President Lincoln wasn’t going to shut down a paper for printing exaggerated stories about the in-laws, but he acted promptly when a couple journals published a fabricated presidential call for 400,000 more soldiers and a Day of Thanksgiving. The date on the proclamation was May 17th; the papers in question printed it on the 18th.
From The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Seven:
ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF IRRESPONSIBLE NEWSPAPER REPORTERS AND EDITORS
ORDER TO GENERAL J. A. DIX.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX, Commanding at New York:
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 publishers 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 orders, and prohibit any further publication therefrom.
A. LINCOLN.
[On the morning of May 18, 3864, a forged proclamation was published in the World, and Journal of Commerce, of New York. The proclamation named a day for fasting and prayer, called for 400,000 fresh troops, and purposed to raise by an “immediate and peremptory draft,” whatever quotas were not furnished on the day specified. Ed.]
journalist, forger, and gold speculator
You can read the “bogus proclamation” and the back and forth between the War Department and General Dix at Civil War Home. The plot was intended to take advantage of the modus operandi of the Associated Press and the fact that a quick decision would have to be made after the document arrived at about 3:30 A.M. Only the World and The Journal of Commerce published the forgery. Other New York papers wrote to President Lincoln to explain and stand up for the duped bretheren. As it turned out, Joseph Howard was the author of the forged proclamation:
Joseph Howard was a newspaper journalist and a bit of a prankster throughout his career. His worst one was just described. To complete the story, Howard and a acquaintance had hoped to make a profit on declining gold prices if news from the front was bad. He and his acquaintance acquired the stationery and other items necessary to make it look as if a story had come in on the wires to the headquarters of the Associated Press of New York, the clearing house for official wire stories coming from Washington. They forged the Proclamation from the president and had it delivered to the offices of various New You[k] newspapers. Only two actually published the story but it caused such firestorm as can be seen from the reports that Howard was arrested two days after the story appeared and placed in Fort Lafayette Prison. He was released on Lincoln’s personal order on August 24, 1864.
The image of Joseph Howard was published in the June 4, 1864 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the South), along with a recap of the story.
