I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official

duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.

Yours,

A. LINCOLN.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

August 22, 1862.

Major-General POPE,

Commanding Army of Virginia:

All regiments of the three-months" militia and volunteers will be mustered out of service at the points where they organized respectively. They should be placed en route to the rendezvous so as to arrive there, say, one or two days before expiration of their term.

By order of the Secretary of War:

THOMAS M. VINCENT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

(Same to Major-General Wool, Baltimore, Md.; Major-General Dix, Fort Monroe; Governor of Illinois, Springfield, Ill.)

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., August 22, 1862.

Captain F. S. LARNED,

Mustering Officer, New York, N. Y.:

You will in minors between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one upon the affidavit of the captain of the company offering them for muster that the parents or guardians consented to enlistment. Written consent is not required.

By order of the Secretary of War:

THOMAS M. VINCENT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

(Same to other mustering officers.)

(Translation.)

SHARON SPRINGS, August 22, 1862.

The Honorable Mr. SEWARD,

Secretary of State of the United States of America:

SIR: I have the honor to bring to your knowledge that only this morning I have learned from Mr. Couturie, by letter dated at New Orleans, the 8th of this month, that since the 10th of the month of May, on which the consulate of the Netherlands in said city invaded by the military authorities of the United States, he had completely ceased from the exercise of his consular functions, and invariably referee individuals applying to the consul of France, who had acted as consul ad interim of the Netherlands.

The Count Mean, to whom I had addressed the request by letter, dated at Washington, the 10th June, in the first instance, and then by duplicate dated 26th July, answered me by letter dated at New Orleans the 8th of August, that he had assumed the mission offered to him provisionally, and had already on occasion lent his protection and good offices to Netherlanders.