William J. Bromwell, a clerk in the Confederate State Department, or by his wife, together with a large collection of official papers of the Department. The papers were sold to the United States Government by Bromwell through Colonel John T. Pickett in 1872 for $75,000. Lieutenant Selfridge, United States Navy, now Admiral Selfridge, was the agent for the government who examined and inventoried the papers at Hamilton, Ontario. In recognition of his services Colonel Pickett presented the seal to Lieutenant Selfridge, who from 1872 to 1912, had it in his possession. Either through fear that it might be claimed by the United States Government as a part of the Pickett Collection for which the government had paid $75,000, or that it might be seized as property of a conquered government, or that the acceptance of so handsome a gift under the circumstance might be viewed as a gross impropriety smacking of "graft," the transaction was veiled in secrecy. Even when the seal was taken to New York to have a medallion struck, the maker was bound by solemn Masonic obligation never to reveal the source of the original.
In an interview published in The Richmond Times-Dispatch. on October 15, 1911, Judge Walter A. Montgomery, formerly associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, who had been in Washington for more than a year collecting data for a history of the civil administration of the Confederacy, completely refuted the story of the negro coachman and traced the possession of the seal to Bromwell and from him to Pickett, Judge Montgomery stating:
"There is at present a sufficiency of available evidence to show that Admiral Thomas O. Selfridge, of the United States Navy, retired, secured the seal in 1873 from Colonel John T. Pickett, the first Confederate Commissioner to Mexico, and if he has not disposed of it, he must have it still."
Later the personal papers of Colonel Pickett, including his letter books, were acquired by the Library of Congress and their critical examination proved the contention of Judge Montgomery, showing further that Pickett had acted as Bromwell's attorney, and not for himself in the sale of the Confederate State
