It was on full consideration deemed expedient that the arrest should be made in court in order that the proceeding might be the more marked. The bold, open and defiant hostility of the judge to the Government from the very commencement of the rebellion and his known efforts to place Maryland on the side of the insurgent States; to embarrass the officers of the Government in the measures they deemed necessary for the maintenance of its authority and to keep alive a spirit of disaffection in his judicial district were alone deemed sufficient to warrant his arrest as a measure of public security. The prostitution of his judicial authority to the prosecution of loyal men and of public officers who had only performed their duty is considered as fully justifying the manner in which it was decided to make the arrest.

When Mr. McPhail accompanied by two of the policemen ascended the bench and respectfully announced to the judge the order to take him into custody by the authority of the United States he denied the authority of the Government and made a violent attack upon one of the policemen. Mr. McPhail was thus compelled to use force to secure him, and he unluckily received a superficial wound on the head before he ceased to resist. It is worthy of consideration that although the court-room was crowded and although the judge appealed to the officers of the court to aid him not one of them or of those who sympathized with him came forward in his defense, a fact which would seem to indicate that the act of the Government after so long and patient an endurance of his treasonable conduct was considered neither arbitrary nor unjust by his own neighbors.

To guard against the contingency of an armed opposition to the police officers I sent two companies of infantry to Talbot County, but they did not reach Easton until an hour after the arrest was made and their services were not put into requisition.

It is proper to add that I addressed a letter* to the Governor of Maryland some weeks before the arrest stating that I was strongly disposed to make it and that my wish was to send the judge beyond the limits of the State. The Governor gave me no advice, but preferred to leave the matter where it was, trusting to my discretion to make a prudent use of the power which had been intrusted to me by the Government.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS MIDDLE DEPARTMENT, Numbers 16.
Baltimore, Md., June 25, 1862.

I. By direction of the Secretary of War Major G. B. Cosby and Captain V. Sheliha, Confederate Army, will be sent to Fort Delaware. Major H. Z. Hayner, aide-de-camp, U. S. Army, will accompany these prisoners thither to-day, turn them over to the commanding officer of that post, take a receipt for them and return to these headquarters.

* * * * * *

By command of Major-General Wool:

WM. D. WHIPPLE,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

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*Omitted here; Dix to Bradford, February 10, 1862, Vol. II, this Series, p. 213.

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