letter to you was written. There was a considerable and unavoidable delay of the commission on its way to General Shepley. When it reached him at New Orleans he thought it necessary, in view of the military situation existing there, to come to this capital for conference with the Government, and for other purposes, before assuming the functions to which he was invited. Having done so, he returned to New Orleans and assumed the trust to which he had been appointed at a day later than the 16th August, and he is now exercising the same.

I need not say these delays unavoidably resulted from a novel situation of affairs, and were not looked for nor even foreseen by the President. After this explanation it does not seem important that I should remark at present on the other topics discussed in your note. I shall, however, cheerfully recur to them if it shall seem necessary when you shall have favored me with the expected views of your Government concerning the general subject embraced in our correspondence as it is affected by the communication I had be honor to make to you on the 20th day of August last.

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurance of my were high consideration.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, D. C., September 4, 1862.

Governor ISRAEL WASHBURN, Jr.,

Augusta, Me.:

SIR: Recruiting for old regiments will continue, and advance pay and bounty will be paid until further orders.

By order of the Secretary of War:

C. P. BUCKINGHAM,

Brigadier-General and Assistant Adjutant-General.

(Same to Governors Nathaniel S. Berry, Concord, N. H.; Frederick Holbrook, Brattleborough, Vt.; William A. Buckingham, Hartford, Conn.; John A. Andrew, Boston, Mass.; William Sprague, Providence, R. I,; E. D. Morgan, Albany, N. Y.; Andrew G. Curtin, Harrisburg, Pa.; Charles S. Olden, Trenton, N. J.; William Burton, Dover, Del.; David Tod, Columbus, Ohio; O. P. Morton, Indianapolis, Ind.; Alexander Ramsey, Saint Paul, Minn.; Austin Blair, Detroit, Mich.; Samuel J. Kirkwood, Davenport, Iowa; A. w. Bradford, Annapolis, Md.; F. H. Peirpoint, Wheeling, Va., H. R. Gamble, Saint Louis, Mo.; James F. Robinson, Louisville, Ky.)

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, D. C., September 4, 1862.

His Excellency O. P. MORTON,

Governor of Indiana:

Every minister who has pastoral charge of a church or congregation shall be exempt from military service by draft.

C. P. BUCKINGHAM,

Brigadier-General and Assistant Adjutant-General.

(The same to His Excellency David Tod, Governor of Ohio.)