Doc.
28.--the cutter McClelland.
The following statement in relation to the surrender of the revenue cutter
Robert McClelland, is derived from an official source:
On the 19th of January, four days after
Secretary Dix took charge of the Treasury Department, he sent
Mr. Wm. Hemphill Jones,
Chief Clerk in the First Comptroller's Office, to New Orleans and
Mobile, to save, if possible, the two cutters on service there.
Captain Morrison, a Georgian, in command of the
Lewis Cass at
Mobile, must have surrendered her before
Mr. Jones' arrival.
On the 29th of January, the
Secretary received, in relation to the other, the following telegraphic dispatch from
Mr. Jones:
Hon. J. A. Dix,
Secretary of Treasury:
Capt. Breshwood has refused positively in writing, to obey any instructions of the Department.
In this I am sure he is sustained by the
Collector, and believe acts by his advice.
What must I do?
To this dispatch
Secretary Dix immediately returned the following answer, before published:
Treasury Department, Jan. 29, 1861.
W. Hemphill Jones, New Orleans: Tell
Lieut. Caldwell to arrest
Capt. Breshwood, assume command of the cutter, and obey the order through you. If
Capt. Breshwood, after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command of the cutter, tell
Lieut. Caldwell, to consider him as a mutineer, and treat him accordingly.
If any one attempts to haul down the
American flag, shoot him on the spot.
This dispatch must have been intercepted both at
Montgomery and New Orleans, and withheld from
Mr. Jones, and the treason of
Captain Breshwood was consummated by means of a complicity on the part of the telegraph line within the States of
Alabama and
Louisiana.
(See
Doc. 31.)--
N. Y. Times, February 8.
