Latest News by Express.
The telegraphic dispatches coming through Northern telegraphic agencies are subject to rigid surveillance, and the reader must exercise his own judgment in regard to their reliability.
The following extracts show how the system is carried on :
‘
On Monday
Marshal Milward, by order of the United States Government, proceeded to all the various telegraph offices in
Philadelphia having lines of wires running to the
South, and took possession of all the telegraphic dispatches that had been left for transmission southward.
At the same hour a similar movement took place in every Northern city and town where an office had been established.
Whether or not any exception to this rigid surveillance will be made in the case of dispatches to the
Federal capital, is not yet definitely known.
’
In New York the accumulated dispatches of the last two months were seized.
The Tribune pronounces it "a bold stroke by the
Government," and adds :
‘
The object was to obtain evidence of the operations of the Southerners with their Northern accomplices, which the confidential telegrams passing between them could most certainly furnish.
The seizures in all the principal cities were made at precisely the same time, so as to prevent the destruction of evidence which might have followed the receipt of a warning from any particular point.
The whole matter was managed with the greatest secrecy, and so well planned that the project was a complete success.
By this bold manŒuvre, the
Government has obtained possession of a mass of evidence of the greatest importance.
The secret operations of Northern traitors are laid bare, and those who have aided and abetted the rebellion are now completely at the mercy of the officers of the law.
In this city alone the dispatches in the hands of the
Federal offices amount to many thousands, and include, of course, information in regard to the purchase of arms, ammunition and equipments, purchase and outfit of vessels, diplomatic and financial arrangements, the negotiation of Southern loans, the purchase and treachery of army and navy officers, the secret plans for dividing the people of the
North, the progressive operations of Government toward suppressing the rebellion, and every other imaginable species of testimony which the parties would wish kept secret.
To overhaul such a mountain of papers as this, will require some time and much trouble, but the work, in the hands of an efficient marshal or superintendent of police, will be promptly, fearlessly and thoroughly prosecuted.
’
The following dispatches appear in the
Baltimore papers of yesterday :
‘
proclamation of the
Governor of
Kentucky.
Frankfort,May 21.--
Gov. Magoffin has issued a proclamation, appended to which is a preamble, declaring that whereas many good citizens have requested him to forbid the march of any forces through
Kentucky to attack
Cairo, or otherwise disturb the peaceful attitude of
Kentucky, with reference to the deplorable war now waged between the
United and
Confederate States, and also stating that the same citizens had requested him to forbid the marching of any United States forces over
Kentucky soil, for the occupation of any post or place within
Kentucky; and whereas every indication of public sentiment shows a determined purpose of the people to maintain the fixed position of self-defence, proposing and intending no invasion or aggression toward any other State or States, forbidding the quartering of troops upon her soil by either hostile section, but simply standing aloof from an unnatural, horrid and lamentable strife for the existence whereof
Kentucky, neither by thought, word or action, is in any wise responsible; and whereas this policy is, in my judgment, wise, peaceful, safe and honorable, and most likely to preserve peace and amity between neighboring border States on both sides of the
Ohio, and protect
Kentucky from deplorable civil war; and whereas the arms distributed to the State Guard are not to be used against the
Federal or
Confederate States, but to resist and prevent encroachments on her soil, rights, honor and sovereignty, by either of the belligerent parties; and hoping that
Kentucky may become a successful mediator between them, and in order to remove unfounded suspicions of purposes to force
Kentucky out of the
Union at the point of the bayonet, which may have been strongly and wickedly engendered in the public mind in regard to my own position and that of the State Guard :
Now, therefore, I hereby notify and warn all other States, separate or united, and especially the
United and
Confederate States, that I solemnly forbid any movement upon
Kentucky soil, or the occupation of any post or place therein, for any purpose whatever, until authorized by the invitation or permission of the Legislature and executive authorities of the
State.
I especially forbid all citizens of
Kentucky, whether incorporated in the State Guard or otherwise, from making any hostile demonstration; to be obedient to the orders of the lawful authorities; to remain quietly at home when off military duty; to refrain from all words and acts likely to provoke a collision, and so otherwise conduct themselves that the deplorable calamity of invasion may be a voided; but in the meanwhile to make prompt and efficient preparations to assume the paramount and supreme law of self-defence, and strictly of self-defence alone.
’
