of the men to be drafted as aforesaid, among the towns and cities, so that after such draft, shall be completed, the number of men heretofore furnished by, together with the number of mentha may be drafted from the several towns and cities shall be in proportion which the number of enrolled militia in the several towns and cities shall bear to the whole enrolled militia of the State.

WILLIAM E. CHANDLER,

Speaker of the House of Represantives.

ONSLOW STEARNS,

President of the Senate.

Approved July 10, 1863.

J. A. GILMORE,

Governor.

With that degree of promptitude which the importance of the subject demanded, Governor Gilmore, on the very day of their passage, sent a copy of these resolutions to the Secretary of War, accompanied by the following letter, in which "the most palpable injustice" of any other policy than that indicated by the legislative resolutions is commented upon with a power of argument and illustration that would seem equivalent to demonstration.

(Numbers 2.) EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Concord, N. H., July 10, 1863.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War of United States:

DEAR SIR: Inclosed herewith I send you a copy of resolutions adopted by our Legislature in relation to the draft soon about to take place under the recent act of Congress. Permit me to urge upon you the importance of making the arrangement contemplated by those resolutions. Each of our towns is an independent municipality. Some of them have already furnished more than their quota of volunteers under the calls of the President and have taxed themselves heavily to do so, in the shape of bounties, while others have not furnished a single volunteer or paid a dollar to encourage enlistments.

Now, it would be the grossest and most palpable injustice to draft from towns that have already furnished more than their share of volunteers the same number of men in proportion to their enrolment as in those towns that have furnished none. For instance, suppose two towns, in the State where the enrollment is just 200 in each; from one of these towns fifty men are already in the field as volunteers, while from the other not a single man has volunteered. The result is that in the latter town its whole 200 enrolled men are at home while in the former there are but 150. If now a draft is made from those towns in proportion to the enrolled men remaining at home, say of one-tenth, the town that has already furnished fifty soldiers for the war will be called upon for fifteen, while twenty will be demanded of the other, so that after the other, so that after the draft is completed one town will have furnished sixty-five men at an expense of $15,000 or $20,000 in bounties, while the other will have furnished but twenty men without a dollar's expense for bounties. Yet by right one should have been equally burdened with the other.

You will at once perceive, my dear sir, the great difficulty of enforcing a draft, so manifest unjust as it would be, carried out as suggested. Our people would almost revolt at such an outrage upon plainest principle of justice and equality.

What would be right and what should be done, as it seems to me, is that instructions be issued to our provost-marshals to take into consideration in making the draft the number of men already furnished by each town inthe present war, and to make the draft in such a way as to equalize the number of men taken from each town for the war, whether as volunteer or by draft.

This is a matter which comes home to the feelings and sentiments of our people very strongly, and I beg of you, my dear sir, that you will not hesitate at once to issue the orders necessary to secure to secure to our citizens and towns that equal and exact justice to which, under every consideration of public policy and natural equity, they are so clearly entitled.

I remain, in great haste, with the highest respect, your obedient servant,

J. A. GILMORE,

Governor of New Hampshire.