Court of Claims at St. Louis, who, considering, as he said, that that platform rendered his retention of office under Mr. Lincoln's Administration wholly useless to the country, as well as inconsistent with his principles, tendered his resignation, through the clerk of the Court of Claims, Mr. Welling.

The President's reply, communicated through his pri vate secretary, was as follows:

J. O. WELLING, Esq.:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 25, 1864.

According to the request contained in your note, I have placed Mr. Gibson's letter of resignation in the hands of the President. He has read the letter, and says he accepts the resignation, as he will be glad to do with any other, which may be tendered, as this is, for the purpose of taking an attitude of hostility against him.

He says he was not aware that he was so much indebted to Mr. Gibson for having accepted the office at first, not remembering that he ever pressed him to do so, or that he gave it otherwise than as usual, upon a request made on behalf of Mr. Gibson.

He thanks Mr. Gibson for his acknowledgment that he has been treated with personal kindness and consideration, and he says he knows of but two small drawbacks upon Mr. Gibson's right to still receive such treatment, one of which is that he could never learn of his giving much attention to the duties of his office, and the other is this studied attempt of Mr. Gibson's to stab him.

I am, very truly,

Your obedient servant,

JOHN HAY.

The elements of opposition to Mr. Lincoln's election in the ranks of his own party were checked, though not wholly destroyed, by the unanimity of his nomination. Conferences were still held among prominent men, especially in the city of New York, for the purpose of organizing this hostility and making it effective, and a call was put in circulation for a convention to be held at Cincinnati, to put in nomination another candidate. The movement, however, was so utterly destitute of popular symnathy that it was soon abandoned. A very sharp and acrimonious warfare was still waged upon Mr. Lincoln and his Administration, not only by the leading presses of the opposition, but by prominent men and influential

journals ostensibly in the ranks of his supporters. Every act of the government was canvassed with eager and unfriendly scrutiny, and made, wherever it was possible, the ground of hostile assault.

Among the matters thus seized upon was the surrender to the Spanish authorities of a Cuban named Arguelles, which was referred to by the Fremont Convention as a denial of the right of asylum. This man, Don Jose Augustine Arguelles, was a colonel in the Spanish army, and Lieutenant-Governor of the District of Colon, in Cuba. As such, in November, 1863, he effected the capture of a large number of slaves that were landed within his district, and received from the Government of Cuba praise for his efficiency, and the sum of fifteen thousand dollars for his share of prize-money on the capture. Shortly afterwards, he obtained leave of absence for twenty days, for the purpose of going to New York and there making the purchase of the Spanish newspaper called La Cronica. He came to New York, and there remained. In March following, the Cuban Government made application to our authorities, through the Consul-General's office at Havana, stating that it had been discovered that Arguelles, with others, had been guilty of the crime of selling one hundred and forty-one of the cargo of negroes thus captured, into slavery, and by means of forged papers representing to the Government that they had died after being landed; stating also that his return to Cuba was necessary to procure the liberation of his hapless victims, and desiring to know whether the Government of the United States would cause him to be returned to Cuba. Documents authenticating the facts of the case were forwarded to our authorities. There being no extradition treaty between our country and Spain, the Cuban Government could take no proceedings before the courts in the matter, and the only question was whether our Government would take the responsibility of arresting Arguelles and sending him back or not. The Government determined to assume the responsibility, and sent word to the Cuban

authorities that if they would send a suitable officer to New York, measures would be taken to place Arguelles in his charge. The officer was sent, and Arguelles having been arrested by the United States Marshal at New York, was, before any steps could be taken to appeal to any of the courts on his behalf, put on board a steamer bound for Havana. This proceeding caused great indignation until the facts were understood. Arguelles having money, had found zealous friends in New York, and a strong effort was made in his favor. It was stated on his behalf that, instead of being guilty of selling these negroes into slavery, it was the desire of the Cuban authorities to get possession of him and silence him, lest he should publish facts within his knowledge which implicated the authorities themselves in that nefarious traffic. And the fact that he was taken as he was, by direct order of the Government, not by any legal or judicial proceedings, and without having the opportunity to test before the courts the right of the Government thus to send back any one, however criminal, was alleged to spring from the same disregard of liberty and law in which the arbitrary arrests which had been made of rebel sympathizers were said to have had their source. Proceedings were even taken against the United States Marshal under a statute of the State of New York against kidnapping, and everywhere the enemies of the Administration found in the Afguelles case material for assailing it as having trampled upon the right of asylum, exceeded its own legal powers, insulted the laws and courts of the land, and endangered the liberties of the citizen; while the fact of its having aided in the punishment of an atrocious crime, a crime intimately connected with the slave-trade, so abhorrent to the sympathies of the people, was kept out of sight.

Another incident used to feed the public distrust of the Administration, was the temporary suppression of two Democratic newspapers in the city of New York. On Wednesday, May 18th, these two papers, the World and the Journal of Commerce, published what purported

to be a proclamation of President Lincoln. At this time, as will be recollected, General Grant was still struggling with Lee before Spottsylvania, with terrible slaughter and doubtful prospects, while Sigel had been driven back by Imboden, and Butler was held in check by Beauregard. This proclamation announced to the country that General Grant's campaign was virtually closed; and, "in view of the situation in Virginia, the disaster at Red River, the delay at Charleston, and the general state of the country," it appointed the 26th of May as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, and ordered a fresh draft of four hundred thousand men. The morning of its publication was the day of the departure of the mails for Europe. Before its character was discovered, this forged proclamation, telegraphed all over the country, had raised the price of gold five or six per cent., and carried discouragement and dismay to the popular heart. The suppression of the papers by which it had been published, the emphatic denial of its authenticity, and the prompt adoption of measures to detect its author, speedily reassured the public mind. After being satisfied that the publication of the document was inadvertent, the journals seized were permitted to resume publication, the authors of the forgery were sent to Fort Lafayette, and public affairs resumed their ordinary

course.

But the action of the Government gave fresh stimulus to the partisan warfare upon it. As in the Arguelles case and the arbitrary arrests it had been charged with trampling upon the liberties of the citizen, so now it was charged with attacking the liberty of the press. Governor Seymour directed the District Attorney of New York to take measures for the prosecution and punishment of all who had been connected with shutting up the newspaper offices. The matter was brought before a grand-jury, which reported that it was "inexpedient to examine into the subject."

Determined not to be thus thwarted, Governor Seymour, alleging that the grand-jury had disregarded their

oaths, directed the District Attorney to bring the subject before some magistrate. Warrants were accordingly issued by City Judge Russell for the arrest of General Dix and the officers who had acted in the matter. The parties voluntarily appeared before the judge, and an argument of the legal questions involved was had. The judge determined to hold General Dix and the rest for the action of the grand-jury. One grand-jury, however, had already refused to meddle with the matter, and, greatly to the disappointment of those who had aimed to place the State of New York in a position of open hostility to the Government of the United States, no further proceedings were ever taken in the matter.

An effort was made to bring the subject up in Congress. Among other propositions, Mr. Brooks, of New York, proposed to add, as an amendment to a bill for the incorporation of a Newsboys' Home in the District of Columbia, a provision that no newspaper should be suppressed in Washington, or its editor incarcerated, without due process of law. He succeeded in making a speech abounding in denunciations of the Government, but had no other success.

To those men at the North who really sympathized with the South on the slavery question, the whole policy of the Administration upon that subject was distasteful. The Emancipation Proclamation, the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, and even the employment of negroes in the army, were with them grave causes of complaint against it. The President's views on this matter were expressed in the following conversational remarks, to some prominent Western gentlemen :

The slightest knowledge of arithmetic (said he) will prove to any man that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic strategy. It would sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. There are now in the service of the United States nearly two hundred thousand able-bodied colored men, most of them under arms, defending and acquiring Union territory. The Democratic strategy demands that theso forces be disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by restoring thein to slavery. The black men who now assist Union prisoners to escape