me, therefore, to correct a statement made in the earlier part of this letter, and that is the case of a gentleman who had the offer from yourself of a commission in case he would enlist a given number of men, to secure which he has offered $5 per man. I regret to be obliged to refer to this point, because I am grieved to know that any officer of the U. S. Army has begunment for the volunteer force in Massachusetts. Poor and humble as may be the value of my own services and judgment, and little as I may have personally contributed to the success of our military preparations and movements, yet I have the great satisfaction of knowing that we have pursued a system, carefully, watchfully, faithfully, and zealously, in which, by the intelligent and loyal co-operation of all officers of the State and of the Union, who have had any connection with such matters here, we have found reason to trust. In truth, almost any system is better than none. We have, thanks to the energy and zeal of the people of the Commonwealth, enlisted, armed, uniformed, equipped, and forwarded with complete camp material and baggage trains sixteen full infantry regiments, to say nothing of two artillery corps and our sharpshooters; and the public and the Government have observed their numbers, completeness, and efficiency with numberless expressions of approval and satisfaction. We are at this very moment doing half as much more, and doing it with the utmost of our ability, and we have thus far escaped the confusion and uncertainty of movements which have embarrassed some other States and from which, by much effort, their Governors have only just now escaped. Now, with the utmost respect for the Department of War, and for yourself personally, and with the most loyal sentiment of obedience, I mean to continue to do just what I have from the first persistently done, and that is, to hold with an iron hand and unswerving purpose all the powers which, by the laws, pertain to me officially in my own grasp, yielding the most implicit obedience in all things to those having the right to direct me, but at the same time remembering that true subordination requires every officer to perform his own grasp, yielding the most implicit obedience in all things to those having the right to direct me, but at the same time remembering that true subordination requires every officer to perform his own duties and fulfill his own functions himself, as well as to submit himself loyally to his official superiors. And I know that I have most earnestly and diligently, without stopping a moment to count the cost, endeavored to obey every requisition of the War Department and to furnish everything it desired. Now, the law and the Army orders place the business of raising and recruiting for the volunteer svolunteer officers in the hands of the Governors of the States from which they are called and by which they are furnished; nor is it permitted by law, to the President himself, even were he so disposed, to interfere in the premises, unless the Governor of a State on whom a call for troops is made refuses or neglects to perform his proper functions. And I am and have repeatedly been assured by the Secretary of War that his Department regarded with the utmost satisfaction the efforts made by Massachusetts to serve the country and support the national arms, and, moreover, that he had issued no orders and would issue none tending to interfere with the State authorities.

I shall, therefore, do exactly by you as I have done by General Sherman and General Burnside; that is to say, I shall use every exertion to furnish troops for the service you propose in our full proportion. But it must be done by pursuing such methods and plans as we have found necessary for the general advantage of the service. Nor can I permit, so far as it lies with me to decide, any officers of the United States to raise troops as Massachusetts volunteers within this Commonwealth