Thurlow Weed was also an adviser to William Seward unofficial envoy to France Arch Bishop Hughes, Bishop Mcllvaine, and General Winfield Scott. He was at his best when Beall was hung. President Lincoln's friend Orville H. Browning and other influential Northerners sought the commutation of the death sentence of Confederate Captain John Y Beall, a Confederate privateer who had wrecked havoc on the Great Lakes. Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg wrote: "Over and again Lincoln and Major General John A. Dix, commanding the Department of the East, gave the same answers. Lincoln saying, General Dix may dispose of the case as he pleases — I will not interfere!' General Dix saying, 'All now rests with the President as far as my action rests there is not a gleam of hope." Beale was executed on February 24, 1865.
Lincoln an the U.S. Government feared the mighty press!
In May 1864 Dix was called upon to respond to the publication in the New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce of a phoney presidential proclamation designed to scare the gold markets and reap a quick profit for its authors. President Lincoln ordered General Dix:
Whereas, there has been wickedly and traitorously printed and published this morning, in the "New York World" and New York 'Journal of Commerce' newspapers printed and published in the city of New York,—a false and spurious proclamation, purporting to be signed by the President, and to be countersigned by the Secretary of State, which publication is of a treasonable nature, designed to give aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States, and to the rebels now at war against the Government, and their aiders and abettors: you are therefore hereby commanded forthwith to arrest and imprison in any fort or military prison in your command, the editors, proprietors and published of the aforesaid newspapers, and all such persons as, after public notice has been given of the falsehood of said publication, print and publish the same, with intent to give aid and comfort to the enemy;—and you will hold the persons so arrested, in close custody, until they can be brought to trial before a military commission, for their offense. You will also take possession by military force, of the printing establishments of the 'New York World' and 'Journal of Commerce,' and hold the same until further order, and prevent any further publication therefrom.
L.C.