HIBRARY OF CONGRESS. # 
 
 # # 
 
 IFORCE COLLEOTIONJ ^ 
 
 ^UNITED STATES OK AMERICA. | 
 
*7A • ^^ , u>v>vv^ , #^^^0(^^,0^ ^t.4.vuu..e^ (h 7::p\^ mt^^^.«^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 -BETWEEN — 
 
 ( — 
 
 aE]SrERA.L POPE, 
 
 Commanding Military Division of the Missouri, 
 
 u^I>^JD HIS KXCELLENCY" 
 
 aO^. FLETCHER, 
 
 CONCERXING THE 
 
 CONDITIOX OF AFFAIRS IN MISSOUIU, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 RELATION OF THE MILITATIY FORCES THERETO. 
 
 
 ■ y 
 
 SATNT LOUIS: 
 
 R. P. STirjlI.EV AND CO., PRINTERS, f ORNER MAIX AND Or.IVK STS 
 1805. 
 
• ILZ4- 
 
^ 
 
 HEADQUARTERS, MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI, 
 Sr. Louis, Mo., March. \Olh, 180r». 
 
 General Orders, 
 No. 2. 
 
 The tbllowiiig correspondence is published for the information 
 of all Military Commanders in the Division of the Missouri. 
 
 By COMMAND OF Major General Pope 
 
 J, McC. BELL, 
 Assistant Adjutant General, 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 LETTER FROM GOVERNOR FLETCHER. 
 
 LiNDELL Hotel, March 2, 1865. 
 
 General : In order that I may be able to determine as to the 
 propriety of the use of some of the means I have in contemplation for 
 the future security of the people of Missouri, I have the honor to 
 request that you will give me your views as to the best uses of the 
 military forces of the United States in this Department, and their 
 relation to the present and prospective condition of this State. 
 
 I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 THOS. C. FLETCHER. 
 
 Major General Pope, 
 
 Comdg. Military Division of the Missouri. 
 
4 
 LETTEll FKOM GENEKAL POPE. 
 
 Head Quarters Military Division of the Missouri, 
 St. Louis, March 8. 180-3. 
 
 Governor : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 3'onr 
 letter of the 2d inst., asking my views as to " the best uses of the U. 
 S. military forces, and their relation to the present and prospective 
 condition of this State," in view of certain measures contemplated by 
 you for the future security of th(?])eople of Missouri. 
 
 Although in replying to your letter I shall be obliged to notice a 
 condition of things not pleasant to contemplate, I have sufficient con- 
 fidence in the good sense and practical judgment of the people of 
 Missouri, as exhibited in the late elections and in the measures adopted 
 by your Legislature and State Convention, to feel confident that they 
 are prepared to meet and settle any questions affecting the welfare and 
 prosperity of the State, however grave or unpleasant. 
 
 Until I reached this cit}^, I had sui)j)osed that the ditficulties whicli 
 had disturbed the State for the ])ast three years had either been practi- 
 cally settled, or were in a fair way of settlement, and that Missouri 
 would soon resume the full exercise of her civil functions, and dis- 
 pense entirely with the cumbersome, inefficient, and altogether anom- 
 alous machinery of ytrovost marshals, provost guards, and military 
 supervision. I knew tliat the Union iiarty at the fall elections had 
 carried the State by an o\erwhelming majority, and that a loyal Gov- 
 ernor and a loyal Legislature wei'c now in ))owcr at Jefferson City. It 
 did not seem too miud) t<> expect of the opjiosition party in Missour^ 
 that a large portion nf it would at least be opposed to the whole gu( 
 rilla system, which has so long atHicted the State, and would, like 
 reasonable men, regard bushwhackers as the destroyers of all civil \ 
 organization and the enemies of mankind. 
 
 I knew that since Price was driven from the State, no organized 
 force of the enemy could be found within the borders of Missouri. ! 
 fully believed in the capacity of the American iieo|)le for self-govern- 
 ment, and their determination to retain it ; and I presumed of course 
 that the people of Missouri had at once, and earnestly, assumed tlie 
 performance of their civil duties, and were i-ajiidly placing the State 
 in the positioiL it ought always to have occupied. I hoped to find tlie 
 military forces in process of being relieved from the anomalous and 
 anti-American functions whicli had been forced upon them by the 
 extraordinaiy necessities of the past three years, and concentrated t'oi' 
 service in otlior fields, and against the oi'ganized forces of the'oiieniv . 
 
 . XL 
 
 urW 
 
I iieeil not tell you, however, that such is bv no means the condi- 
 tion of thintrs which I lind iu Missouri. On the contrary, there has 
 not been a time since the rebellion began when your civil aftairs have 
 been more under the control of a military police than they are to-day. 
 I am ^lad to he informed, by many of your most loyal and res))ecta- 
 ble citizens, that order lias been, to a great extent, ])re?erved, and 
 treason overawed, by the action of the military guards and Provost 
 ^Farshals in this State; and those who complain of oppression or 
 irregularity on the part of Provost Marshals in the performance of 
 their duties must remember that the adoption of martial law was 
 I'ssential to the safety of the State ; that under martial law Provost 
 ^farshals must necessarily come into existence, and the exercise of 
 great power may, in some instances, be confided to men who subse- 
 • luently prove unworthy of their trusts. The only wonder is tiiat 
 there have been so few wrongs committed, and so few rights invaded, 
 during the existence of such a condition of government in Missouri. 
 But it is surely needless to say that the longer such a system is con- 
 tinued the greater will be the liability to abuse: and, as a logical 
 result, what are now rare and exceptional cases of outrage and injus- 
 tice on the part of the Provost Marshals and soldiers, will gradually 
 but surely become of far more general occurrence ; and you may ex- 
 }>ect tin ally to see your State under the complete dominion of the niil- 
 itary. There will then be scarce a square yard of the State which will 
 not enjoy the felicity of some military functionary. They will come 
 to perform the duties of all the civil magistrates — to be the tinal judges 
 of all things. Into every province of civil law, and even of domestic 
 life, these military otficials will in time most assuredly intrude, and 
 become tlie tinal arbiters of both morals and manners. 
 
 What will become of the citizen under this extraordinary state of 
 government? The simple mention of a few instances, I trust excejt- 
 tional, which have been brought to my knowledge by undoubted 
 authority since my arrival in St Louis, will sufRciently answer : 
 
 By the authorities in Washington my attention has been called to 
 the fact that Provost Marshals in several districts of Missouri are seiz- 
 ing and selling property, themselves being the judges of law and fact, 
 and the custodians and disposers of the property involved. Another 
 instance: An application wasmade since my arrival here for an order 
 to take a military guard across the river into the State of Illinois, and 
 arrest a citizen of that State, living twenty miles distant, and bring 
 him to the military prison in this city, because a colored man, also 
 living in Illinois, complained that the white man owed him for several 
 days" labor, and had abused him when he asked for the money. An- 
 other case, mentioned to me by a loyal gentleman of this cit}', a man 
 
6 
 
 of liiii^h cliiiractcr and uiuloubted veracity. A iiuarn'l occurred 
 between a man and his wife, in one of the interior towns of tlie State, 
 in which, on comjdaint of the wife, the Provost Marshal arrested tlio 
 Imsband. made liini divide his property with his wife, and then ban- 
 islied him from the State. These are some of the cases (rare and 
 exceptional, it is to be hoped,) which have already occurred. What 
 would be the condition of things after long persistence in a system 
 which logically and surely tends to such abuses? 
 
 If it were not sad and humiliating, it would be ludicrous, to see 
 citizens, the most distinguished in position and intelligence, appeal- 
 ing for justice and protection to a Provost Marshal and invoking his 
 decision of grave questions atfecting life, liberty and pro]ierty. 
 
 As I said before, there are no organized forces of the enemy in 
 the State, and I doubt not that twenty bushwhackers to each county 
 would be considered a liberal estimate of the number of these enemies 
 to mankind. In some counties there are doubtless more, in others 
 fewer — but even in those counties most infested by them, they bear 
 an absurdly small proportion to the inhabitants. These are all the 
 enemies of peace and quiet now to be found within the borders of 
 Missouri, and the}' are equally the enemies of every man in the State 
 who has anything to lose. 
 
 Can there be a man in Missouri willing to admit that if every 
 soldier were to-da}- withdrawn from the State, the people would be 
 unable to exterminate these small parties of robbers and thieves ; in 
 other words, to say that the people of Missouri are incapable of self- 
 government, unable to execute the laws which they themselves have 
 made, against these ridiculously small parties of outlaws and va- 
 grants? Who does not know that the State is abundantly able to 
 free herself from these pests, if the people will only do then* dut}', and 
 that duty the very first ever performed by man and equally recog- 
 nized by all classes and conditions of men ? 
 
 This seeming neglect of the duiy and the privilege of American 
 citizens, a duty by the strict performance of which alone can we 
 maintain our freedom and our free institutions, is to be attributed 
 mainly, I think, if not wholly, to an alarming and fatal tendency 
 among the peo})le, which I have been astonished and dismayed to 
 notice elsewhere in more favored regions, to surrender to the military 
 the execution of the laws, and thus to abandon all safeguards against 
 tyranny and oppression, and to pass unconsciously into a condition 
 of acquiescence in the complete dominion of military authority. 
 Once let the American people abandon themselves to this practice^ 
 
which indulgence cuntirms into liaLit, und their liberties are gone 
 from them forever. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that under free institutions, the mili- 
 tary is subordinate to the civil power, and that the life of a free gov- 
 ernment depends upon maintaining this relation. There are, no 
 doubt, occasions where, in consequence of the presence of the enemy, 
 or other extraordinary cause, martial law may become necessary in 
 certain limited sections of the country ; but such violent and excep- 
 tional reversal of the true condition of things, should in every case be 
 made to terminate with the immediate necessity which justified it. 
 
 There is no doubt that for a long time afte.- the rebellion was 
 inaugurated, military authority was necessarily and yjroperly made to 
 supersede the civil power in Missouri, and perhaps that necessity 
 existed until the inauguration of a new State government at Jefferson 
 City. It would seem, however, that such a necessity should not exist 
 much longer. I presume we will agree that not one step should ever 
 have been taken in the direction of military supremacy except what 
 was essentially necessary. Tet I find that although the pressure of 
 that necessity was far stronger in Missouri in 1861 than to-day, and 
 although in those days the enemies of the State and of the Union occu- 
 lted one-half of the State with organized armies, and the malcontents 
 who remained at home were infinitely more active and more danger- 
 ous, because more hopeful, the extent of the military jurisdiction was 
 trifling in comparison with what I now find it. There can be no 
 reason for such a state of things, except that people once accustomed 
 to yield their civil jurisdiction from the pressure of temporary neces- 
 sity, soon acquire the habit of acquiescence after discovering how 
 much trouble it spares them, and how much more easy it is, instead 
 of performing their civil duties themselves, 'to devolve them upon 
 soldiers and Provost Marshals. If a man is murdered, if a house is 
 robbed, if any breach of civil law is committed, how much easier it is 
 to write a note to the nearest Provost Marshal informing him of the 
 fact, and then remain quietly at home attending to one's business, 
 than to be summoned on a jury, called out as one of a posse, or in 
 any other manner put to inconvenience. According to statements 
 made to me by many of your citizens, this practice prevails to an 
 alarming exteiat in this State, and unless it can be arrested and the 
 citizens induced to resume the performance of their duties, I can see 
 no redemption for Missouri. 
 
 If the war were ended to-day. und the Union restored, I do not 
 see that the condition of your State would be at all bettered. On the 
 contrary, the thousands of your people who are in the rebel armies, 
 
8 
 
 being disbuiided and returning to Missouri, lawless vagrants, without 
 the means of livelihood or the inclination to work, would simply 
 reinforce the small bands of bushwhackers and outlaws which now 
 infest the State. The troops, too, now stationed in Missouri, would 
 be disbanded by a return of peace, and the people of the State would 
 at last be brought face to face with this question, and without the 
 advantages which they now possess. This question must some day be 
 met and settled by the people themselves. Is there likely to be a more 
 favorable season than now ? On the contrary, does not every day lost 
 increase the ditiiculty ? Is it likely that the people will be more wil- 
 ling or more able in one year or ten years to resume the ]ierformance 
 of their civil duties than they are to-day ? If they be more willing, 
 will they have the same aid then that they can have now in the under- 
 taking ? 
 
 To resume the functions of civil government in Missouri will 
 undoubtedly, at the outset, be a work full of labor and sacritice, and 
 will require unusual fortitude and determination on the ])art of the 
 people; but as it is a work which must be done sooner or later, and 
 as there can nevei% to human foresight, be a better opportunity for 
 that purpose than the present, surely now is the time to do it. 
 
 Some of your people object that they have no organizations, and 
 wish me to issue orders to assist them in organizing ; but such orders 
 have again and again been issued without producing the effect. 
 General or special orders from military commanders can never infuse 
 into the people what alone is needed — and without which nothing can 
 be effected — an earnest, resolute determination to act for them- 
 selves, to resume their manhood and their civil ja-ivileges, and to put 
 down the outlaws who obstruct the execution of the laws and depre- 
 date u]ion the peojde. ' 
 
 Any organization for such a ])urposo, to be at all etfectual, in 
 fact to possess any vitality whatever, must originate with the ppo|)le 
 themselves, and be controlled by them. It is useless to talk of the 
 ])eoi)le co-operating with the military in carrying on a war of ex- 
 termination against guerrillas and outlaws, oi- in ettbrts to resume 
 control of the civil admini>^tration of your State. It is the military 
 who should CO o] erate with and aid the i5coj)le, not the people the 
 military. This distinction may not be obvious at lirst glance, but it 
 is a distinction vital to success. 
 
 Since certain orders, issued by me in JSGl, for the [(reservation 
 of },eace in North Missouri, have been mentioned in terms of approval 
 by public speakers in this city, and alluded to with favor, in peFSonal 
 interviews, by many of your citizens, it may not be impro])er for. me 
 
to state that it was tlio same earnest ai-tioii of the i)eo|'le whicli is now 
 proposed for the preservation of peace and the execution of civil law, 
 which I undertook to secure in North Missouri in 1861, by the orders 
 referred to. These orders were susjended and countermanded ])y 
 hig-ber authority than mine. At the time a majorit}^ of the peo))le of 
 Missouri were not pre])ared for Avhat was then considered an extreme 
 measure. 
 
 I believed then that the orders issued would force such action as 
 would lead to peace in the absence of orsjanized armies of the enemy. 
 1 have seen no reason since to cbange that opinion, but find you to- 
 day far better prepared for the extremest measures to secure peace in 
 the ytate than you weie then for orders which in these days would be 
 considered anytbing but radical. 
 
 If these orders be approved, wh}- not adopt now the popular 
 action wbich thev then recommended ? The jieople of ^Missouri are 
 able to enforce law and preserve peace in the State, if only they use 
 their power cordially and earnestly. Is it not better to use your civil 
 officers to execute your laws tban have them executed by provost 
 marshals? Tbe military forces under my command can and will 
 render you tbe same service in either case. It is onh^ suggested to 
 you that, for the present, you replace the provost marshals by your 
 civil officers, and let tbe military force required be applied under 
 their direction, and in conformity to law, and not under direction of 
 a ])rovost marshal, and in conformity with his discretion, ^lay it 
 not be apprehended, too, that your militia, a large and controlling 
 body of your own citizens, are being educated into habits of disre- 
 spect for 3'our civil authorities, and irreverence for civil law, by 
 being encouraged or permitted to usurp jurisdiction of civil questions 
 through provost marshals or military commanders. The lesson of 
 irreverence is soon learned, but of all lessons it is the most difficult to 
 unlearn. What reason have the people of Missouri to believe that 
 their militia, once taught such a lesson, will unlearn it whenever it is 
 found convenient to resume civil jurisdiction ? Is it not better, and 
 far more likely to secure respect for your civil authorities, to require 
 the troops to act under your civil officers in accordance with the laws 
 of the country ? Certainly the change from Provost Marshals to 
 civil officers in regulating the action of the military in civil matters, 
 can be easily made, and without the slightest danger of impairing the 
 efficiency of tbe military arm for that purpose. 
 
 Some have said that Missouri is iiot entirely regenerated, and 
 that although a loyal Governor and Legislature have been elected yet 
 there remain still in office many men who are neither loyal or trust- 
 
10 
 
 worthy. Tliu answer to this is iouiid in r(jsoluti<jns now l>cforc your 
 State Coveiitioii. That Convention embodies the sovereign ])ower of 
 Missouri, and can to-day vacate all or any of the civil offices in the 
 State and provide for filling them by the Governor of the State. 
 Until 3'ou have not only loyal men, but energetic and determined 
 men, who will do their duty with vigor and boldness, holding every 
 office in the State, it seems useless for ^^our Legislature to enact laws. 
 In fact, it is child's play to meet in Jefferson City to make laws which 
 are either not executed at all, or must be executed to the extent and 
 in the manner which suits the judgment or the fancy of Provost 
 Marshals or military commanders. Until the people of Missouri are 
 ready and willing to put forth their whole power to enforce the laws 
 they themselves have made, it is a farce to legislate. 
 
 I do not wish to be understood as advocating any abrujit or sud- 
 den change in the present condition of things. I only offer some 
 reasons why Missouri should take the first steps toward a resumption 
 of her civil functions. Surely, all ])ortions of tlie State are not 
 equally unsettled. In some counties it is probable that civil law is 
 enforced, and that neither martial law nor soldiers are necessary. In 
 other counties, not so fortunately situated, why will it not be well to 
 take steps at once to at least begin the resumption of civil adminis- 
 tration, aided, if necessary, by the military ? A little time only will 
 be required, if civil law is promptly administered, even with the aid 
 of soldiers, to make the people feel strong enough to execute the laws 
 themselves. Of course I am supposing that the civil officers act 
 vigorously and efficiently ; that they originate what is to be done, and 
 that the soldiers act only under their call and on their authority. 
 Slowly and gradually, county by county, the State could resume 
 its own administration and dispense with the military. 
 
 It is by such gradual and careful ])ro(,',oss that it seems to me cer- 
 tain results can be obtained. 
 
 Once let us make a beginning, and keep steadily and constantly 
 in view, in everything that is done, thattlic final object is the restoration 
 of civil administration, and it will not l)o found a long nor a difficult 
 task to accomplish the result. 
 
 But this end must never be lost sight of, and all arbitrary or ex- 
 cei)tional acts must be carefully avoided or done only under the 
 strongest and plainest necessity. Martial law seems essential now to 
 the protection of life and property and to the preservation of the State 
 from utter lawlessness, because it seems to be the onl^'^ law which is 
 generally enforced. Until the peo])le pi'ovide officers to execute their 
 
11 
 
 laws, wlio will be supported in doing so not only by the soldiers, but 
 by tbe great body of the citizens, martial law is your only protection 
 against violence and outrage. It rests with the people to replace it 
 by civil law, and that this can be gradually but surely done there is 
 not a doubt. 
 
 It seems idle to dwell upon the absolute necessit}^ of returning to 
 your civil status in the Union. Not only are your lives, liberties and 
 possessions at stake in this matter, but every moral and material in- 
 terest of the State is involved. Neither peace nor security at home, 
 nor emigration from abroad, can reasonably be expected under the 
 state of things which now obtains in Missouri. It is hardly to be 
 considered probable that people living in other States where they have 
 always possessed their civil rights and enjoyed the protection of civil 
 law, will find any temptation sufficient to induce them to emigrate to 
 Missouri and submit themselves to the risk of the present uncertain 
 and exceptional protection of life and property which is offered. 
 
 I trust that no one will believe that the military desire to continue 
 this state of things. I say for them, as their commander, that nothing 
 would be more satisfactory to them than to relinquish all connection 
 with your civil affairs, and to be transferred to some field where they 
 would confront the organized forces of the enemy, and where their 
 presence with our armies might determine the fate of battles. The 
 only duty which should now be required of the General Government 
 is to protect your State from an invasion of the organized forces of 
 the enemy. The proper position for United States troops assigned to 
 such duty is some point on the Arkansas river. How can troops be 
 sent there, when all the forces which can be spared for the defense 
 of Missouri are, on demand of your ])eople, kept scattered over the 
 State, on the plea that they are needed for protection against a few 
 outlaws and robbers ? 
 
 If I accept the views expressed to me by m^any of your citizens, 
 more troops are required for this service than would be sufficient to 
 beat the largest army that ever yet undertook the invasion of the State. 
 It is said that the disloyal men in the State harbor and assist the 
 bushwhackers. Such service is extremely hazardous, and if these 
 statements be true, a boldness and a spirit are exhibited by your dis- 
 loyal citizens, of which, if a tithe were exhibited by the loyal men, not 
 a "bushwhacker " would be found in Missouri at the end of sixty 
 days. Guerrillas and bushwhackers were never yet and never will 
 be put down by the operation of a military force alone. 
 
 How is it in Missouri? A company of troops is stationed in a 
 village or neighborhood to protect the i)eople against these outlaws. 
 
12 
 
 Two ()!• tlii-e(3 Itiisliw hackers (;oiiio into the town or poi'li:i|is live in it. 
 and commit robbery and murder in .some bouse. Before tbe troop.s 
 are notitied and <;et to the ground, the criminals have either Hed or 
 mingled with the crowd, and although every citizen in the pbice 
 knows precisely who were the oft'enders, where they live or who har- 
 bors them, not a word of information on the subject can be had from 
 them, lest the next night some of the party or some of their friends burn 
 the house or take the life of the informers. Is it expected that the trooj)s, 
 thus of necessity groping in the dark, can put down these outlaws, 
 when the very men needing, perhaps, certainly asking, the protection 
 of a military force, will not even give the slightest information ne- 
 cessary to identify the guilty or the dangerous y)arties ? That this is 
 really the condition of facts, I think you know. That it was so in 
 lSf,l and 1852, I know by my own experience in 3Eissouri In those 
 years. 
 
 What gi-ound is tiiere for belie\'iiig ihat a military force, in the 
 face of such inaction and fear on the part of the people, will ever be 
 able to find out who the bushwhackers are, to say nothing of finding out 
 where they are, or of exterminating tliem ? The fact is, that in many 
 parts of the interior of the State the people are living under a reign of 
 terror, dominated over and |)araylzed by a ridiculously small number 
 o{' outlaws and vagabonds. It is useless to comment upon such an 
 exhibition of — I will not say what — on the ])art of a large l)ody of 
 American people. It is only necessary here to express the con\iction 
 that just as long as this this strange paralysis continues, just so long 
 will the people of Missouri bo harrassed and ]»]uiidered by bush- 
 whackers, or by any other lawless vagabonds. \]\ the troops in the 
 world could not, under jiresent circumstarutes. jn-event it. 
 
 We come back then to the same question -Do the people of ]\[is- 
 souri intend to rouse themselves and execute, as well as make, their own 
 laws? A single exam])le of the trial of one of these outlaws before 
 your courts, and his execution l)y your civil authorities, would do 
 more to put an end to bushwhacking in ^lissouri than a thousand 
 military executions. Strip these rogues of respectability borrowed 
 from the notion that they are armed enemies and Southern soldiers, 
 and reduce them, by actual trial and punishment before your courts, 
 to their true status as outlaws and rutlans, guilty of theft and arson, 
 and you will deal them aiid their symi)athi/,ers such a blow as will go 
 far to end the business. In this undertaking you shall have all the 
 assistance the military can render you. The military forces employed 
 shall act under the direction of your civil officers according to law 
 and the practice in times ])nst. They can thus render you as much 
 assistance as in any other manner, and tlie resultof a success achieved 
 
under such circumstances will be of infinitely more benefit to you 
 than a thousand successes achieved by the mihtary alone. 
 
 I trust I shall be pardoned for so much reiteration, but plain as 
 are the principles set forth, and familiar as they ought to be, and 
 doubtless are, to all Americans, they seem to me to be regarded in 
 Missouri as mere abstractions, which arc true, certainly, but hardly 
 vital enough to control the action of the people. 
 
 I stand ready to aid the peoi)le of Missouri, by all the means at 
 my command, to resume their status as citizens. I will render them 
 both by word and deed every assistance which will tend to restore 
 civil governmentin Missouri, and most promptly and cheerfully, when 
 they have done this, will I withdraw the troops under my command 
 to their true position, under the Constitution and Laws of the United 
 States. It is only necessary to put reliable men into every civil office, 
 and to enact such lav, s as are necessary to restore peace and civil rights 
 in Missouri. The soldiers under my command stand ready at all times 
 to respond to the call of your civil officers, and to act under their di- 
 rection in helping to enforce the laws of the Stale. Such is the 
 position they ought now to occupy, and such is the position which 
 under the action of your State Convention and of the State Govern- 
 ment at Jefterson City, I trust they will bo ]iermitted to occupy in the 
 shortest possible period. 
 
 Of course I cannot indicate to you what I intend to do, because 
 you may readily understand from the foregoing remarks that any 
 measures which I shall adopt must of necessity depend upon the action 
 of the people of Missouri. If they will only resume their civil rights 
 and privileges, administer civil government and set to work to execute 
 their own laws, I stand ready to put an end to military jurisdiction at 
 a moment's notice. I will give all tb.e aid of the military to assist in 
 reducing us to this subordinate position, but until then I am compelled 
 to retain and administer martial law in the State. Unless you do it, 
 and that promptly, civil liberty and free institutions in this country 
 will have received a discouraging blow. 
 
 If Missouri, without an armed enemy within her borders, with a 
 loyal State Executive and civil officers, with an enormous majority 
 oHoyal citizens, and with all the aid the General Government is now 
 giving her, cannot resume her civil functions and execute her laws— 
 Tn other words conduct her local a^l ministration — what can be hoped 
 for the States further South, which do not possess the same advan- 
 tages ? 
 
 The example of Mi>=ouri, then, is of the last importance in 
 re-establishing the Union. If she fails even to attempt to administer 
 
14 
 
 her State Government, with a large force of United States troops to 
 aid her, it would seem almost hopeless to make the experiment 
 elsewhere. Missouri successful, and the problem of re-establishing 
 civil Government in the States farther South is far advanced towards 
 solution. Only earnestness and resolution are required. Can these 
 qualities be wanting in your people? Your State Convention has 
 emancipated the negroes — a groat work, well and bravely done. 
 Cannot the people of Missouri now emancipate themselves? Can 
 they not free themselves from the necessity of martial law ? Can 
 the\" not resume the performance of their duty as citizens, and 
 execute as well as make their own laws ? 
 
 With great respect, Governor, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN POPE, 
 
 Major General Commanding. 
 
 Hon. Thomas C. Fletcher, Governor of Missouri. 
 
 Official : 
 
 Assistant Adjutant General.