March 12, Saturday. Olcott has arrived and been most of the day with Fox, Grimes, and Odell (Moses F. Odell, Member of Congress from New York). They all came to me about 2 P.M. and represent the papers in O.’s possession as disclosing a terrible state of things. Odell and Gooch told me on Thursday that they had examined the books and papers seized, and that they showed fraud and villainy such as had never been known, and urged the arrest of Keeler, Koons, and others. Brown, the Navy Agent here, and Henderson in New York, they say, are implicated.
To-day I am told the same thing by the others also. I remarked that the Navy Department had no solicitor or law officer whom I could consult, or with whom I could share responsibility. Grimes and the others enjoined upon me not to hesitate for a moment but to seize and lock up all who are implicated or suspected.
