dispatch to Governor Hall, lays particular stress upon it. That dispatch is as follows:

KANSAS CITY, MO., September 4.

Governor HALL:

There will be no invasion of Missouri by the people of Kansas. The Governor and the people of Missouri may be perfectly at ease on that subject.

J. M. SCHOFIELD,

Major-General.

Whatever relief the assurance of General Schofield may afford Governor Hall and the rebels, the loyal people of Missouri were not particularly alarmed at the prospect of an invasion before. They knew well enough that, however the contemplated act of the people of Kansas in following the destroyers of Lawrence upon Missouri's soil might technically be regarded, no invasion, in the true sense of the term, was designed. No war upon the State, no attack upon its sovereignty, no act of hostility to the great body of its people was meant. War, they knew, was intended against a class of men who are Missourians, it is true not because they are Missourians, nor because they are to be found upon Missouri's soil, but because they are criminals, and dangerous to the public peace, and who would be pursued just as eagerly if they were to be found in any other State. These men, too, they knew, although nominally Missourians, are just as much enemies of the State of Missouri as Kansas. They are rebels-men who have forfeited the protection of their rightful government by making war upon it. If a man were to pursue a wolf which had destroyed his flocks upon his neighbor's premises, he would be a trespasser, unquestionably; but who would think of holding him responsible for a trespasser's crime? In this sense, precisely, have the people of Kansas contemplated becoming invaders of Missouri.

We do not justify the threats of Lane and his associates. They should ask the Government to punish the murderers of Lawrence, instead of taking vengeance into their own hands. If the Government refused, the case might be different. The circumstances which comes the nearest to their justification is the Government placing over this department a man like Schofield, to whose policy of friendship to the rebels the Lawrence affair is legitimately attributable, and permitting him to remain in office one hour after it happened. This latter act looks as if the Government were determined to justify Schofield's policy, and not allow Quantrill and his men to be punished, as we have no idea they will be if Schofield is left in command. But whether Lane and his associates have contemplated a justifiable act not is not now the question. Let a man be placed in command in whose disposition and capacity to punish rebels in Missouri the men of Kansas will have confidence, for this is all the Kansians want, and we need have no further trouble about invasion. That man, however, is not General Schofield. Him the people of Kansas do not respect nor the rebels of Missouri fear. For him to go to the border now, looked upon as he is as the party really responsible for the blood of Lawrence, and to talk and threaten, as he has been doing, is, of all things, the most likely to inflame passion and provoke collision. If the President or any other official is responsible for sending him there at this time, we can scarcely regard him otherwise than as guilty of a crime. Nothing shows how utterly he misunderstands the position of things about him, and his duty with reference to them, than his bombastic, egotistical, and ab-