Wrote Commodore
Wilkes that his denial was not sufficiently explicit; that innocent parties
were implicated in the publication of his letter, which was, he well knew, a
breach of regulations as well as of faith, and the imputation resting upon them
must be removed; that either the Department or he must have authorized or at
least permitted the publication; that the Department or any connected with it
would have no object in a surreptitious publication; that I was confident no
one of the two or three clerks who were cognizant of the letter had been
guilty, though his denial threw the act on them. If Wilkes, or some of his
household avowed the act, it will relieve them. If shrewd he will do it or have
it done, for he is in a dilemma; but no prompting of truth, or candor, or sense
of right to the clerks or others will influence him.
I received a large
budget of Rebel letters captured on board the Ceres. Faxon examined and
arranged them for publication. An exposure of some which I have read will have
a good effect.
Returning from an
early evening walk, I learned Stanton had called for me, and I went at once to
the War Department. Seward and Chase were with him. Stanton read to me a letter
which had been written in cipher, but which after two days' labor the experts
had unlocked with the exception of a few words. Mention was made of “carrying
out the programme” and the intention to seize two steamers. Certain allusions
to Briggs, Cavnach, with a conviction on the part of Stanton that the letter
was from Trowbridge,1 and also other points and names struck me as
not entirely unfamiliar. The trio had become puzzled, and Stanton called on me
to assist, or hear my suggestions. They had come to the conclusion and were
confident the “programme” was to seize one or more of the California steamers,
and asked about gunboats. I did not entirely concur in their conclusions and
told them the letters captured on the Ceres would furnish some light in regard
to the persons alluded to, especially Trowbridge, Briggs, and C.; that I had
not read the letters, but parts of several had been read to me and their
publication would have a good effect; that they were with the Chief Clerk of
the Navy Department, who was to copy and publish portions of them. If, however,
Trowbridge was to be arrested, it might be best to suspend publication for the
present.
There was a general
wish to see the correspondence, and we agreed to meet at 8 P.M. for that
purpose. In the mean time I was to send to Faxon to be on hand with the
letters. When we met at eight, Faxon proceeded to read them. Those from
Trowbridge to young Lamar2 made some singular disclosures, and one
of them made mention of a nephew of William H. Seward as being concerned in a
cargo for running the blockade. This disturbed Seward more than I should have
supposed, — for it was not asserted as a fact, — and if, as he remarked, there
were among twenty or thirty nephews one traitor it would not be strange. It was
thought best to stop the publication. I proposed that a portion — all, indeed,
but the letters of Trowbridge and one of Frank Smith of Memphis — should be
made public, confident the effect would be good. But I was overruled by the
others, and Faxon was sent off to stop the publication. He was too late,
however, for a portion of them had already been printed.
Telegrams were sent
to Marshal Murray at New York to arrest Trowbridge forthwith, and hold him in
close custody, and to Admiral Paulding to place a gunboat in the Narrows and at
Throg's Neck to stop all outward-bound steamers that have not a pass.
_______________
1 N. C. Trowbridge, of New York.
2 Col. C. A. L. Lamar, who had been a
Confederate Agent in England.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 491-3
