HARRISBURG, PA., May 6, 1861.

Hon. SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War:

I received your dispatch.* General Patterson anticipated you by the countermanded of his order for twenty-five additional regiments. It would be well for me to understand how authority is divided, so that we can move with certainty, and the ardor of the people of this State should not be again cooled by changes. I will be guided by my powers under the constitution, and as thus directed will obey the orders of the Federal Government. Pennsylvania will answer to any requisition made on her.

A. G. CURTIN,

Governor of Pennsylvania.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, May 6, 1861.

Colonel JAMES CAMERON,

Pennsylvania:

DEAR SIR: Having full confidence in your ability and discretion, and knowing your loyalty to the Government, I have to request, and hereby authorize, you to visit the several cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Providence, Boston, Hartford, and any other places you may deem necessary, and there and then, acting in conjunction with the several district attorneys and other officers of this Government at the respective places, you will take such measures as to you and them may seem advisable to secure all correspondence by telegraph from such points to and with persons residing in Southern States in rebellion against this Government in relation to the furnishing of ordnance, arms, equipments, ammunition, provisions, or supplies to such States or rebels; and I have to invite and request that all officers of the Government will be assisting you with all the means and power at their command to carry this into successful execution.

I am, very respectfully,

SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Madison, Wis., May 6, 1861.

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States:

SIR: A meeting of the Governors of several of the Western and border States on the evening of Friday last, at Cleveland, Ohio, resulted in a determination to make you some suggestion in regard to the supposed condition of portions of the country and to ask advice from the President. Messengers were selected to confer with you. The extreme anxiety we feel, and the anxiety felt by the people of the border and Northwestern States, must be our sufficient warrant for urging some more definite course of policy in regard to the relations between the Government and these States. We are prepared, and the people of the States we represent are prepared, to sustain you and your Administration in every measure, however extreme, for the suppression of this untoward rebellion and for the punishment of the treason. We appreciate also most fully the difficulties under which you labored in taking

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*See May 6, p.161.

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