been tried without success. Already, in one or two cases, I have found that applications for military aid had been made without necessarily, the enrollment under the law having been completed thoroughly by the willing aid of the civil authorities. The habit of resorting to military force in every trifling case of opposition or resistance to the laws, is becoming so common as to excite in the minds of judicious men very serious alarm. Such a practice entirely supplants the civil authorities, sets aside time-honored means for the enforcement of the laws in this country, destroys in the citizen that feeling of personal interest in their execution through which alone we have maintained popular government, and prepares the public mind for complete abdication of civil rule. It is impossible to believe that citizens of this country, except under the immediate influence of excitement, can be willing to trust the enforcement of civil law to military force, and thus to surrender the very highest privilege and duty of American citizens. Such a course would inevitably lead, if persisted in, to the complete dominion of the military and the final overthrow of free institutions. This practice tends also, naturally, to weaken in the soldier that reverence for the civil law and that respect for the civil authorities with which he entered the military service, which he still earnestly cherishes, and upon which alone we must rely for the quiet disbanding of our great armies and the return of the soldier to his home, an orderly, law-abiding citizen. Every dictate of wisdom and of patriotism should teach us to discourage, both by act and word, anything that might possibly tend to impair in the mind of the soldier his feeling as a citizen.

I therefore confidently hope that all well-disposed citizens of this State will, after short reflection, understand the imperative necessity of exercising their rights through the civil tribunals to enforce every law of the United States, however much they may have been opposed to its enactment.

Whilst, therefore, my duty to the Government requires me to furnish whatever military aid is necessary to enforce the conscription law throughout this department, in strict accordance with its terms, I shall only employ military force for that purpose after every resources of the civil authorities has been used without success.

It is my earnest hope that the people of the several States comprised within this military department have already adopted some such views as are here presented, and will so act upon them as to relieve me from the necessity of using measures in the performance of my duty which are as unpleasant to me as they can possibly be to any loyal citizen.

I am, governor, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. POPE,

Major-General, Commanding.

Honorable E. SALOMON,

Governor of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

Numbers 2. Reports of Brigadier General Alfred Sully, U. S. Army, commanding Northwestern Indian Expedition.

HEADQUARTERS NORTHWESTERN INDIAN EXPEDITION,
Camp on Heart River, Dak. Ter., July 31, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to make the following report of my operations since July 25:

On the 23rd of this month I reached this point, having made rapid marches, considering I had a very large emigrant train under my