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. FORT HAMILTON, New York Harbor, September 23, 1861. Col. E. D. TOWNSEND, Asst. Adjt. Gen., Hdqrs. of the Army, Washington City, D. C. SIR: I thought it best to send through you inclosed communication from Mr. Wall, prisoner at Fort Lafayette. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, MARTIN BURKE, Lieutenant-Colonel, U. S. Army, Commanding. [Inclosure.] FORT LAFAYETTE, Sunday Morning. MY DEAR WARDROP: Permit me to thank you for your many kindnesses to my wife who, poor thing, is exceedingly grateful for it when so many pretended friends are turning their backs upon her. But the wheel will turn. I caught a glimpse of you I thought as the barge landed and waved my handkerchief at you, but the sentry ordered me in and I had to obey. I cannot learn why I am here as the Departments are sealed books to the poor prisoners here. No communications are answered. No consultations with counsel. You cannot meet your accusers face to face. In fact not a single constitutional right is permitted. A little humpbacked newsboy was brought in here yesterday whose alleged offense was selling the Daily News. We are expecting Governor Morehead from Kentucky in a day or two. There is a rumor prevailing here that we are to be removed to Fort Independence in Boston Harbor, but I do not know how it is nor do I care. I am fully prepared for any event. I cannot write to you as I would wish, and must postpone what I have to say until we meet again which may be never; but remember that living or dying I am, yours, truly, JAMES W. WALL. P. S. This letter, I am instructed to say, must not be published in any newspaper. Remember me kindly to Mrs. Hall, STATE OF NEW YORK, County of Kings, ss: I, James W. Wall, do solemnly swear that I will support, protect and defend the Constitution and Government of the United States against all enemies whether domestic or foreign, and that I will bear true faith, allegiance and loyalty to the same any ordinance, resolution or law of any State convention or legislature to the contrary notwithstanding; and further that I do this with a full determination, pledge and purpose without any mental reservation or evasion whatsoever. So help me God. JAMES W. WALL. Sworn to and subscribed before me this 24th day of September, 1861. CHARLES W. CHURCH, Justice of the Peace. BURLINGTON, October 5, 1861. Hon. SECRETARY OF WAR. SIR: I was arrested by virtue of a warrant or rather an order issued from your Department and signed by yourself. I have not yet been able to learn the cause of my arrest. Will you be kind enough to state what the charges were if any and by whom preferred? Yours, respectfully, JAMES W. WALL. Hon. SIMON CAMERON. BURLINGTON, October 21, 1861. SIR: How long will I be required to demand of your Department the charges preferred against me and by reason of which I was seized and taken to Fort Lafayette? I have a reputation as dear to me as your own and I can never rest under the imputation of being a disloyal citizen. The record if there be any in your Department has got to be wiped out or it shall be in the blood of those who maliciously placed it there. I will follow those scoundrels to the death when I have got upon their tracks. I take it the Government must have been satisfied of the emptiness of the charges or else I should not have been released. Why therefore hesitate to give them to me and the names of the authors? Yours, respectfully, JAMES W. WALL. Hon. SECRETARY OF STATE. BURLINGTON, October 30, 1861. MY DEAR SIR: I have been informed that the charges by reason of which the Government conceived they owed it to the country to lock me up for two weeks in a Government fortress are on file in your office. If so will you please inform me of their nature and character? I have reason to believe that they originated with two or three unprincipled perjured villains in this vicinity who had no other object to gratify than their own devilish malice. Yours, &c., JAMES W. WALL, BURLINGTON, October 30, 1861. Hon. SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War. SIR: Will you permit me to call your attention once again to my oftrepeated requests to be informed of the character and nature of the charges against me in your office, and by virtue of which the Department over which you preside felt itself bound to incarcerate me in a Government fortress for two weeks? Respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES W. WALL. [No date.] The inclosed is an exact copy of a letter (intercepted) from James W. Wall to the Hon. William B. Reed, of Phi'adelphia. [Hon. WILLIAM B. REED.] [Inclosure.] L. C. BAKER. BURLINGTON, Wednesday. MY DEAR SIR: I have understood from a reliable source that it is the intention of a number of prominent Democrats to start a Democratic journal shortly in Philadelphia. If so I should like very much to be attached to the editorial corps. If you can aid me in this matter you will confer a favor. During the last three months of the existence of The Daily News, of New York, I was the principal contributor to its editorial columns. I think the dawn of the coming day is discernible, and the cry of "Watchman, what of the night," will soon cease. Permit me to congratulate you on the result in Pennsylvania. We shall show you the virtue of a good example in New Jersey in November. Yours, very truly, JAMES W. WALL. BURLINGTON, November 27, 1861. Hon. SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War. SIR: By your order I was torn ruthlessly from my family and confined in Fort Lafayette for two weeks, being subjected to the grossest indignities by the insolent foreign soldiery who are kept there to tyrannize over free-born Americans. I desire once more to know the nature of the charges against me and by virtue of which you presumed to issue such an order. Respectfully, JAMES W. WALL. Case of Howard and Glenn, of the Baltimore Exchange Newspaper. F. Key Howard,* editor of The Exchange newspaper at Baltimore, was arrested at that city on or about the 12th day of September, 1861, by order of the Secretary of War. Howard was publicly known * Howard 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 Exchange and other Baltimore newspapers.-COMPILER. to be in deep sympathy with the rebels and his paper zealously advocated their cause. He was one of a family which had furnished several soldiers to the rebel cause. His arrest was a measure of military precaution to remove the incitement of his presence from the disorderly material which there was reason to apprehend might at any time burst into a flame of discord and insurrection. There was found in Howard's possession a large quantity of manuscripts-articles for his paper, correspondence, lists of names pledged to favor the recognition of the independence of the Confederate States* and drafts of proceedings for the legislature-mostly of decided secession character. Said Howard after his arrest was confined successively in Forts McHenry, Monroe, Lafayette and Warren, in which last he remained in custody February 15, 1862. W. W. Glenn was arrested in Baltimore September 14, 1861, by order of Major-General Dix and committed to Fort McHenry. He was one of the editors and proprietors of The Baltimore Exchange, a paper bitterly opposed to the suppression of the rebellion by the United States Government. By an order from the Secretary of State dated September 30, 1861, General Dix was ordered to release Glenn on his taking the oath of allegiance. Glenn declined to take the oath but was willing to give his parole of honor not in any way to oppose the Government or assist its enemies. There are no papers in the Department of State showing when or on what terms Glenn was released.—From Record Book, State Department, "Arrests for Disloyalty.” Hon. W. H. SEWARD: FORT MCHENRY, September 14, 1861. I have arrested W. Wilkins Glenn, proprietor of Exchange, and have him in custody at Fort McHenry. J. A. DIX. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Maj. Gen. JOHN A. DIX, U. S. Army, Baltimore, Md.: I am directed by Major-General McClellan to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant and to say in reply that he highly approves of your action in arresting Glenn. He is also glad to learn that you have not ordered the discontinuance of the paper if there is any chance of its changing hands. He desires me further to say that he wishes you to make any arrest that you may consider necessary even if you have not direct authority from the Government. The general has entire confidence in your judgment and discretion and desires that you pursue such a course as you deem advisable for the public good. am, very respectfully, &c., A. V. COLBURN, *See Vol. I, this series, p. 676, for declaration with signatures. No letter found, but see preceding telegram of Dix to Seward announcing the arrest. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. SIR: On the 19th instant you referred* to me the case of W. Wilkins Glenn, proprietor of the late Exchange newspaper in this city, with the letters of Hon. M. Blair, Hon. Reverdy Johnson and H. W. Davis in favor of his release. Mr. Glenn's connection with the paper was purely financial. But after the arrest of Messrs. Wallis and Howard, the principal writers for its editorial columns, two very bad articles appeared-one misrepresenting the arrests made by the Government and the other setting it at defiance-and I directed Mr. Glenn to be taken into custody as the only responsible person who could be reached. The Exchange has been discontinued and Mr. Glenn who is at Fort McHenry is sincere in his desire that it should not be revived as long as Messrs. Wallis and Howard are under arrest. A newspaper has taken its place without editorials but Mr. Glenn has no responsibility in regard to it. He has given repeated evidences of his earnest wish not to embarrass the Government in any way, and if released will I have no doubt occupy himself exclusively with the business of the large estate which is in his charge. Under all the circumstances I answer the query in your note indorsed on the papers referred to me: That it is expedient to release him on condition of his taking the oath of allegiance excluding all reservations and conditions. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHŃ A. DIX, Major-General, Commanding. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 30, 1861. Maj. Gen. JOHN A. DIX, Baltimore, Md. SIR: You will please discharge W. Wilkins Glenn on taking the oath of allegiance to the Government of the United States. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. SIR: Mr. Glenn declines taking any oath but is willing to give his parole of honor not to do any act against the authority of the Government, the supremacy of the Constitution or the execution of the laws of the United States; and he is willing to pledge himself further not to connect himself with any anti-Administration press until he is in a position to publish his opinions freely and unreservedly. The inclosed letter explains his views fully and I inclose it for your consideration not perceiving that it needs any suggestion from me. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, *Not found. JOHN A. DIX, Major-General, Commanding. |