responsible for the discipline and acts of these troops. I do believe that the system of local organization that I intend to inaugurate will prove effective for the special reason that we will have the selection of the officers, and most of them will be old, tried, and experienced soldiers, fully imbued with the right sentiment, and feeling a personal interest in restoring law and order. Allow me to assure you that the cause you propose would be protested against by the State authorities, the legislature, the convention, and by nearly every loyal man in North Missouri, while it would receive the sanction of nearly every disloyal, semi-loyal, and non-committal person there. All such could, under that course, live, and would want to stay, in that country, while every loyal man would have to leave those counties where the disloyal sentiment is in the ascendency. I take it that the only sure road to peace in this State is through the aid and support of its undoubtedly loyal population, and with the organization I speak of I am satisfied I can restore and maintain quiet in North Missouri. It is my wish and earnest endeavor to have every person in the State and elsewhere to come up firmly to the support of the Government, no matter what their antecedents are, and I have in my orders and instructions to my troops commanded them to give all encouragement, aid, and protection in their power to any and every person who shows an honest and earnest desire and intention to support the Government and assist in putting down guerrilla warfare. I herewith inclose my Order, Numbers 7,* which embodies some of the view in your dispatch, and which will receive the cordial indorsement and cheerful support of every person in the State who is not aiding and abetting bushwhackers, or who are so disloyal that they would not agree to or approve of anything issued by a Federal officer.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. M. DODGE,

Major-General.

JEFFERSON CITY, January 16, 1865-6. 40 p. m.

Major General G. M. DODGE:

I have heard of some Union men being killed in North Missouri and of some rebels moving away. No Union man wants the troops withdrawn from here. The Union men will return and be organized under new military law and can then defend themselves. I will consent to no bargains with rebels. All we want is discipline in the troops we have and those to be organized. I do not believe the policy mentioned by you would have any good effect, and think it has been suggested by the same men who have been compromising with the enemy since the war began. I had hopped the President would not listen to their counsels again.

THOS. C. FLETCHER,

Governor of Missouri.

OLIVE STREET HOTEL, Saint Louis, January 16, 1865.

Major General G. M. DODGE:

SIR: Upon consulting with various friends of the Government from different parts of the State, whom we met at the capital and elsewhere, we beg leave to present to you our views in reference to ridding

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*See January 8, p. 458.

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