was I nearer than seven miles of the Bull Run battle-field and had not at any time the remotest idea of molestation from either party, supposing my character as a non-combatant would be ample protection. One week after my arrest I was brought here and exactly three months aftermy captivity I was favored with a hearing before the Honorable James Lyons, commissioner, by whom not one solitary charge was brought against me and I left his office with the confident and as I thought well-grounded impression that my release was nigh at hand. How these anticipations have been realized my present imprisonment proves. Some weeks since I learned semi-officially that I was held here by the influence and at the instance of a brother, now an officer in the Confederate service, and one too who owes his character and the escape from ruin to himself and family to my interposition, which facts I suppose are not without the cognizance of the authorities. Men see the same objects through different media and no blame should be imputed for an ordinary difference of opinion, yet it forcibly strikes me that the fact of one brother taking so unnatural a stand against another should have caused the authorities to hesitate before they gave any heed tohis efforts. I cannot in justice to my own feelings pursue this, to me, revolting subject, but leave you, sir, as an honorable man to draw your own conclusions.

When the difficulties that now overshadow our country first presented themselves, as a citizen of Ohio ardently attached to the institutions under which we had prospered for near one century previous I labored hard for a peaceful solution of the vexed questions that agitated and indeed convulsed our country. In common with thousands of Northern men I looked upon the movement of the South as a mere insurrectionary act that would be easily quelled and our common country soon be restored to its usual guietude and prosperity. Viewing the matter in this light and from the stand-point I occupied, when I learned the defection of my brother from the service of the United States I wrote to him most strongly and emphatically condemning his course, and stating to him in very plain terms what I thought would be the result of the course he had elected to pursue. When I reached Washington in the month of June an interview with one of his wife's family convinced me that I had in some respects misunderstood his motives. I immediately wrote him recalling all that might be in my letter personally offensive, but from the interruption of postal facilities I suppose the letter never reached him. I did not, however, recall any expession condemning his course. Receiving a letter from a friend in New York giving his views upon the agitating subjects of the day in response I spoke of the acts of men in the South in such language as I thought then and still think they deserve. As an evidence of my feeling upon the subject I inclosed to my brother an extract from one of my letter, which extract together with my first letter to him I understand he has placed in the hands of the authorities as evidence of my hostility to the South. How these matters can with the slightestregard to law or equity be used against me I am at loss to imagine. As a citizen of Ohio, owing no allegiance either absolute or implied to the South I had a perfect right to give utternace to my sentiments, whether palatable or otherwise to any section of the country.

I am called upon to answer by a long and painful imprsonment for words spoken or thoughts expressed where neither Virginia nor any other member of the Confederacy ever had or pretended to have jurisdiction. I violated no law that I know of in coming into Virginia. From my earliest recollection I have been opposed to the doctrine of