if it were not done, I should take care to offer no other opportunity for such practises. The fact is that the agents of the associated press, and a gang around the Federal capital, appear to be organized for the purpose of magnifying their idol. If such men as those who compose the railroad convention in this city do not rebuke such a practise as was perpetrated in this instance, they cannot be conferred with in the future.

You will of course see the propriety of my not noticing the matter, and thereby giving it importance beyond the contempt it inspires. I think you are well enough acquainted with me to judge in the future of the value of any such statement.

I notice that the Herald telegraphic reporter announces that I had a second attack of illness on Friday and could not attend the Department. I was in the Department, or in cabinet, from 9 A. M. until 9 at night, and never enjoyed more perfect health than on that day and at present.

Was it not funny to see a certain military hero [General McClellan] in the telegraph office at Washington last Sunday organizing victory, and by sublime military combinations capturing Fort Donelson six hours after Grant and Smith had taken it, sword in hand, and had victorious possession? It would make a picture worthy of Punch.

Stanton set apart two rooms in the War Department building for the exclusive use of the General-in-Chief, in order to have the two great machines for putting forth the war-power working harmoniously hand in hand. At McClellan's other headquarters, on the corner of Jackson Square, conspicuous opponents of the administration and the war, like George H. Pendleton and Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, Henry M. Rice of Minnesota, and Milton S. Latham of California, together with many private citizens of like sympathies, were constant visitors. To them, changing the headquarters from a private dwelling to public apartments adjoining Stanton's office, proved to be very unsatisfactory, as it did also to McClellan, who says he "entered the rooms but few times."

After almost a year of silence Stanton, on March 1, 1862, wrote again to Buchanan:

I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 25th, which reached me this morning.

Several letters written by me about the time mentioned in yours failed to reach their destination from some unknown cause. Into whatever hands they may have fallen they cannot prejudice any one, inasmuch as they related to facts that are public and historic. I will give directions to furnish you with the copies you desire without delay. But yours reminds me of a matter to which Judge Black called my attention soon after the date of my letter to you on the 10th of March. On his return from a visit to Wheatland, he surprised me by stating that my letter to you mentioned that he and myself approved the order, issued to the commander of the Brooklyn, sus

pending the debarkation of troops at Pickens, whereas it was well known to yourself and every member of the cabinet then present, that both Judge Black and myself had earnestly opposed that order, and argued strongly against it. And in my correspondence with you it is stated that on conference with General Dix and Judge Black we coincided in our remembrance of the fact. He accounted for the statement in the letter by the supposition that, in the haste of writing, the word "not" was accidentally omitted. From one of your letters to me it appears that after having the subject called to your attention, your remembrance did not differ from ours as to the fact. I mention this, not as anything material to you or myself, but only as due to the truth.

The failure of my former letters to reach you last spring induced me to suspend any correspondence for a considerable period upon political subjects, and hence I omitted to write you concerning the events then and subsequently transpiring.

My accession to my present position was quite as sudden and unexpected as the confidence you bestowed upon me in calling me to your cabinet, and the responsible trust was accepted in both instances from the same motives, and will be executed with the same fidelity to the constitution and laws.

Your friend, Mr. Flinn, a short time ago, showed me a note to him from you, wherein you were kind enough to express a favorable opinion of me that gratified me exceedingly, and it has been in my mind to make acknowledgment, but it has been prevented until now by the intense pressure of my official engagements.

You may have noticed a resolution offered a short time ago by Mr. Train in the House.* That resolution has not yet been answered by me, but on inquiry I find it had only in view obtaining a letter written by a subordinate officer in one of the Departments, involving no one else but himself.

I thank you sincerely for the suggestion you make in regard to writing letters. I have written but one, and that was prompted by a sense of justice to others and to disclaim merit in which I had no share. The suggestion will be carefully heeded.

*"RESOLVED: That the Secretary of War be directed to report to this House any correspondence which may be found on the files of his Department tending to show preparation by any State for an armed and treasonable rebellion against the Union."

†Published on Feb. 20, in the New York Tribune.-See p. 129.

CHAPTER XXIII.

"ARBITRARY ARRESTS”—GENERAL STONE.

The number of arrests made under his so-called "arbitrary" authority during the war, including deserters and bounty-jumpers, reached nearly two hundred and sixty thousand. Rank or station was no shield. When there was a report that General Judson Kilpatrick had seized livestock in Virginia and converted forage to his private use, Stanton jerked him into the Old Capitol prison at Washington before he could write an explanation. General Custer went over the same route at the same pace, on a similar charge. Subsequently both were released, but the lightning-like swiftness. of their incarceration exerted a salutary influence throughout the

army.

These so-called "arbitrary arrests" have always constituted a fruitful source of complaint against Stanton by those who felt his power or opposed the war. As a matter of fact there are no “arbitrary arrests" within military limitations. Offenses and crimes against the Government in time of war are well known and well defined, and their authors and those suspected of them may always be arrested summarily by an officer of the military establishment. When Stanton became secretary he found the arrest and custody of so-called "State prisoners" in the hands of the State Department, and a source of much confusion and dissatisfaction. On February 14, 1862, he issued an order releasing all political prisoners on parole not to render aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States, and declaring that "hereafter all extraordinary arrests will be made under the authority of the military authorities alone."

Nearly all civil courts resented military arrests outside of the insurrectionary districts, and many went further. They declared that the President had not delegated his powers to any other person, and that, therefore, all arrests made under the orders of generals or other military officers were illegal and void. To eliminate any cause for pretending to entertain this erroneous view, Stanton issued the following, on August 8, 1862: