But it needs no reductio ad absurdum to test the pretension that the Federal Army Regulation govern the Governors of the States, for in those regulations the catalogue of officers which they contemplate is explicitly set forth, being from first to sixteenth (i. e., from lieutenant-general to corporal) inclusive, and the Governors of the States are nowhere included in the enumeration; nor does it seem to require argument to establish the fact that this lex scripta which is quoted by you, under Major-General butler's direction, to justify his abrupt and ungentle treatment of an important and polite business letter on a mere pretext of technical formality, fails as utterly to justify his action as does the reason of the thing.

3. Another error, major, to which I am directed to request especial attention, consisted in your entirely ignoring the fact that by General Orders, Numbers 78, of the War Department of the United States, bearing date of the 16th of September last, Major- General Butler was placed under the orders of the Governor of Massachusetts, in respect to raising, organizing, reorganizing, and preparing for service any portion designed to be raised in Massachusetts of the volunteer force which on the 10th of September he received authority from the Secretary of War to raise in the New England States.

It is not intended in this connection to raise or to discuss the question whether under existing laws the authority assumed to be granted to Major-General Butler by the War Department was not invalid from the beginning, so far as concerns the raising of troops in Massachusetts, this commonwealth having neither refused nor omitted to respond cheerfully to every requisition for troops made upon its Executive by the Federal authorities; and the point is mentioned only to guard against the possible use of this correspondence at any future period to signify an admission on the part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of the right of the Federal Government, under existing laws, to authorize individuals to raise troops in any State without such omission or refusal on the part the authorities of such State to respond to requisitions.

In the present condition of national affairs the Governor considers it impolitic and unpatriotic to embarrass the public service by under nicety of etiquette, and he regrets that Major- General Butler's views of duty in this particular should not have corresponded with his own, so as to render the present correspondence unnecessary; but since questions of mere etiquette have thus been mooted by General Butler, I am bound by an imperative necessity which his criticism upon my letter of December 17 imposes upon me to recall to his mind that he has himself written to Governor Andrew without prefixing any address and without signature, and that also under circumstances which lead to the inference of intentional-not accidental-discourtesy, when we consider Major-General Butler's high estimate and appreciation of the forms of politeness which belong to the intercourse of officers and gentlemen.

And much less ought I in this connection to pass unnoticed (what has never been referred to before, and what would have remained without mention had not this subject of etiquette been introduced by Major-General Butler himself) General Butler's letter of October 12, written to Governor Andrew, but not addressed to him, except in so far as he is mentioned in the third person, after the fashion of dinner invitations and the like on private and social occasions, and not signed by the major-general with any addition of rank or command, and frequently reiterating the Governor's constitutional title and name with significant and conspicuous marks of quotation surrounding them wherever repeated.