plying with the wishes of a portion of our people as expressed in the act of the Legislature of Georgia for the establishment of peace on what it is to be hoped will prove a satisfactory and permanent basis.

Shall this war be stopped or shall it continue? Upon your answer depends the issue.

This was doubtless intended by the editor as a bit of that Irish humor for which he is noted. It excited no attention. In a parrallel column giving an account of military affairs at the time when Grant was battling at Spottsylvania Court-house, occur these words:

WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

We cannot resist the conviction that the Army of the Potomac has met with disaster. The extravagant heading in large type with which the daily papers abound of “VICTORY!” “GLORIOUS SUCCESS!” “TOTAL DEFEAT OF LEE!" do not weigh with us. We have carefully sifted the immense mass of tangled and contradictory dispatches which have thus far come to hand, and we deliberately arrive at the conclusion, that until a totally different account shall have been placed before the public, General Grant has been defeated.

It will be seen that these two extracts contain the germs of that, which Joseph Howard a few days afterwards elaborated into a bogus proclamation of Mr. Lincoln.

The paper containing them was handed to Howard, who upon looking them over asked what might be the effect if Mr. Lincoln in a message to the people acknowledged Grant's defeats, and appointed a day of public fasting and prayer. He was assured that it would cause a universal feeling of depression at the North, and of course would effect the stock and gold markets.

The three days afterwards, the following document

appeared in the New York World and Journal of Com

merce:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 17, 1864.

Fellow-Citizens of the United States:

In all seasons of exigency, it becomes a nation carefully to scrutinize its line of conduct, humbly to approach the Throne of Grace, and meekly to implore forgiveness, wisdom, and guidance.

For reasons known only to Him it has been decreed that this country should be the scene of unparalleled outrage, and this nation the monumental sufferer of the nineteenth century. With a heavy heart, but an undimnished confidence in our cause, I approach the performance of a duty rendered imperative by my sense of weakness before the Almighty and of justice to the people.

It is not necessary that I should tell you that the first Virginia campaign under Lt. Gen. Grant, in whom I have every confidence, and whose courage and fidelity the people do well to honor, is virtually closed. He has conducted his great enterprise with discreet ability. He has inflicted great loss upon the enemy. He has crippled their strength, and defeated their plans.

In view, however, of the situation in Virginia, the disaster at Red River, the delay at Charleston, and the general state of the country, I, Abraham Lincoln, do hereby recommend that Thursday, the 26th day of May, A. D., 1864, be solemly set apart throughout these United States, as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer.

Deeming, furthermore, that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, and in view of the pending expiration of the service of (100,000) one hundred thousand of our troops, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the citizens of the United States between the ages of (18) eighteen and (45) forty-five years, to the aggregate number of (400,000) four hundred thousand, in order to suppress the existing rebellious combinations, and to cause the due execution of the laws.

And furthermore, in case any State or number of States shall fail to furnish by the fifteenth day of June next, their

assigned quota, it is hereby ordered that the same be. raised by an immediate and peremptory draft. The details for this object will be communicated to the State authorities through the War Department.

I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to mantain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the Independence of the United States, the eighty-eight. (Signed,) ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

This production was at ouce stigmatized as a forgery, but not before it had caused a serious decline in gold and stocks, by which, it is presumed, Howard made large profits.

The Secretary of State, upon being informed of its appearance in the World and Journal of Commerce, addressed the following despatch to the Associated Press :

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
WASHINGTON, May 18th, 1864.

TO THE PUBLIC.

}

A paper purporting to be a proclamation of the President, countersigned by the Secretary of State, and bearing date the 17th day of May, is reported to this Department as having appeared in the New York World of this date. This paper is an absolute forgery. No proclamation of this kind, or any other, has been made, or proposed to be made, by the President, or issued, or proposed to be issued by the State Department, or any other Department of this Government.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. The New York papers offered a thousand dollars re

ward for the discovery of the offending party or parties, and U. S. Marshal Murray was authorized to offer five hundred dollars additional for the messenger who deliv. ered the copies of the bogus proclamation at the offices of the daily papers. But the matter did not rest here.

The papers which had published it were suppressed, and vigorous efforts made to discover its author. These efforts resulted in the apprehension of Joseph Howard, one of the editors of the Brooklyn Eagle, a well known literateur in New York. Howard immediately confessed his guilt, and was sent to Fort Lafayette, and the World and Journal of Commerce having satisfactorily shown they had published it innocently, were released. A few months afterwards Howard was also set at liberty.

Thus ended the history of this famous forgery.

We have now traced Mr. Lincoln's life through a great variety of vicissitudes, and brought it down to the present eventful times.

He is now before the American people for re-election, His record is familiar to them. It contains many errors. many mistakes, many shortcomings, but not one blot.

I. he has erred, it has been from those infirmities which are common to all men. But, strike a fair balance, and there remains to Mr. Lincoln's credit an unfaltering patriotism, clear good sense, unblemished honesty, untiring devotion, and unmistakable earnestness of purpose.

With these merits, which have shed lustre upon his administration during four years of such trial that few public men creditably survive, he stands before the nation which he has preserved through many perils, for its endorsement and its suffrages.