WASHINGTON, February 8, 1861.

His Excellency Gov. HENRY M. RECTOR, Little Rock:

Don't attack arsenal unless success is certain. Repulse would be disgraceful. Pledge might be required not to remove or injure arms and munitions without notice. Please telegraph us.

R. W. JOHNSON.

T. C. HINDMAN.

U. S. SENATE, February 9, 1861.

R. H. JOHNSON, Little Rock, Ark.:

Arsenal yours. Thank God! Hold it. My address mailed to-night. Publish it quick. Peace Congress no use; failure.

R. W. JOHNSON.

OFFICE SUPERINTENDENT INDIAN AFFAIRS,

Fort Smith, February 14, 1861.

Honorable JOHN ROSS,

Chief of Cherokee Nation, Tahlequah, C. N.:

SIR: Colonel Gaines, aide-de-camp to his Excellency Governor Rector, will had you this letter.

The object of Colonel Gaines' visit to you is fully explained in the letter he bears to you from the governor.

I fully approve of the object the governor has in view, and would ask that you give the matter your favorable consideration.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ELIAS RECTOR,

Superintendent Indian Affairs.

[Inclosure.]

THE STATE OF ARKANSAS, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Little Rock, January 29, 1861.

To His Excellency JOHN ROSS,

Principal Chief Cherokee Nation:

SIR: It may now be regarded as almost certain that the States having slave property within their borders will, in consequence of repeated Northern aggressions, separate themselves and withdraw from the Federal Government.

South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana have already, by action of the people, assumed this attitude. Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North carolina, and Maryland will probably pursue the same course by the 4th of March next. Your people, in their institutions, productions, latitude, and natural sympathies, are allied to the common brotherhood of the slaveholding States. Your country is sablurious and fertile, and possesses the highest capacity for future progress and development by the application of slave labor. Besides this, the contiguity of our territory with yours induces relations of so intimate a character as to preclude the idea of discordant or separate action.

It is well established that the Indian country west of Arkansas is looked to by the incoming administration of Mr. Lincoln as fruitful fields,