of such cases were instituted and some of the persons so arrested have bee discharged from time to time under circumstances or upon conditions compatible as was thought with the public safety.

Meantime a favorable change of public opinion has occurred. The line between loyalty and disloyalty is plainly defined. The whole structure of the Government is firm and stable. Apprehension of public danger and facilities fro reasonable practices have diminished with the passions which prompted heedless persons to adopt them. The insurrection is believed to have culminated and to be declining.

The President in view of these facts and anxious to favor a return to the normal course of the administration as far as regard for the public welfare will allow directs that all political prisoners or state prisoners now held in military custody be released on their subscribing to a parole engaging them to render no aid or comfort to the enemies in hostility to the United States.

The Secretary of War will, however, in his discretion except from the effect of this order any persons detained as spies in the service of the insurgents or others whose release at the present moment may be deemed incompatible with the public safety.

To all persons who shall be so released and who shall keep their parole the President grants an amnesty for any past offenses of treason or disloyalty which they may have committed.

Extraordinary arrests will hereafter be made under the direction of authorities alone.

By order of the President:

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

NEWPORT BARRACKS, KY., February 14, 1862.

Captain J. B. FRY,

Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff.

SIR: I have the honor to report that to-day fiver more prisoners were sent by Colonel Warner, Eighteenth Kentucky Volunteers, and are now confined here for safe-keeping, viz:

Benjamin Hayden, charged "with aiding and abetting Jenkins and the Adamses in their efforts to raise a company of men to burn the bridges on the Kentucky Central Railroad; also harboring and organizing recruits for the rebel army, concealing arms and supplying them therewith," &c. John Hayden, son of the said Benjamin, charged with same offenses as the father. Nelson Yarber, charged with being the 'secretary and treasurer of the organization of the Knights of the Golden Circle; " also with "procuring arms, powder, &c., and distributing them to persons pledged to resist the action of the State and aid the present rebellion; " and also with "encouraging persons to enlist in companies for the accomplishment of these purposes and to intimidate by every possible means the loyal men of his neighborhood. " Richard Hull, charged with being " a very desperate character," who has been "carrying a U. S. musket for some months," and "proclaimed publicly a purpose to use it for the destruction of Union men; " also that "he has been making himself a terror to all loyal men of his neighborhood. " Alexander Webster, charged with having "once started to join the rebel army," but "was captured and brought back and subsequently released after which he committed a rape on the wife of a soldier, and fled to Owen County for protection. "

I also report that David Kinman, sent here a few days since and reported by meas confined here, it now appears from a letter from