the settlements, and I was overwhelmed with petitions for troops and cries of alarm, based on this statement. Its object was apparent, but there was not, and has not been, the slightest intimation of such a thing. The design is to keep up excitement and alarm, to continue the Indian war and to keep the troops in Minnesota.

I have thought it well that you should understand these things, so as to act advisedly upon the representations which will undoubtedly be made to you. I am confident that you will meet the case wisely, and I shall carry out your wishes with all zeal and energy.

Very truly, yours,

JNO. POPE.

[Inclosure.]

AUGUST 24,[1863.]

Major General JOHN POPE,

Milwaukee, Wis.:

MY DEAR GENERAL: I gratefully acknowledge the receipt of your kind communication of the 21st instant, and rejoice to learn, by the copy of your letter to the General-in-Chief, that General Sibley and his gallant command are so well appreciated at department headquarters. Poor General Sibley! I know him well. He is gallant and glorious in conflict, but in executive and administrative capacity he is but the wreck of his former self. Nothing could have been better devised than your double expedition for the utter extermination of the savage miscreants, and nothing more unfortunate than General Sully's failure to be "in at the death." Colonel Marshall, the bearer of dispatches from General Sibley, says that, poor as the grass is upon the Missouri, it is quite as good as was found by General Sibley's expedition anywhere on the route. I earnestly hope that General Sully will get back and give another blow to the murderers; otherwise I shall have serious apprehensions that squads of the enemy will again annoy our frontier settlements.

I am glad to see that you properly appreciate the trading, corrupt Indian politicians of Minnesota. They are selfish and heartless as Satan, and, were it not for the encouragements held out to them at Washington, we should consign the whole tribe to merited infamy. I was, a few days since, without a single effort of my own, and against the labored protests of Wilkinson, Aldrich, and company, unanimously nominated for Governor. Their only hope now is to perpetuate their power by nominating Rice against me. He is hesitating whether to try his chances or not; but next Wednesday will determine. If he accepts, I may have to resign as soon as General Sibley returns. He must in that event be beaten, and badly beaten, and with his fall the whole Moccasin brood, except as they are fostered at Washington, will topple to their final destruction.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

AUGUST 20 [26?], 1863.

* * * The friends of Rice and Wilkinson are as rapid as ever. They denounce the expedition and General Sibley as a failure, and your dispatch suggesting that the war east of the Missouri is at an end as a terrible outrage upon Minnesota. They present to believe that we shall have 2,000 Sioux warriors upon the borders within a month, and, of course, many honest, apprehensive people believe them. I do hope that General Sully has dealt them such a blow as to utterly deprive them of the capacity to return.

Every your friend,

S. MILLER.