ple, and her importance to the old Union, it was ruinous, if not impossible, for her to succeed by force of arms. For these reasons they opposed it and acted with the unconditional Union men; but in sentiment and feeling and sympathy they were with their Southern brethren, as they called the rebels. We went on harmoniously together for a time; but so soon as it became the policy of the administration to weaken the south by wresting from her the slaves under her control and to strike down the institution as the cause of the war, these men condemned and opposed the measure, while the unconditional Union men, now called Radicals, supported it heartily. These pro-slavery Unionists soon became conservative, devised every means possible to save the institution, and commenced a system of political pandering to the disloyal element of the State, and to this succeeded their persecution and abuse, not yet ceased.

Briefly, thins you have the inciting causes of our chief difficulties, which for the last twelve months have beset us. A little faction called Claybank, office-holders and office-seekers, acted with these pro-slavery Unionists, and, by a system of pandering to the prejudices and passions of the whole southern element in the State, attempted to secure a party triumph together. They were defeated, thank to the loyal people. this is not only a political war, for all wars are political, but it is a party war between slavery and freedom, aristocracy and labor, because of the facts that slavery and its concomitant aristocracy is the cause of the war. Therefore the one great question of freedom against slavery at issue in this contest cannot be safely ignored in the administrative affairs of this department. Conservatism can, and should be, ignored, not only in Missouri, but everywhere else. Let me ask a question here. Cast your eye over the map of the Union. What would have been the condition of the Republic without the aid of the unconditional Union men of the slave States? And again, can the administration at Washington afford to sacrifice them to appease the unprincipled Moloch of conservatism?

Your friend and obedient servant,

A. L. GILSTRAP,

Senator, Seventh District.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF KANSAS, Fort Leavenworth, February 27, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War:

SIR: I have returned from a reconnaissance of the country down the Missouri border to Van Buren and Fort Smith, and west as far up the Arkansas as Fort Gibson, returning by Humboldt, Topeka, and Lawrence. The outrages which have been committed against the towns and people of Kansas by our common foes exceed any atrocities committed by Sepoy or savage warfare. Towns, houses, and settlements sacked repeatedly. One hundred and fifty murdered at Lawrence and 96 at Baxter Springs at the last Quantrill raid.

The people are everywhere in great state of anxious fear of the same sort of secret foes that real and apprehended danger connects with the eastern and southern lines of my command. True, there is no organized forces that can be found on the borders, but such has always been the character of the foes that have devastated Kansas. They are disguised as citizens, and recent discoveries of small bands