en shall be discharged on parole
until exchanged. Scarcely had the cartel been signed, when the
military authorities of the United States commenced a practice
changing the character of the war, from such as becomes civilized
nations, into a campaign of indiscriminate robbery and murder.

A general order issued by the Secretary of War of the United
States, in the city of Washington, on the very day that the cartel
was signed in Virginia, directs the military commanders of
the United States to take the property of our people, for the
convenience and use of the army, without compensation.

A general order issued by Major-General Pope, on the 23d of July
last, the day after the date of the cartel, directs the murder of
our peaceful citizens as spies, if found quietly tilling their
farms in his rear, even outside of his lines.

And one of his brigadier-generals, Steinwehr, has seized innocent
and peaceful inhabitants, to be held as hostages, to the end that
they may be murdered in cold blood if any of his soldiers
are killed by some unknown persons whom he designates as
"bushwhackers." Some of the military authorities seem to suppose
that their end will be better attained by a savage war in which no
quarter is to be given, and no age or sex is to be spared, than by
such hostilities as are alone recognized to be lawful in modern
times. We find ourselves driven by our enemies by steady progress
toward a practice which we abhor, and which we are vainly
struggling to avoid.

Under these circumstances, this Government has issued the
accompanying general order, which I am directed by the President
to transmit to you, recognizing Major-General Pope and his
commissioned officers to be in the position which they have chosen
for themselves--that of robbers and murderers, and not that of
public enemies, entitled, if captured, to be treated as prisoners
of war. The President also instructs me to inform you that we
renounce our right of retaliation on the innocent, and will
continue to treat the private soldiers of General Pope's army as
prisoners of war; but if, after notice to your Government that
they confine repressive measures to the punishment of commissioned
officers who are willing to participate in these crimes, the
savage practices threatened in the orders alluded to be persiste