of said act, and as a compensation for their services while so employed they shall be entitled to receive $2 per diem.

SEC.2. That the eleventh section of said act be so amended that, instead of the fines and penalties therein imposed upon such owners of slaves as shall neglect or refuse to send their saves accordig to the reguirements of said act, such defaulters shall be liable to a fine of $1.50 per diem for each slave for the time they shall be liable to send such slaves, to be imposed and collected by the commissioners of roads in the district where such default has been made, in the manner now provided by law for default in the performance of said duty.

SEC.3. That the Goernor be, and is hereby, authorized and directed to proceed to furnish negro labor to the Confederate Government under said act, notwithstandig said Government has not through the proper officer authorized thereto, assented and agreed, to the provisions contained in said act, declaring said Government liable to the owner for any loss or damage of or to slave or slaves during his or their service: Provided, however, That the State does not by this act waive the right to insist upon such liability as well as all the provisions of said act, and the amendments thereto, and he is hereby directed to take such proceedings as he may deem necessary and proper to bring said provisions to the notice of the Congress of the Confederate States, and procure their assent to all its terms and conditions.

In the Senate house the 6th day of February, 1863, and in the eighty-seventh year of the sovereignty of independence of the State of South Carolina.

W. D. PORTER,

President of Senate.

A. P. ALDRICH,

Speaker of House of Rpresentatives.

[14.]

RICHMOND, VA., February [9 (?)], 1863.

Governor M. L. BONHAM,

Columbia, S. C.:

Whatever can be done to defend South Carolina will be performed by the Confederate States Government. I am disappointed at the discharge of the regiments of State troops serving at Charleston, and hope the militia not subject to conscription will be organized as rapidly as your circumstances will permit.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

[14.]

HEADQUARTERS STATES OF SOUTH CAROLINA,
Columbia, February 10, 1863.

His Excellency President DAVIS:

DEAR SIR: Your telegram of last ight has been received, also your letter of the 4th instant. I regret the reserves could not be retained for thirty days from the expiration of their term of servece. The Legislature, by act ratifield on the 18th of December, 1862, provided in the sixth section thereof "that the service of the said First Corps of Reserves be not extended beyond their term of enlistment, to wit, for three months from their enlistment." I deem it my duty to present to you two evils that

will arise from ordering out the militia this spring