all that was done, however, a guard on May 18 was thrown around
the offices of The World and The Journal of Commerce and for
four days the publication of these papers was suspended and their
editors and owners arrested and imprisoned in Fort Lafayette,
but were soon released. As The World was the official spokes-
man of the Copperhead press of New York, and as it was a bitter
opponent of Lincoln's war policies, Secretary Stanton may have
been misled in issuing the order of suspension, but that he com-
mitted a tactical blunder cannot be questioned. Manton Marble,
the editor of The World, drew up a long statement about the forg-
ery, and after printing it in The World forwarded it with other
documents to President Lincoln. The suspension caused a great
sensation at the time and was looked upon as an attempt on the
part of Stanton to get even with the Copperhead press which
had so bitterly criticized his acts.
Other New York papers, including The Tribune and The Times, narrowly escaped being fooled by the same bogus proclamation. Copies were sent to all morning papers of the city, but the boy to whom they were given delivered the copy for The Tribune at the wrong door of the building and aroused so much suspicion that The Tribune called up The Times to see whether the proc- lamation was a genuine dispatch from the Associated Press. The Times, which had accepted the message in good faith, was in turn aroused, and, finding that the copy did not come from the Associated Press, suppressed the document. The Sun, on ac- count of its large circulation, already had gone to press when its copy arrived. The Herald, before its suspicions were aroused, had actually printed over twenty thousand copies of the paper with the bogus proclamation, but when it found that neither The Times nor The Tribune was printing the document, it im- mediately substituted something else and recalled the copies already printed, save a few which had already been mailed to points outside the city.
The author of the forgery, Joseph Howard, was arrested and upon his full confession was also sent to Fort Lafayette. The bogus proclamation caused trouble for other papers which re- printed it in good faith. The Picayune, in New Orleans, for ex- ample, reprinted it, and General Banks, on discovering the hoax,
