MY DEAR SIR: The time for delivering a battle upon the Potomac has now passed, and something _must and can be done_. In my opinion the following plan is still feasible, and will close the war: Let Rosecrans be ordered immediately to Kentucky with his army of veteran Northwestern troops. Substitute an equal or larger number of Eastern troops with an Eastern general, who will act strictly upon the defensive. Send your Northwestern troops now upon the Potomac to Cairo _at once_. Send Pope (if he is the man) to Missouri with sufficient arms to supply all the Northwestern regiments in readiness to march on the 1st day of December. Let an abundance of transports and material be provided at Cairo and St. Louis, by that date (December 1st). Give the order, "Forward," and _then cut the wires_. Stop all official communication with the Army of the Northwest. That army, if thus untrammeled, will _spend New Year's day in New Orleans_, _via_ Memphis, and will reach Washington _via_ Richmond by the 1st of May next. In the meantime Sherman, Butler, and Burnside can take care of South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and North Carolina will fall of itself with Virginia and the Gulf States. Is this plan feasible? None but a traitor will say you Nay, for you and I know that 200,000 Northwestern soldiers, with Rosecrans's and Lyon's veterans, _can_ and _will go wherever they are ordered_, and _on time_. As to your Army of the Potomac, select 100,000 men of your city regiments which look well on parade, and keep them for reviews. Send the balance to the Gulf States. We want none of them out West. We will, by recruiting during the winter, keep our Grand Army up to 200,000 men, and furnish garrisons as fast as needed for captured towns. Very truly yours, Z. CHANDLER. Congress re-assembled for its regular session in December, 1861, and Mr. Chandler was called upon (on Jan. 17, 1862) to present the credentials of the Hon. Jacob M. Howard as his colleague from Michigan, _vice_ Kinsley S. Bingham, who had died suddenly in the preceding October. Mr. Howard remained a Senator for ten years, winning distinction in that position. Throughout his term his relations with his colleague were intimate and cordial, and the foremost merchant and the first lawyer of Michigan stood side by side in the Senate in the support of every important measure which had for its object the encouragement of loyal sentiment, or the strengthening of the military and financial arms of the government, or the prompt suppression of the rebellion. FOOTNOTES: