military authorities. Having expressed a desire to ascertain the result before your departure, you were invited to remain. Since that time I have conferred fully with the governors of the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri. The Governor of Texas, being ill, was represented by one of his staff officers. The governors so assembled have, after consideration, presented certain measures which the deem necessary to the pubic order and the proper security of their people, and which, if accepted, would authorize me to relinquish further resistance. Governor Allen of Louisiana, with whom you had conferences before the meeting, is fully informed of the views entertained by himself and the governors of the other States. Believing it to be the most expeditious way to arrive at a definite understanding as to the course to be pursued, it is desired that he should accompany you for the purpose of presenting to the proper authorities the terms for their consideration. In the event that the terms proposed by the governors should be accepted by the authorities of the United States I shall deem it my duty to support those views. It is expected, in the event of the propositions conveyed by Governor Allen being considered by the authorities of the United States, that aggressive movements against this department should be suspended.

I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. KIRBY SMITH,

NOTE. -The application of Governor Allen to accompany me to Washington I did not see fit to comply with.

JOHN T. SPRAGUE,

Lieutenant-Colonel, U. S. Army, and Chief of Staff.

[Inclosure Numbers 7.]

Memorandum for Colonel Sprague.

The terms proposed by General Pope, considering that my army was menaced only from a distance, that it is large and well supplied and in an extensive country full of resources, were not such as a soldier could honorably accept. An officer can honorably surrender his command when he has resisted to the utmost of his power and no hopes rest upon his further efforts. It cannot be said that the duty imposed upon me has been fulfilled to the extent required by the laws of honorable warfare. To have conceded the terms demanded would, therefore, have dishonored the commander who submitted to them. It is not contended that the Trans-Mississippi Department can without assistance accomplish its independence against the whole power of the United States. It is conceded that its people, its army, and its commander desire to avoid the unnecessary effusion of blood and the attendant devastation of the country. It must also be conceded, on the other hand, that they desire to maintain their honor, without which life would lose its attractions. As the commander of the military forces, I cannot accept terms which will purchase a certain degree of immunity from devastation at the expense of the honor of its army. While we do not expect to win unaided the independence of the country, it must be conceded that the army can be beaten and the country overrun only after great and expensive preparations by the United States, affording opportunities for the development of political complications which it is the interest of the United States to avoid. If, then, it be an object on the one hand to avoid the devastation of our country, it is equally on object on the part of the United States to bring about the complete pacification of the country and the restoration of their authority without cost to