EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Austin, Tex., April 4, 1861.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President of the Confederate States:

SIR: This communication will be handed to you by General J. H. Rogers, who goes to your Government as the accredited agent of Texas. He is fully authorized for the purposed of his mission, which are to negotiate for the reception into the service of the Confederate States of the regiment of cavalry recently raised by Texas.

This regiment was authorized by an ordinance of the Convention of Texas for the purpose of defending our suffering frontier from the depredations of hostile Indians and the possible invasion of Mexican guerrillas. The provision was made during our transition state, before we had a right to expect the protection of your Government, and before you could have afforded us any security. It was an act of immediate, imperative necessity. Having 1,700 miles of frontier, with he ungoverned Mexican on the west, who bear no love to us, and the Indians on the north and west, who are our perpetual foes, we were forced to take some steps for immediate protection. Now, however, that we are under the guardianship of the Government of the Confederate States it is right that the defense of our frontier (which is this frontier) should not be assume by this State, but should be sustained by that Government upon which devolves the military defense of the entire country.

It is more than probable that an effort will soon be made by the submission party of this State, with General Houston at its head, to convert Texas into an independent republic, and one of the most effective argument swill be that the Confederate States have supplied the place of the 2,800 United States troops formerly upon our frontier with only a single regiment, and that Texas has at her own cost been forced to bring another regiment into the field, and to bear the burden of its maintenance. The people of this State than it was under that of the old United States, and upon this assurance they now rely. Hence I cannot too ungently press upon you the policy and equity of accepting the regiment of mounted volunteers which Texas has ordered out. Our protection properly devolves upon you, and if we receive it, Texas will not only be secured against a spirit of dissatisfaction and dissension with the Confederate States, but there will be given an eternal quietus to that spirit of opposition which is always grumbling in our midst.

Our situation in detail will be unfolded to you by General Rogers, who was one of the committee on public safety, and has familiarized himself with all the facts.

Very respectfully,

EDWARD CLARK.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Montgomery, April 11, 1861.

Honorable JOHN HEMPHILL, Montgomery, Ala.:

SIR: Resuming the general subject in part discussed in my letter of the 1st instant to Honorable W. s. Oldham and yourself-I mean the frontier defense of Texas-I have the honor to submit to you following views and propositions:

The Department has considered the question of the military necessities of Texas with the deliberation its importance demanded, and holding