Matthew Keller to Edwin V. Sumner, August 10, 1861

General E. V. SUMNER, Commanding Pacific Division, San Francisco: SIR: I feel it my duty as an old resident of this place to apprise you that all of us who are loyal and devoted to the Stars and Stripes, and that have something to lose in this section of the country, feel that we are in the greatest insecurity as to the public interest as well as to our own lives and property. No part of your command is composed of such discordant and menacing elements as it. Within we have open and avowed secessionists and Southern sympathizers, and I am sorry to say that they are chiefly composed of those who exercise most political influence with the native population, and already they have not failed to poison their minds against the Puritan fanatics of the North. We are threatened with rebellion across the plains by people of the Van Dorn stripe, if we are to credit the repeated reports of the Texan emigration, and in these disordered times it is not well to discredit them. Lower California, the asylum of cut throats and robbers, is on our immediate border. We are surrounded toa great extent by barbarous and hostile Indian tribes, that may at any moment be excited against us and the Government by rebels or marauding Mormons. I not only consider it necessary, but the part of prudence and timely vigilance, to station a lookout cavalry force at the Cajon Pass, or at some point close thereto. Please to receive my suggestions with indulgence, being made in a spirit to subserve public and private interests. Your most obedient servant,

: MATTHEW KELLER.