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Yours received. Attend to the Indians. If the draft can not proceed, of course it will not proceed. Necessity knows no law. The government can not extend the time. A. LINCOLN
[1] ALS, RPB. The Sioux were on the warpath and the Cheyennes and Chippewas were in revolt against the government because of frauds practiced by Agent Lucius C. Walker. Governor Ramsey telegraphed at 10 P.M., August 26, ``With the concurrence of Commissioner Dole I have telegraphed the Secretary of War for an extension of one month of drafting, &c. The Indian outbreak has come upon us suddenly. Half the population of the State are fugitives. It is absolutely impossible that we should proceed. The Secretary of War denies our request. I appeal to you, and ask for an immediate answer. No one not here can conceive the panic in the State.'' (OR, I, XIII, 597). John G. Nicolay, whom Lincoln had sent to investigate the Indian troubles in Minnesota in July, joined Senator Morton S. Wilkinson and Commissioner William P. Dole in sending the following telegram from St. Paul on August 27, ``We are in the midst of a most terrible and exciting Indian war. Thus far the massacre of innocent white settlers has been fearful. A wild panic prevails in nearly one-half of the State. All are rushing to the frontier to defend settlers.'' (Ibid., 599).