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Here are period pieces found in the Richmond Daily Dispatch.

George Martin

Richmond Daily Dispatch.
Monday morning...Feb. 25, 1861.

The National crisis.
the seizure of the revenue cutters

The seizure of the revenue cutters.
Secretary Dix has made a report to Congress about the late seizure of the U. S. revenue cutters at New Orleans. The following is an extract:

On the 18th of January, ult., three days after taking charge of this Department, I decided to dispatch a special agent to New Orleans and Mobile, to save, if possible, the revenue cutters on those stations. Mr. Wm. Hemphill Jones, chief Clerk in the First Comptroller's office, was selected for the purpose, and on the 19th he left this city with instructions to provision the vessels, and give the commanding officers verbal orders to take them to New York. This mode of conveying the directions to them was chosen because no confidence was felt that the mails, or the telegraph, could be relied on as a safe medium of communication. That the authority of Mr. Jones to communicate to these officers the directions intrusted him might not be questioned, he was furnished with the following, addressed to the commander of the cutter Lewis Cass, at Mobile, and the Robert McClelland, at New Orleans:

Treasury Department, Jan. 19, 1861. Sir:
This letter will be presented to you by Wm. Hemphill Jones, a special agent of this department. You are required to obey such directions as may be given you, either verbally or in writing, by Mr. Jones, with regard to the vessel under your command.

I am, very respectfully,
John A. Dix,

Secretary of the Treasury.

Captain J. G.Brushwood,
Commanding revenue cutter Robert McClelland, New Orleans, La.
It was deemed prudent to detach Captain Morrison, who was from the State of Georgia, from the Lewis Cass, then at Mobile, and he was accordingly ordered to Galveston, to take command of the Henry Dodge → , which was without a captain.

The precaution was too late. Before Mr. Jones reached Mobile, Captain Morrison, regardless of the obligation of his oath, had surrendered his vessel to the authorities of Alabama. His resignation was subsequently received, but it was not accepted, and the following order was issued, dismissing him from the revenue service:

[order.]
Treasury Department, Feb. 11, 1861.
J. J. Morrison, of Georgia, a Captain in the revenue cutter service of the United States, late in command of the Lewis Cass, having, in violation of his official oath and of his duty to the Government, surrendered his vessel to the State of Alabama, it is hereby directed that his name be stricken from the rolls of said service.

By order of the President of the United States.

John A. Dix,

Secretary of the Treasury.

The revenue cutter Robert McClelland, one of the largest and finest in the service, and recently refitted, was on duty in the Mississippi river below New Orleans; and it was this vessel which the Department was particularly desirous of saving, on account of here value. The failure of the attempt is fully detailed in Mr. Jones' report hereto annexed. It discloses an act of official infidelity on the part of the Collector at New Orleans, F. H. Hatch, which cannot fail to receive the condemnation of all right-thinking men. The service to be performed by the McClelland was between the ports seventy-two miles below the city of New Orleans and the mouth of the river. On the 15th January, eight days before the Convention of Louisiana met, and eleven days before the ordinance of secession was passed, Mr. Hatch, in a letter secured by Mr. Jones, and now on file in the Department, ordered Capt. Brush wood to bring his vessel up the river and anchor her opposite the city, for the purpose, afterwards avowed to Mr. Jones, of getting her into the possession of the State of Louisiana. Mr. Hatch, at the time he was engaged in this conspiracy against the United States, held a commission in its service, and did not hesitate to violate his official oath, and to prostitute the authority with which his Government had clothed him, to accomplish an act of the grossest infidelity. Capt. Brush wood, as events subsequently disclosed, was a party to the treachery. On his refusal to obey the order of the Department, Mr. Jones sent the following dispatch:

New Orleans, Jan. 29, 1861. To Hon. John A. Dix, Secretary of the Treasury:
Capt. Brushwood 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?

W. H. Jones, Special Agent.
It was supposed, when this dispatch was received, that the McClelland was at her station at the mouth of the river, and the following was telegraphed in reply. It was intercepted by the Governor of Alabama, and forwarded to the authorities of Louisiana--only reaching Mr. Jones through the papers:

Treasury Department, Jan. 29, 1861. Wm. Hemphill Jones, New Orleans:
Tell Lieut. Caldwell to arrest Capt. Brushwood, assume command of the cutter, and obey the order I gave through you. If Capt. Brushwood, 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.

John A. Dix,

Secretary of the Treasury.
The officers of the revenue service are placed by law under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, and are required to obey his instructions. The refusal on the part of Capt. Brushwood to act as directed, was regarded not as a mere act of disobedience, for which he would, under ordinary circumstances, have been promptly dismissed from the service, but it was also considered as a prelude to the grand act of infidelity he was believed to be meditating. The only chance of anticipating and preventing it, was through an order, bearing some relation in severity to the enormity of the offence he was about to commit. Had the dispatch not been intercepted by the Governor of Alabama, who did not deem it beneath his dignity to violate the sanctity of a system of confidential communication, for the purpose of scrutinizing the correspondence of a department of the Government with one of its special agents, in a matter relating exclusively to its own interests, the vessel might have been saved, and the State of Louisiana spared the reproach of consenting to an act which all civilized communities hold in merited detestation.

It may be proper to add, in reference to the closing period of the foregoing dispatch, that, as the flag of the Union since 1777, when it was devised and adopted by the founders of the Republic, had never, until a recent day, been hauled down, except by honorable hands in manly conflict, no hesitation was felt in attempting to uphold it at any cost against an act of treachery, as the ensign of the public authority and the emblem of unnumbered vic- tories by land and sea.

The revenue cutter ← Henry Dodge → , at Galveston, Texas, was understood to be so much out of repair as to render it very questionable whether she could be safely taken to New York. Under these circumstances the following order was sent to her commanding officer:

Treasury Department, Jan. 22, 1861. Sir:
--If the revenue cutter ← Henry Dodge → , to the command of which you were assigned by an order of the 19thinst., should, on examination, prove to be seaworthy, you will immediately provision her for six weeks, and sail for New York, reporting yourself, on your arrival, to the Collector of the Port. While making your preparations for sailing, you will exercise the utmost vigilance in guarding your vessel against attack from any quarter. If any hostile movement should be made against you, you will defend yourself to the last extremity. The national flag must not be dishonored. If you are in danger of being over-powered by superior numbers, you will put to sea, and proceed to Key West to provision; or, if intercepted, so that you cannot go to sea, and are unable to keep possession of your vessel, you will run her ashore, and, if possible, blow her up-- so that she may not be used against the United States. I am, &c.,

John A. Dix,

Secretary of the Treasury.

Capt. J. J. Marrison,
commanding revenue cutter ← Henry Dodge → , Galveston, Texas.
It was the determination of this Department to adopt such measures as to prevent, if possible, the revenue vessels for which it was responsible, from being taken by force and used for the purpose of overthrowing the public authority. Any attempt to gain possession of them by military coercion could not be regarded in any other light than as an act of war, proper to be resisted by force of arms; and it was deemed far more creditable to the country that they should be blown into fragments than that they should be pusillanimously or treacherously surrendered, and employed against the Government which they were constructed and commissioned to support.

At the last accounts, the ← Henry Dodge, in consequence of her unfitness to proceed to New York, was to be placed at the disposal of the Coast Survey, in the vicinity of Galveston for temporary service, in case of any hostile demonstration against her. Capt. Morrison, who was ordered to take charge of her before his fidelity to the Government was questioned, having been dismissed from the service, the command has devolved on Lieut, William F. Rogers, in whose good faith and firmness entire confidence is reposed.

It only remains to state under this branch of the inquiries addressed to this Department, that Capt. John G. Brushwood and Lieuts. S. B. Caldwell and Thos. D. Foster, who voluntarily surrendered the revenue cutter Robert McClelland to the State of Louisiana, have been dismissed from the revenue service.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant.
John A. Dix,

Secretary of the Treasury.

Richmond Dispatch.
Friday Morning...april 19, 1861.
the war.
facts and rumors from Washington--North Carolina Forts--Maryland's Queta--Major Anderson, &c.

Stricken from the roll.
--The Treasury Department at Washington has issued an order directing the name of First Lieut. Rogers to be stricken from the roll of the revenue service, for having, while in command of the cutter Henry Dodge, in violation of his official oath and of his duty to the Government, surrendered his vessel to Texas.

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