the real point of danger and weakness, instead of spending his time to no profit on the Kansas line? Why is all this silence and mystery preserved? If a Union army is really in peril, and our help is needed for its safety, it seems to us the true policy would be to say so, and appeal to the patriotism of Union men to the rescue. There would be no difficulty in that case. The citizens of Saint Louis would the turn out cheerfully and do their duty to a man. The course of concealment and mystification, which our military authorities are pursuing in this matter, is just the thing to prevent that result and breed difficulty.

This story about Steele may be true. It has been given out in an irresponsible way for several days-ever since the draft began. We confess it looks very much like a mere pretext.

Another very singular thing is that the militia are not called out in regiments and companies, as they are already organized and prepared for service, as would be the case were the emergency pressing, but they are called out by draft to form provisional regiments, a force yet to be organized.

These are things to which our State and military authorities cannot out in regiments and companies, as they are already organized and prepared for service, as would be the case were the emergency pressing, but they are called out by draft to form provisional regiments, a force yet to be organized.

These are things to which our State and military authorities cannot expect the people to shut their eyes. There are several things about these provisional regiments which need ventilation, and they will get it.

[Inclosure No. 13.]

SPIRIT OF THE GERMAN PRESS.*

The Neue Zeit has a long article on the provisional regiments and the Enrolled Militia, in which it says:

It is, indeed, hard to decide what is more to be admired, the shameless impudence with which the provisional State government of Missouri, in absolute defiance of all constitutional enactments and all existing laws, seeks to lead the people by the nose, or the patience and forbearance with which the people submit who do not belong to the volunteer regiments in the service of the United States have been bothered with military services as so-called Enrolled Missouri Militia, after Government Gamble had succeeded in his incessant endeavors to remove almost all United States troops of volunteer regiments in the service of the United States from Missouri. The people of Missouri, in their exceedingly pure and generous devotion to the cause of the common country, did not take time to reflect about the right or wrong of a measure concocted by the State government, if only its necessity for the general welfare was advanced as the motive. Thus the citizens of Saint Louis have repeatedly, for instance, left their business and their families, and, following the call of the Governor, however hateful he must be to every well-meaning citizen of Missouri, have taken up arms in the good faith that they made a sacrifice to the general welfare of the State. How the citizens of Missouri fulfill, under such circumstances, what they conceive to be their duty has been amply demonstrated at the time of Marmaduke's invasion and on other occasions, and it places them beyond the possibility of suspicion for disloyalty. But if the Government, in scornful despotism, treads upon the rights of the people; if circumstances gain the appearance as if it were intended to create an armed power which might protect, in case of necessity, the self-constituted State government against the expressly declared will of the sovereign people of Missouri, it is not only the right but the duty of every citizen to ask what right that government has to infringe thus upon that personal liberty of the citizen which the republic guarantees. The principle, according to the political condition of each State. While in monarchies the will of the prince rules absolutely, in a republic it is the people who regulate their affairs by laws; and the executive power here called the Governor has no right to assume a military power which the law does not confer upon him. How is it in this respect in Missouri? The first law we find in relation to this subject is in Article IV of the State constitution, and reads as follows:

SECTION 1. Field officers and company officers be elected by the persons subject to militia duty within their respective commands. Brigadier-generals shall be elected by the field officers of

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*From the Missouri Republican, September 13, 1863.

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