approve of all you there find, but because they lay bare the views and feelings of the editor more completely than any of the other numbers. For a similar reason I forward you also the Burlington Argus, of the 19th inst., containing a letter from Mr. Mahony, expressive of his views and opinions at that time.

With regard to Mr. Sheward, I have not the same kind of testimony. His is a weekly paper of limited circulation-confined, as I believe, almost entirely to a single interior county of the State. I think I have not seen a number of it for the last three months, and have not one within my reach.

What either of these gentlemen have said or done outside of their respective newspapers, I have no means of knowing, except by their own statement, as I have seen neither of them since October of last year until I saw them in prison. But from the facts above above detailed, I feel authorized to express the belief-which I do, most unqualifiedlythat neither of them has done any act which would call for their arrest or incarceration for a single moment; and I fully believe that your Department has been imposed upon by the hasty zeal of some persons, or by some other cause which I do not feel justified or inclined to suggest.

But although you may think me mistaken in this respect, I respectfully submit whether these prisoners are not entitled to be informed of the nature of the accusation against them and to have an early opportunity to convince you of their innocence.

I hope, however, they will be at once permitted to return to their homes, strengthened in that loyalty to the Government which can best be created and preserved by a reliance on its justice, and a trust in the continuance of all those safeguards with which the Constitution and the Laws have so care

fully endeavored to protect the liberties of each and every citizen.

Yours, very respectfully,

CHAS. MASON.

It will scarcely be credited by the American people that a prisoner in the custody of the Government, on the application of himself and of his counsel to be informed of what crime he is accused, and to have a hearing or trial so as to determine whether he is guilty of any offense or not, would be answered in the tyrannical manner stated in the foregoing appeal to the War Department.

"Let them prove themselves innocent," was the mandate of Assistant Secretary Watson.

"Innocent of what?" enquired Judge Mason. "How are they to know of what they are to prove themselves innocent?"

But appeal and remonstrance was alike in vain. All that Judge Mason could get for an answer to his application for charges, for a trial, for an investigation was, "Let them prove themselves innocent," and from that day till the day the prisoners were discharged on the 11th of November, after being nearly three months incarcerated, they were neither informed of the nature of the charges against them, nor had they ever, even on the day of their release and discharge, any trial, investigation of the charges against them, if any were made, or examination, although there was not a week passed that they did not plead for a hearing, trial, investigation, anything that would give them an opportunity to be heard in their own defense. These applications were made to every official, from the President down to detective Baker, all to the same effect, in vain. No reply was ever returned to any application or solicitation of this kind. The only official who interested himself to obtain for any of

the prisoners a hearing, was the Superintendent of the Old Capitol, whose humane impulses would, despite his partisan prejudices, influence him to act in their behalf.

A PROPOSITION TO TAKE BONDS FOR THE RELEASE OF PRISONERS.

About the middle of September, Superintendent Wood came to me, and said that my friends in Dubuque had sent a bond signed for my release, and that if I would sign it I would be discharged forthwith. I enquired what the bond was, and who had directed or authorized it to be given on my account.

Mr. Wood replied that the bond was in the penal sum of $10,000, and conditioned upon my preserv ing the relations of good citizenship towards the Government.

"That would imply," said I to Mr. Wood, "that I have heretofore not complied with what is due from me as a good citizen, which I do not admit till I be tried and convicted of some offense against the Government. I know my own heart, Mr. Wood, and I know that there is not a more loyal and devoted friend of this Government living than I am. Therefore, I will give no bond which would imply or admit in any way that I have been guilty of any offense against the Government, and though I desire beyond anything else now to be released from this Bastile, not so much on my own account, bad as my health is, but on account of my suffering wife and children, I will stay here and rot before I sign any bond such as that you propose.

I was surprised how it came that any such thing as a bond of the kind referred to was gotten up without my knowledge or consent, and on after en

quiry I found that there was nothing of the kind. The proposition was made me to ascertain whether I would agree to anything of the kind, and then when my consent should be obtained, the bond would be sent to my friends for their signature.

Writing to my wife about this matter under date of September 22d, which letter passed through the hands of the Judge Advocate, I said:

"I hear that some one has sent a Bond here on which to obtain my release. While I am much obliged to my friends for this proof of their regard and confidence, I shall never sign any Bond which would imply that I have been guilty of any crime or offense towards the Government. I offered my services, as thousands in Iowa have done, to maintain the supremacy of the Government and to put down the rebellion; and I would give my life to maintain the Constitutional authority of the President or of any other officer or branch of the Government, just as readily as I have offered myself a victim to partisan malice and arbitrary power, for defending the Constitution from violation and the Government from subversion. Hence, why should I give any Bond for my future course? I shall not do it, be the result what it might.'

This ended the Bond business, so far as I was concerned. Several others gave the required Bonds. Indeed, all others did to whom the proposition was made, so far as I was informed.

MILITARY COMMISSION FOR THE TRIAL OF POLITICAL OFFENDERS.

The purpose of the Secretary of War, a purpose no doubt determined on by the Administration, after due consideration-to try the Prisoners of State

by a Military Commission, was so far carried into effect as to have the Commission constituted for that purpose. This was done about the middle of September, by an order of the Secretary of War, naming Generals Hunter, Cadwallader and others, for that purpose. Application for a copy of this order at the War Department, did not succeed in obtaining it; and if the original can be destroyed, there is not much doubt it will be done. "Why?" the reader may enquire; because as soon as the result of the October elections was known, this Commission which was to try the Prisoners of State, was used for another purpose, and this was done to cloak the real designs of the Administration in constituting the Commission. The result of the October elections deterred the Secretary of War from carrying into effect his design to try by his Military Commission civilians who had had no connection whatever with the army. Had the elections gone in favor of the Administration, these Prisoners of State would in all probability be not only tried by this Commission, but convicted on the secret testimony obtained against them, and executed, as was no doubt the design of the Administration. The Military Commission was so constituted that any verdict desired by the Administration was likely to be obtained, when it affected only the liberty and life of one who believed that it was to the Constitution and the Government instituted by it, that he owed allegiance and duty, and not to the enemies of both.

The fact that a copy of the order containing this Commission was refused to be given, shows that it is designed to keep a knowledge of its existence and of its objects from the public. But the order was published in the newspapers at the time it was issued, and although the writer has not been able to reproduce it here, there is no doubt of the fact