out dispute Governor Gamble appoints the officers of this force, and
fills vacancies when they occur. The question now practically in dispute
is: Can Governor Gamble make a vacancy by removing an officer or accepting
a resignation? Now, while it is proper that this question shall be
settled, I do not perceive why either Governor Gamble or the government
here should care which way it is settled. I am perplexed with it only
because there seems to be pertinacity about it. It seems to me that it
might be either way without injury to the service; or that the offer of
the Secretary of War to let Governor Gamble make vacancies, and he (the
Secretary) to ratify the making of them, ought to be satisfactory.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL CURTIS.

[Cipher.]

WASHINGTON, November 30, 1862.

MAJOR-GENERAL CURTIS, Saint Louis, Missouri:

Frank Blair wants Manter's Thirty-second, Curly's Twenty seventh, Boyd's
Twenty-fourth and the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry to go with him down the
river. I understand it is with you to decide whether he shall have them
and if so, and if also it is consistent with the public service, you will
oblige me a good deal by letting him have them.

A. LINCOLN.

ON EXECUTING 300 INDIANS

LETTER TO JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 1, 1862.

JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL.

SIR:--Three hundred Indians have been sentenced to death in Minnesota by
a military commission, and execution only awaits my action. I wish your
legal opinion whether if I should conclude to execute only a part of them,
I must myself designate which, or could I leave the designation to some
officer on the ground?

Yours very truly,

A. LINCOLN.

ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 1, 1862.

FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES--Since your
last annual assembling another year of health and bountiful harvests
has passed; and while it has not pleased the Almighty to bless us with a
return of peace, we can but press on, guided by the best light he gives
us, trusting that in his own good time and wise way all will yet be well.

The correspondence touching foreign affairs which has taken place during
the last year is herewith submitted, in virtual compliance with a request
to that effect, made by the House of Representatives near the close of the
last session of Congress.

If the condition of our relations with other nations is less gratifying