A NATIONAL FAST-DAY.

15

the same time nerve them for further United States, which had broken out efforts in support of the Government. within the States of South Carolina, "In this momentous hour," was the language of the Proclamation of Governor Morgan of the State of New York, "when rebellious hands have kindled the flames of civil war in our land, avowedly for the purpose of overthrowing a Government peculiarly blessed of God, it is most fitting that we should publicly recognize our dependence upon the favor of Him whose authority is supreme, and whose jurisdiction is universal; who raiseth up and casteth down nations, but who maketh not inquisition for blood of them that put their trust in Him; that we supplicate Him not to remember against us our former iniquities, which have justly provoked Him to inflict these heavy judgments." The fast thus proclaimed was generally observed throughout the Northern States with unusual sobriety. There was comparatively little in the sermons delivered to agitate or inflame the public mind. The political necessity of the struggle had been too fully discussed to furnish much new material for the pulpit. The war was an admitted fact, undertaken and accepted as a matter of duty, and with prayer and penitence the religious public sadly bowed to the dispensation, supplicating deliverance for the nation.

Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and in pursuance of the provisions of the act entitled 'An act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions, and to repeal the act now in force for that purpose,' approved February 28, 1795, did call forth the militia to suppress said insurrection, and cause the laws of the Union to be duly executed and the insurgents have failed to disperse by the time directed by the President; and whereas, such insurrection has since broken out and yet exists within the States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas; and whereas, the insurgents in all the said States claim to act under authority thereof, and such claim is not disclaimed or repudiated by the person exercising the functions of government in each State or States, or in the part or parts thereof in which combinations exist, nor has such insurrection been suppressed by said States; now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, in pursuance of an act of Congress, July 13, 1861, do hereby declare that the inhabitants of the said States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida (except the inhabitants of that part of the State of Virginia lying west of the Alleghany Mountains, and of such other parts of that State, and the other States hereinbefore named, as may maintain a loyal adhesion to the Union and the Constitution, or may be from time to time occupied and controlled by the forces engaged in the dispersion of said insurgents), are

in a state of insurrection against the of rebel property were made in accord

United States, and that all commercial intercourse between the same and the inhabitants thereof, with the exceptions aforesaid, and the citizens of other States and other parts of the United States, is unlawful, and will remain unlawful until such insurrection shall cease or has been suppressed; that all goods and chattels, wares and merchandise, coming from any of said States, with the exceptions aforesaid, into other parts of the United States, without the special license and permission of the President, through the Secretary of the Treasury, or proceeding to any of said States, with the exceptions aforesaid, by land or water, together with the vessel or vehicle conveying the same, or conveying persons to or from said States with said exceptions, will be forfeited to the United States, and that from and after fifteen days from the issuing of this proclamation, all ships and vessels belonging in whole or in part to any citizen or inhabitant of any of said States with said exceptions, found at sea or in any port of the United States, will be forfeited to the United States, and I hereby enjoin upon all District-Attorneys, Marshals, and officers of the Revenue and of the Military and Naval forces of the United States, to be vigilant in the execution of said act, and in the enforcement of the penalties and forfeitures imposed or declared by it, leaving any party who may think himself aggrieved thereby to his application to the Secretary of the Treasury for the remission of any penalty or forfeiture, which the said Secretary is authorized by law to grant, if, in his judgment, the special circumstances of any case shall require such remission." At the expiration of the fifteen days, various important seizures

ance with this Proclamation. At New York twenty-five vessels, belonging in whole or in part to Southern owners, were summarily seized by the Surveyor of the port.

The beginning of September brought a rumor to the camp of the death of President Jefferson Davis, which was partly credited through the Northern States, and afforded to the newspapers an opportunity to discuss the characters of the leaders in the rebellion, with reference to the supposed choice of a successor. The report apparently had its origin in nothing more authentic than a rebel flag having been seen at half-mast over an encampment of the enemy; though it was somewhat encouraged by the wellknown ill-health of the Confederate President. Among other articles of the kind an editorial in a New York journal was devoted to a species of obituary, the writer considering that if not actually dead, his subject's official career was closed, the feeble state of his physical powers hardly justifying his reëlection as the head of the Confederacy. It is curious to read in this article, which by no means undervalued certain personal qualities of the President, his irreproachable private character, and gentlemanly bearing in debate, while it denounced his ambition at the expense of his country, that "Mr. Davis's death or retirement can hardly be regarded as more than an incident of our great struggle-not an event.”*

There were numerous disorderly acts during the month of August in the suppression, by mob violence, of newspapers charged with promulgating secessionist doctrines, aiding and abetting, by their articles, the cause of the South. The

* New York Tribune, September 4, 1861.

SUPPRESSION OF NEWSPAPERS.

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Democratic Standard, at Concord, N.H., in the publication of the speeches of Vallandigham and Breckinridge; while in editorials of much violence, he had advocated and defended the cause of the rebels." He was then required to cheer the flag, and afterwards taken, still riding on the rail, to the residence of one of his friends at Bradford, after which he was brought back to town, and placed in front of the Eagle House, where he was compelled to kneel down and repeat in substance this confession and affirmation : "I am sorry that I have published what I have, and I promise that I will never again write or publish articles against the North, and in favor of secession, so help me God." After this he was conducted to his home.*

the Democrat, published at Bangor, Maine; the East Pa. Sentinel; the Jeffersonian, published at Westchester, Pa.; the Stark County Democrat, at Canton, Ohio; the Christian Observer, Philadelphia, and several other religious newspapers at St. Louis and Louisville, were among the obnoxious sheets. The offices were usually mobbed, with more or less violence, and the type thrown into the street. In other cases, the suppression was made, as at St. Louis, of the War Bulletin and Missourian, by military authority, or by United States' officers. At Concord shots were fired from the office of the Standard, and two soldiers in the mob were wounded when the property of the paper was destroyed. On the 16th of August the Grand Jury The journal, it seems, had given offence of the United States Circuit Court, sitting by its reflections on a militia regiment at New York, presented several newspawhich had returned from the war. In pers, the Journal of Commerce, the one instance the editor in person was News, Day Book, and Freeman's Jourmade the sufferer. At Haverhill, Massa-nal of New York, and the Brooklyn chusetts, on the evening of the 19th Eagle, as "disloyal presses, in the freAugust, Ambrose L. Kimball, the editor quent practice of encouraging the rebels of an obnoxious "secessionist journal," now in arms against the Federal Govthe Essex County Democrat, was vio- ernment, by expressing sympathy and lently removed from his residence by a agreement with them, the duty of accrowd of town's people, who formed a ceding to their demands, and dissatisfaccircle round him in the street, and re- tion with the employment of force to quested him to express regret for what overcome them." The Journal of Comhe had published. Making no reply to merce was denounced "for having pubthis, he was compelled to lay aside every lished a list of newspapers in the Free article of his clothing but his drawers, States opposed to what it calls 'the preand still refusing to apologise, "he was sent unholy war.' The Grand Jury are completely covered with a coat of tar aware (continued this presentation) ' that and feathers, after which, being mounted free governments allow liberty of speech on a rail or pole, was conveyed to Mer- and of the press to their utmost limit, rimack Street, in front of the office but there is, nevertheless, a limit. If a of The Democrat, and directly under person in a fortress, or an army, were to the American flag, behind which, as preach to the soldiers submission to the with a masked battery,' he had bombarded the Government of his country,

*Correspondence of the Boston Traveller, Haverhill, August 20, 1861.

enemy, he would be treated as be treated as an ties taken by the correspondent of the offender. Would he be more culpable London Times a reply, as was obthan the citizen, who, in the midst of the served at the time, which might have most formidable conspiracy, and rebel- been extended to the denouncers of those lion, tells the conspirators and rebels home journals which were so unceremothat they are right, encourages them to niously treated by a portion of the pubpersevere in resistance, and condemns lic and the Government. The sharp, the efforts of loyal citizens to overcome and by no means friendly comments of and punish them as an unholy war ?" Mr. Russell, in his letters to The Times, A few days after, on the 22d, an order upon what he proclaimed the disorganfrom Washington to the New York Post-ized condition of the army after the batmaster forbade the forwarding through tle of Bull Run, had, it seems, the effect the mails of any of the newspapers "pre- of irritating "many patriotic and intelsented by the Grand Jury as danger-ligent citizens," who applied by memorial ous." The same day large parcels of the Daily News for the South and West were seized on their way at the express offices at Philadelphia. The result of these obstacles was that the papers were discontinued, or some change of editorship, or policy was brought about, which placed them more in accordance with popular opinion, or at least quieted their open hostility to the cause undertaken by the Government. Generally the necessities of the times, or the interpretation of that necessity by the authorities, allowed little free public discussion of the policy of the war. It was accepted as a fact from which there was no escape, and with comparatively slight exceptions, unlimited confidence was placed, spite of repeated disappointments in the duration of the war, in the ability and judgment of the Administration. The newspapers which fell under the discipline of the people, were few in number, and in most cases of comparatively little influence in the formation of public opinion.

to the Secretary of State, asking the attention of the Government particularly to what they considered treasonable matter in a certain letter of the correspondent of the 10th of August, in which he had commented freely on the proposed system of taxation, the desertion of the troops, and an alleged "schism" between the regulars and volunteers. These statements were pronounced by the memorialists untrue, and a design attributed to the writer of bringing the credit and fame of the Government into disrepute in foreign countries. To this Mr. Seward replied in a public letter or circular printed in the newspapers. "It has been the habit," said he, "of the Government of the United States to take no notice of representations, however obnoxious, made by the press of foreign nations, or even injurious utterance made by Ministers or other agents for foreign powers in the ordinary transaction of their own affairs. The Government, on the contrary, has hitherto recognized, as worthy of its observation, only the lanIn connexion with this subject we may guage and action of the Executive organs introduce the reply of Mr. Seward to the of foreign States. For myself, I confess remonstrance of certain thin-skinned cit- I have not read the publication comizens, who had complained of the liber-plained of, and I am quite sure that it

There were, during the summer of 1861, also numerous arrests of individuals, sometimes of persons of influence, who were supposed to be rendering treasonable service to the rebellion by

has not arrested the attention of any great fundamental truth of our system other member of the Administration, en- than that error of opinion may safely be grossed, as we all necessarily are, with tolerated when reason is left free to urgent public duties and cares. How- combat it." ever erroneous the facts or the inferences of the writer may be, they nevertheless stand on his own individual authority, while the whole patriotic press of our own country is free, and is interested to refute them. The Government of the correspondence with the Confederate United States depends not upon the favor or good will of foreign nations, but upon the just support of the American people. Its credit and its fame seem to me now, more than ever heretofore, safe in their keeping. If it be assumed that the obnoxious paper may do harm here, is it not a sufficient reply that probably not fifty copies of the London Times ever find their way to our shores? If it be said again, that the obnoxious communication has been widely published in the United States, it seems to me a sufficient rejoinder that the censure of a magnanimous Government in that case ought to fall on those of its own citizens who reproduce the libel, rather than on the foreigner who writes it exclusively for remote publication. Finally, interference with the press, even in the case of an existing insurrection, can be justified only on the ground of public danger. I do not see any such danger in the present case, even if one foreigner does pervert our hospitality to shelter himself in writing injurious publications against us for a foreign press. A hundred other foreigners as intelligent, as virtuous, and as respectable as he is, are daily enrolling themselves in the army of the United States, to defend and maintain the Union as the chief hope of humanity in all countries, and for all ages. Could there be a better illustration of that

Government, or exciting hostility to the war; of others acting as agents or bankers; emissaries on their way to Europe, down to a humbler class of adventurers, who crept stealthily through the North on some trading scheme to supply the necessities of the South. Suspected persons were watched by the police in different parts of the country, and the circumstances reported to Washington. When the case was thought of sufficient consequence, an order was forwarded from the Department of State to lodge the accused in Fort Lafayette in New York harbor, the general.receptacle or place of confinement for political offenders. As the grounds of these arrests were seldom made public, while the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus precluded any examination of the cases before judicial tribunals, and no official or other report has been, up to the time at which we write, made of the cases, it is of course impossible to pronounce any judgment on the necessity or wisdom of these measures. One hundred and seventyfive prisoners of State were committed to Fort Lafayette in three months, from July to October. Among them were not a few persons of political and social eminence, including Charles J. Faulkner, late Minister of the United States at Paris, James W. Wall of Burlington,