then return to the interior of Texas to load and start his wagons. It has been my duty, as it has ever been my desire, to conform to the law, and the regard engagements in good faith with the citizens. I shall therefore give my approval to applications made by those who apply for the exportation of cotton under the regulations approved by the President on condition that those applying for my approval shall import, in accordance with the law, such army supplies as may be required. But at the same time I shall continue [to] enforce Order Numbers 34 so as to obtain cotton to fulfill existing engagement, and to purchase the articles required for the army. I will also grant permits for the exportation of cotton in conformity with the regulations established by Order Numbers 35 issued from these headquarters.

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

E. KIRBY SMITH,

General.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, La., August 25, 1864.

His Excellency Governor P. MURRAH,

Austin, Tex.:

GOVERNOR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of copies of your letter of instructions to General E. B. Nichols, State agent, of the 16th ultimo, and of your address to the people of Texas of 19th ultimo, in regard to relieving the immediate and pressing wants of the army by means of cotton, which you appeal to the holders and producers of cotton to supply. I cannot refrain from expressing to you my thanks for this effort on your part to remove the gloomy apprehensions heretofore felt by me in regard to obtaining supplies for the brave soldiers in the field. In both of these communications you breathe the same spirit of devotion to our cause that you uniformly manifested in my interviews with you, and have more than redeemed the promises made to me in our conferences had near Hempstead. You have not overestimated the importance of cotton or too strongly stated the necessities of the army, which can only be relieved in the way pointed out by you. I shall earnestly endeavor to comply with every assurance and pledge made by you in my name to the people of Texas. I would much prefer, so far as my official actions are concerned, that our military operations should be conducted without calling on the citizens to make any sacrifices, but in a revolution like this, when everything that is dear to us, life, liberty, property, and the very existence of the nation itself, is at stake, citizens must be prepared to make sacrifices which, if required in ordinary times, would rightfully be regarded as oppressive. My desire is and had been to act within the laws, to regard personal rights, and to pay due deference to the rights of the States. Since my return here from Texas I have read for the first time the regulations established at Richmond for the overland commerce with Mexico. As they conflict with these previously established and under which we are now acting, and which were shown to you at Hempstead, and understood between us should not be exchanged, and as I have received from Richmond large discretionary powers, and acting under instructions from there, I regard it my duty and within the scope of these instructions to represent the President until, upon information of the state of affairs here, he can act understandingly so as to make the necessary changes in the regulations he has adopted to conform to the necessities