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rifles, at $19 each, and could get a few more.
They said:
There will be no trouble about getting the articles shipped from here so long as matters stand as they are. We will attend to and take the responsibility. Some of the Black Republican papers admit the illegality of the seizure of arms by Superintendent of Police Kennedy on board the southern steamers and call on the Legislature to legalize it for his protection.W. B. Hartley, of New York, offered to furnish 600 calibre 44 carbines, 5-shot, 18-inch barrel, at $32.50, 600 navy pistols at $18, 250 army repeating rifles, 31-inch barrel, 5-shot, at $46, also cartridges, sabres, belts, etc. Eli Whitney, of the Whitneyville Armory, near New Haven, Conneticut, offered to furnish revolvers, and sent the Governor a sample rifled musket, saying he had sold 200 to Virginia the previous week. He said: ‘I can furnish arms up to the time the State secedes. After that I could not send arms with safety to such State. I can furnish 500 Mississippi rifles, model 1824, now; I can furnish you 400 browned muskets.’ Lee endorsed: ‘Mr. Whitney is perfectly reliable, but you see he can do nothing after the State secedes.’ Emerson Saylord, of Chicopee, Mass., offered to furnish cartridge-boxes, etc. Lee endorsed: ‘He is not willing to deliver at Norfolk, and is rather dubious in making any contract at all in the face of the decision of the district judge of New York, and the refusal of the Republican members of Congress to accede to the Crittenden compromise. In Troy, N. Y., and vicinity, I find the same difficulty, and am of the opinion that our contracts, or most of them, will have to be filled South.’ The Ames Manufacturing Company, of Chicopee, declined to make any contract, but gave list of prices. Lee said: ‘Mr. Ames says he does not desire to be understood as not wishing to do your work, but that he feels that it would be next to impossible to get them away from here, and under the present state of affairs, he would not like to be thought to be seeking such a contract, still, should circumstances change, he would like to do the work.’ J. R. Anderson, of Richmond, came to Raleigh to see the Governor, and February 2d signed a contract to deliver at United States Government prices four 6-pounder brass guns, four 12-pounder, and four 24-pounder iron howitzers, with carriages and—; also, two 10-inch and two 8-inch Columbiads, with carriages; also, to furnish harness and shot and shell, including 4,000 12-pounder shells. Lieutenant Lee sent to the Governor plans for two powder magazines,