ultimo, be returned. Time passes and the danger increases, hence the urgency of my request. I have been informed from various sources that a portion of the House took expeditions to my letter of the 31st of January, as being threatening and coercive in its tone. Permit me to say that nothing was farther from my mind or intention,. Liberty is a boon I prize too highly to willfully deprive others of its blessings, and the curse that I fear I must pursue for the salvation of this people is forced upon my by a combination of circumstances with, in my humble opinion, the legislature might within the past tow weeks have scattered to the winds. This they have nor done, therefore I must do something. On invitation of your honorable body and on the speaker's stand in their presence did I make known my feelings on I told them that I was opposed to martial law. My acts have not belied my words, but the time has come when "patience ceases to be a virtue," and when inactivity is a willful "dereliction of duty. " So far I have been patient in the extreme, though not inactive. I have nothing to retract in my letter of January 31, but will adhere closely to my decision. I may err in addressing the House and not the Council. Should such be the case it must be attributed to my ignorance of parliamentary rules, for I supposed that a measure of this kind would be acted upon in joint ballot.

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

T. MOONLIGHT,

Colonel Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, Commanding.

[Inclosure Numbers 8.]

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF COLORADO,
Denver, Colo. Ter., February 6, 1865.

Honorable e. T. HOLLAND,

Chairman Military committee:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 4th instant (in behalf of the House of which you are an honorable member), in which I am informed that the bill authorizing the issuing of $200,000 bonds for the purpose of mounting the militia called for, paying the bounty, &c., was not likely to pass, and also that a bill was likely to pass (superseding the "bond bill") giving bounties to men who would enlist in the two Colorado regiments now in the field, and also that it had been represented to the House, as coming from me, that a sufficient number of men could be obtained in this way, so as to avoid the necessity of proclaiming martial law. In reply I would state that I am very sorry the "bond bill" did not pass over two weeks ago, for to my mind it was the surest and most honorable way that men could be raised and horses procured. I have never stated that a sufficient number of men could be enlisted for the old regiments so as to meet the exigencies of the case; and even could these men be persuaded to enlist I have not at present the horses on which to mount them. I should be pleased to see a bill pass authorizing the payment of a liberal bounty to recruits for the First and Second Colorado Regiments, for I think the regiments might be recruited up to the maximum; but I am sorry to say that such a bill at this late hour would not meet the necessities of the times. Men and horses must be had immediately, or else we must yield ourselves living sacrifices to inhuman savages. And who of us all are prepared to do this! I beg of you not to bury the bounty bill because of the lateness of the hour which gave it birth, for