country and therefore whether the express business shall be continued at all or not it is not province to decide. If it is continued and letters are trasnmitted by it and mailed at Louisville or elsewhere within the loyal States, postage paid in accordance with the laws and regulations of the service, I cannot prevent it; but the postmaster at Louisville has been instructed to send all letters coming from States in which the postal service has been discontinued with our stamps upon them to the Dead-Letter Office, for the reason that we do not recognize stamps and stamped evelopes obtained from offices in such States which like other mail property have been fraudelently seized.

I should not object at all to the express company receiving letters in the South and bringing them to Louisville or Cincinnati to be mailed to any part of the United States if the stamps for the prepayment of the postage on such letters are obtained from offices within the loyal States. Nor would I object to the express company taking letters from whin the loyal States to any point within the seceded States, such letters being stamped in accordance with the United States postal regulations.

There being no postal arrangements on the part of this Government in existence in those States, as a matter of course such transmission of letters would involve no infraction of law. The only point on which I wish especially to insist in the employment of the express agency for this purpose is that letters mailed to points within the loyal States shall not be prepaid by stamps which have been stolen from us, and from the high character you give Mr. Gaither I should feel assured upon this point; but as we can have no understanding with him he must take care to make it clear to our offices that he is not using the stamps stolen from us.

Respectfully, &c.,

M. BLAIR,

Postmaster-General.

[Inclosure Numbers 2.]

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

Appointment Office, June 28, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington.

SIR: I am in receipt of yours of the 25th instant inclosing a letter* from Mr. Bowen, commissioner of police at New York, relative to the channel of communication between the disunionists in Europe and Northern States with their party in the Southern States. Mr. Bowen suggests that there will be no difficulty in breaking up the establishment in New York and Boston if authorized by the Secretary of War and the Postmaster-General.

In reply I have to state that there being no postal arrangement in existence on the part of this Department between the Government and the disunion States, or between the disunion States and foreign governments, the regulation of the intercourse between them is at present under the control of the military authorities of the country, and any communication which may be had must depend upon the action of the military department.

Under the provisions of the eighth section of the postal act of August 31, 1852, letters inclosed in postage-stamped envelopes not having been before used may be carried outside the mail over regular postal

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*Not found.

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