to-night, without discovering any trail. I learned from Captain Duncan, of the Fifth Missouri Provisional Militia, who was escorting a circuit judge from Warrensburg to this place, and passed through Rose Hill to-day, that he learned at Rose Hill that Quantrill passed through that place Friday last with 500 or 600; and that he also learned from a man just in from Germantown, that Quantrill crossed the Osage near that place with some 300 men Saturday morning. I have made every effort to get information as to Quantrill's whereabouts since I have been at this station, and I believe the above to be correct, except that of his crossing the Osage, though I think he could have crossed in the time. It looks to me as though he would try and get the bushwhackers on Grand River, above Austin, before going south, unless he places more confidence in their meeting him on the Osage than I possibly could, for my men have been chasing them yesterday and to-day. I have no other reasons to doubt the correctness of the information given above, worn and horses jaded, but I will find where Quantrill has gone, to-morrow or rather to-day. It is now past 1 o'clock.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. S. CLARK,

Lieutenant Colonel, Commanding.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, D. C., October 5, 1863

Honorable CHARLES D. DRAKE and others, Committee:

GENTLEMEN: Your original address, presented on the 30th ultimo, and the four supplementary ones, presented on the 3rd instant, have been carefully considered. I hope you will regard the other duties claiming my attention, together with the great length and importance of the documents, as constituting a sufficient apology for my not having responded sooner.

These papers, framed for a common object, consist of the things demanded and the reasons for demanding them. The things demanded are: First, that General Schofield shall be relieved, and General Butler be appointed as commander of the Military Department of the Missouri; second, that the system of Enrolled Militia in Missouri may be broken up and national forces be substituted for it; and third, that at elections persons may not be allowed to vote who are not entitled by law to do so. Among the reasons given, enough of suffering and wrong to Union men is certainly and, I suppose, truly stated, yet the whole case as presented fails to convince me that General Schofield or the Enrolled Militia is responsible for that suffering and wrong. The whole can be explained on a more charitable and, as I think, a more rational hypothesis.

We are in civil war. In such cases there always is a main question; but in this case that question is a perplexing compound, Union and slavery. It thus becomes a question, not of two sides merely, but at least four sides, even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those who are against it. Thus, those who are for the Union with, but not without, slavery; those for it without, but not with; those for it with or without, but prefer it with; and those for it with or without, but prefer it without. Among these, again, is a subdivision of those who are for gradual, but not for immediate, and those who are for immediate but not for gradual, extinction of slavery. It is easy to conceive that all these shades of opinion and even more may be sin-