that regiment with other Kansas troops, I referred to that section of the act of July 22, 1861 (Sec.10), which directs the manner of filling vacancies in the company and regimental offices of regiments organized under that act, as a recognition of the constitutional reservation to the States of the right to appoint offices of such regiments. My reference to that provision was merely incidental and for the purpose of showing that the power therein given to the Governors of States to issue commissioners to officers so elected did not by the remotest implication confer on them the power to depose officers who had been regularly commissioned and received into the service of the United States. But I did not mean to refer to that section of the act of July 22, 1861, as providing the method by which vacancies in company and regimental offices are to be filled. For, by the third section of the act of August 6, 1861, Chapter LVII, that section is repealed in these words:

That vacancies hereafter occurring among the commissioned officers of the volunteer regiments shall be filled by the Governors of the States, respectively, in the same manner as original appointments. And so much of the tenth section of the act approved July 22, 1861, as is inconsistent herewith, be and the same is hereby repealed.

This provision, also in recognition of the constitutional reservation referred to, of course furnishes the rule by which vacancies in the offices of volunteer regiments are to be filled, and I may add, does not any more than the section it repeals confer on the Governors who make such appointments the power to depose the officers so appointed.

This explanation, which in nowise affects the of the 16th instant, is made because I learn that the publication of a single paragraph of that opinion has created the impression that the tenth section of the act of July 22, 1862 [1861], is regarded as the existing rule for filling vacancies in company and regimental offices. Any one who reads the whole of the opinion referred to will see that the allusion to that section was not made for that purpose, but simply, as I have said, to illustrate the position that Governor Robinson could not sustain the power he claimed.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

EDW. BATES,

Attorney-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, D. C., June 23, 1862.

Major General B. F. BUTLER,

New Orleans:

GENERAL: My dispatch to you of this date* omitted to state that you are authorized to nominate the officers of such forces as you may find it necessary to raise subject to approval by the Department, and also have discretionary power to organize a portion as home guards if you deem it expedient. That class of troops have been found very embarrassing. Your suggestions as to a qualified condonation or amnesty will be attentively considered and the President's instructions given speedily as possible.

Yours, truly,

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

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*See Series I, Vol. XV, p.493.

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