March, 1863; that as such officer he begun to enroll in Hegins Twonship early in the morning of Thursday, the 4th day of June, 1863, and continued enrolling until between 4 and 5 o"clock in the afternoon; that he came to Israel Stutzman's shoemaker shop in said township at about 4 o"clock in the afternoon, and there enrolled said Stutzman, and soon after he was in he was followed by Christian Stutzman and Abraham Bressler. That said Abraham Bressler then and there told him that it was the best for him that he did not come in his, said Bressler's, house, or he, said Bressler, would have killed him or broken his bones for him; that he could stop enrolling and go home, that would be the best for him; that he could stop enrolling and go home, that would be the best for him; that he should not take the enrollment there, nor anybody else, and also, "if this was in my house," he said, "I would give it to you in the right way; but I have got no right here, I know that." That said Israel Stutzman and Christian Stutzman both joined in with said Bressler and laughed at what he said, and both of them said, " Lincoln ought to go in this war," and said Israel Stutzman also called the deponent a negro catcher" that when he let the shop and proceeded on further to make the enrollment the said three persons above named all came out of the shop also and followed him for a considerable distance, all of them together, and shouting at and quarreling with him as they went, and the said Abraham Bressler, also, all the time had a stone in his hand; that he cannot state what the three or any one of them said while they were so following him, but they were all angry and seemed to be threatening him and he was afrt by them, and so desisted and was driven off from enrolling any further there and went home. That when he had gone from them about a mile on his way home, he came across two men together whom he did not know and cannot name, in the woods by the roadside, and they haileim the best way for him would be to go home and not enroll there any more. And that when he had gone yet a half a mile or so still farther on his road home, he met three other men in the road, no one he knew or can name, and one of whom had a gun in his hands, and they too all told him the best way for him would be to go home; and that, by reason of what he has stated above, he was deterred from enrolling any more then or since in said Hegins Township, and believes he is in danger of his life or of bodily injury if he does so. And further he says not.

P. W. KUTZ.

Subscribed and sworn to this 8th day of June, A. D. 1863, before me.

JACOB REED,

Justice of the Peace.

WASHINGTON CITY, June 10, 1863.

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States:

DEAR SIR: Through your very kind favor I obtained on the 28th of November, 1862, from your Secretary of War an order by which the members of the Benediction order were relieved from military duty, because by the religious belief and doctrine of said order, it is unlawful to bear arms, and the monks are bound irrevocably to the order by solemn vows, and are thereby prevented from taking up arms, their mission being a mission of peace.