Please favor me with a copy of such instructions as you may give, in order that they may be communicated to the Secretary of the Treasury.
Yours, truly,
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.
POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CONTRACT OFFICE,
Washington, February 3, 1868.
The Honorable the SECRETARY OF WAR.
SIR: It has been represented to this Department that in October last a military commission was appointed to settle upon some general plan of defense for the Texas frontiers, and that the said commission has made a report recommending a line of posts from the Rio Grande to the Red River.
An application is now pending in this Department for a change in the course of the San Antonio and El Paso mail, so as to send it by way of Forts Mason, Griffin, and Stockton instead of Camps Hudson and Lancaster. This application requires immediate decision, but before final action can be had thereon it is desired to have some official information as to the report of the commission above referred to.
Accordingly, I have the honor to request that you will cause this Department to be furnished as early as possible with the information desired in the premises, and also with a copy of the report, if any has been made by the commission.
Very respectfully, etc.,
GEO. W. McCLELLAN,
Second Assistant Postmaster-General.