brothers inn a more open manner than there. There has been a diffusion of this order here since spring. I am certain from their advances toward me that they have not spotted me in Saint Louis. I will endeavor to prevent them from doing so, for when they do so a man is of little further utility.

Respectfully,

EDWARD F. HOFFMAN.

B.

JEFFERSON CITY, MO., July 10, 1864.

[Colonel J. P. SANDERSON:]

SIR: I desire to state respectfully that in obedience to your instructions I left Saint Louis this morning and arrived in this city this afternoon.

In my communication of the 8th instant I made an allusion to the brethren of Saint Louis. I am certain that one of their haunts is at the Commercial Hote, corner of Fifth and Washington streets. There is no mistake as to that house or its patrons. Two saloons on Washington street (left hand side as you go from Fifty to Fourth street) are resorts of these traitors. I made the acquaintance of a man named Kimber, a member of the "S. L.," an engineer on the steamer D. E. Tutt, who I believe boards at that hotel. He told me that there are no meetings of the order here now. He says most all the rivermen are "right. "

He further said that there is a gigantic organization in Memphis, Tenn. He introduced me to John McLane, of the steamer Atlantic, a fine-looking man, a member of the "S. L.," and a traitor who has it in his power to do the Government much harm. I was also introduced to John Acklin, an engineer on one of these steamers, who is a member of the "S. L. " All of these men assert that there will be resistance to the draft in this city and State. I had no time to develop them, but am confident they are connected with a vast system of smuggling and contraband trade.

On my way here I met in the cars General Thomas L. Price, of this city. He is fund agent to the Pacific Railroad and spends much of his time at the Lindell Hote, Saint Louis. He knew that I was connected with your office, and knows me by my proper name. I told him a smooth story, though, and carried him far away from my true calling; but I never dreamed of trying to approach him confidentially. It would have ruined my chances with him. He says the Democrats of Missouri are in favor of McClellan for the Presidency. I told him the peace Democracy of other States would not support McClellan, alleging that if elected he would still vigorously prosecute the war. He said in reply that he had authority for stating that this was a slander on McClellan, who if elected would immediately secure peace. From all I hear and read I discover that McClellan is the popular man with the rebel element in Missouri. The following I clip from the leader of the (Saint Louis, Mo.) Republican of to-day. It is the concluding paragraph of a lengthy leader in his behalf and will explain itself:

George B. McClellan is not to be put down by any such methods as the administration and his other enemies have adopted. He is this day the most popular man in America, and he is so purely on account of intrinsic merit. From the time when a boy of sixteen he left the University of Pennsylvania to enter the Military Academy, he has worked his way up by hard study, industrious application, and determined will, added to great natural intellectual power, courage, and a moral character, without a stain. An unmanly, much less a disreputable, act was never justly charged upon him. Ingenuous and unselfish, his soldiers unanimously bear witness to his