The Sun. — 1862-08-22 (London, England)

COO-PET, A. A The following is the letter of Jeff. Davis to Gen. Lee, instructing him to communicate the facts in the above order to the Commander-in-Chief of the United States armies :  "Sir,--.On the 23d of this month a cartel for a "Richmond, Va., July 31, 1862. general exchange of prisoners o'f war was signed between Major-General D. 11. Hill, in behalf of the Confederate States, and Major-General J. A. Dix in behalf of the United States. By the terms of that cartel it is stipulated that all prisoners of war hereafter taken shall be discharged on parole till exchanged. Scarcely had that cartel been signed when the military authorities of the United States commenced a practice of changing the character of the war from such as becomes civilised nations into a campaign of indiscriminate robbery and murder. The 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 military commanders of the United States to take the private property of our people for the convenience and use of their armies, with.  out compensation. " The general order issued by Major-General Pope on July 23, the day after the signing of the cartel, directs the murder of our peaceful inhabitants as spies if found quietly tilling the farms in his rear, even outside of his lines ; and one of his brigadier-generals, Steinwehr, has seized upon  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." Under this state of facts this government has issued the inclosed general order, recognising General Pope and his commanding 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 considered as prisoners of war. %V 0 find ourselves driven by our enemies by steady progress toward a practice which we abhor, and which we are vainly struggling to avoid. Some of the military authorities of the United States seem to suppose that better success will attend a savage war, in which no quarter is to be given, and no age or sex to be spared, than has hitherto been secured by such hostilities as are alone recognised to be lawful by civilised men in modern times.  " For the present we renounce our right of retaliation on the innocent, and shall continue to treat the private enlisted soldiers of General Pope's army as prisoners of war ; but if after notice to the Government at Washington of our continuing repressive measures to the punishment only of commissioned officers, who are willing participants in these crimes, the savage practices are continued, we shall reluctantly be forced to the last resort of accepting the war on the terms chosen byour foes, until the outraged voice of a common humanity forces a respect for the recognised rules of war. While these facts would justify our refusal to exercise the generous cartel by which we have consented to liberate an excess of thousands of prisoners held by as beyond the number held by the enemy, a sacred regard to plighted faith, shrinking from the mere semblance of breaking a promise, prevents our resort to this extremity.  "Nor do we desire to extend to any other forces of the enemy the punishment meted above by General Pope and such commissioned officers as chose to participate in his infamous orders.  " You are therefore instructed to ommunicate to the commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States the contents of this letter and a copy xanduacu gruunii oraer, mat lie may be notified of our intention not to consider any officers hereafter captured from General Pope's army as prisoners of war.  " Very respectfully yours, &c., "