not stand a day's march. This company is in the vicinity of Tampa Bay, a region of country where cavalry cannot possibly be of any use. That point (and indeed all other in Florida), if it can be defended from invasion, will be by artillery and infantry. Also that the quartermaster (McKay), in the purchase of supplies for said company, is paying from $1.50 to $2 per bushel for corn, and is hauling it from 20 to 60 miles, in wagons (with the teams) hired at $7 per day. One of the gentlemen who gave me this information also informed me that his own wagon and team are hired at that price. This company is not one of those recently raised by W. G. M. Davis, but is an additional company, authorized by the order of General Grayson, obtained at a time when he could no have been responsible for any act that he might have done.

This is but one fact in relation to the abuse which cannot but grow out of the presence in this State of such troops in the Confederate service. Doubtless the same facts, though perhaps not to the same extent, exist in the supply of every other company of cavalry recently raised for the Confederate service, and every reflecting man in the country is becoming alarmed at the uncalled-for waste of the substance of the land at the very time when it should be husbanded; and throughout the State the people are becoming indignant that such bodies of unarmed men and idle horses should be reared up among them, with no prospect but to consume the means of support for the women and children, cripple the usefulness of the armed troops for defense against the enemy, and bring ruin upon the people and disgrace upon the Confederate Government.

These troops have been raised by authority of the War Department in disrespect to State authority and in disregard of State rights;, and, in addition to the fact of vital ruin they are bringing upon the country, against which it is my duty to and I do most the country, against which it is my duty to and I do most solemnly protest, the tendency of the assumption and exercise of such power by the Confederate Government is to sap the very foundation of the right s of the States and is to consolidation. The worst feature of Black Republicanism was that which threatened to ignore State boundaries and the rights of States as free, sovereign, and independent parties to the compact known as the Constitution of the United States of America. The sinusitis of the policy of that party were not seen or comprehended, and the great body of the people, in their devotion to the Union, were blind to the fact that inroads were constantly but quietly being made upon the guarantees secured by the Constitution. Had the effort been made by act of Congress to elect the President, Representatives in Congress, and Federal officers generally by the people, regardless of State political organization, the attempt would have been so open and glaring, that every man on intelligence and patriotism throughout the country would have declared it a usurpation of power and a violation of constitutional authority. That would have been so palpable as not to have escaped any intelligent mind. Yet the effect would not have been half so ruinous as it the policy pursued by the War Department is assuming to raise up armed bodies of men within the limits of a State in disregard of the constituted authorities of the State. And why? The answer is, that the first, being seen and comprehended as a flagrant invasion and usurpation, would have roused the people in resistance throughout the length and breadth of the land; the last is so insinuating as not to have alarmed any one, and hence good and true men are found advocating it, without thought, as a right. Well, admit and exercise it as a right, and let it be continued, and before the lapels of a century such bodies of men will be