recruit and keep up the strength of the armies in the field, for garrisons, and such military operations as may be required for the purpose of suppressing the rebellion and restoring the authority of the United States Government in the insurgent States," and it is made by law the duty of this Department to assign the quotas to be furnished by the respective States for that purpose, and for that purpose only. The quota of your State has been communicated to you by the proper officer of this Department. A short time ago, at your request, authority was given you to call out certain additional forces for certain specific purposes, expressed in your letter of request and in the response of this Department. The Secretary of War has, in my judgement, no authority to change the purpose of the President's call. Whatever force the arguments presented in your letter might have upon the question of giving up the contest and ending the war, by acknowledging the independence of the rebel States and the inability of the Government to suppress the rebellion, they do not, in my judgment, afford any lawful reason for the Department to make any allowance on the quota of the State of Maine for the purpose stated in your letter. I have no reason to doubt that if the certain contingencyu should occur, the Federal Government will be under obligations to provide means of defense for the State ontingency does not now exist, and no fact is known to the Department which indicates any reasonable ground of apprehension that it is likely to occur. Other States are exposed to the same dangers, and the whole force called for by the President might, with equal reason, be absorbed in guarding against dangers not now impending. Our armies in the field are rapidly diminishing from casualties in battle and other incidents of a fierce and extensive war. Strong places captured from the enemy require to be immediately garrisoned to prevent their reconquest. Other points held by the rebel army require operations for their reduction. These are existing, imminent, and indispensable necessities, upon which the national existence depends. They are the purpose for which the troops have been called and to which the law and the President's proclamation require that they should be applied and credited. What you ask in not a "favor" within the power of this Department to bestow. Whether you will 'say to the people of Maine that this pitiful favor has been refused them," or whether you will appeal to their patriotism and paramount interest in the national existence to answer the President's call and afford him the means to put an end to the war the has cost them so much blood and so much treasure, is for your own judgment to decide.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

WAR DEPT., PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., August 11, 1864.

His Excellency JOEL PARKER,

Governor of New Jersey, Trenton, N. J.:

SIR: Your letter of July 27, 1864, to His Excellency the President of the United States, remonstrating against men being drafted and held to fill the vacancies occasioned by the drafted men who fail to report and become deserters, has been referred to this office. In reply, I have the honor to inform you that the point of law involved in this

39 R R-SERIES III, VOL IV