by members of the same family that is the basis of the exemption, and it is wholly immaterial whether this contribution be made personally or through substitute.

JAMES B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., August 24, 1863.

Brigadier-General THOMAS,

Adjutant-General, Cairo:

Abstain from issuing any proclamations or public calls, and confine ourself to executing your instructions by organizing troops. If there be any occasion for relief to women, children, and infirm persons, report to the Department specially and fully the facts and wait for instructions.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

If General Thomas shall have left Cairo forward the above telegram to him at Memphis and Vicksburg.

CHICAGO, ILL., August 24, 1863 - 10.30 p. m.

His Excellency President A. LINCOLN:

The Common Council, Chicago, on the 10th instant appropriated $120,000 to be expended in procuring volunteers to take the place of poor men with families who might be drafted from Chicago. They appointed a committee of eleven, including the undersigned, to take charge of the business, and specially authorized them to correspond and confer with any of the Federal authorities in relation to the fairness of the inscriptions, the acceptance of said volunteers in lieu of drafted men, and such other matters as might pertain to the efficient performance of their duties under the ordinance.

A sub-committee appointed to wait on the Board of Enrollment reported that they were informed by the Board that the number of names enrolled for this city was over 28,000, while the entire rate of the city was 20,347; that they, the sub-committee, believed the enrollment contained 40 per cent., or 8,000, more names than could have been legally entered, and requested of the Board permission to take a copy of the corrected consolidation list in order to canvass it and suggest corrections; that the request was refused on the ground, among others, that the list had been sealed up and the Board did not feel authorized to unseal it without authority from Washington. Therefore the committee adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That a sub-committee, to be composed of the mayor and comptroller, be, and is hereby, appointed to obtain from the President of the United States or other proper authority permission for the committee to take copies of the corrected consolidated list of this district, which embraces the city, now on file in the office of the Board of Enrollment of this district, and such other documents and papers as will enable this committee to ascertain the correctness of said list, and all other matters pertaining to the draft in this city.

The undersigned accordingly represent that the desire of the committee and the city authorities is not to impede in any way the execution of the conscription law, but only to secure justice and prevent unfairness in the operation upon the people of Chicago, to properly