Hoping that good may come out of seeming evil and that we may not be precipitated into war by your preparations to prevent it, and wishing you the peace and tranquility in your retirement that follows good deeds, I have the honor to be, respectfully and truly, your friend and obedient servant,

C. C. CLAY, Jr.

[Sub - inclosure.]

WASHINGTON CITY, February 4, 1861.

Honorable C. C. CLAY, Jr.:

I acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 2nd instant, iclosing the correspondence bewteen yourself, and His Excellency James buchnan, President of the united States, relating to my mission as commissioner for the State of Alabama. The President declines to give me and audience in the only character in which I sought it, as commissioner for the State of Alabama, and thereby refuses to receive any proposals from that State for a settlement relating to the public debt of the United State, contracted while Alabama was a member of that confederacy, and relating to the propery in the possession of Alabama which belonged to the United States of America before the withdrawal of Alabama from that Union. From this course of the President, it is to be presimed that he has abandoned all claim, or resolved not to make any, in his official character, to that property in behalf of his Government; or, that repelling every offer of amicable adjustment, he desires that it shall be retaken by the sword. But no matter what motive has prompted his unexpected treatment of me, I should be wanting in proper reverence for my State and proper appreciation of my present relations to her to sue for peaceful negotiations, since the right of Alabama to send me and my right to speak for her have been denied. And if negotiation is to settle our difficulties touching these forst and arsenals, it must be proposed by the President to the Governor at her capitol, whither I shall go and report the result of my mission. Whilst I regret this action of the President, it is gratifying to know that the State of Alabama, by her prompt eddorts to do that justice in the premiises which has been thwarted by him, will stand justified before the world. That State having now been placed right upon the record, and under the circumstances nothing more remaining for me to accomplish as her commissioner, my mission ceases with this letter.

Permit me tot return you my thanks for the valuable aid you have rendered i advance the object of my mission, and believe me to be, very truly, your friend and obedient servant,

THOMAS J. JUDGE.

[1.]

MONTGOMERY, February 26, 1861.

Colonel JOHN H. FORNEY,

Barrancas Barracks:

[Care of Assistant Adjutant - General Kelly, Pensacola, Fla.]

Can you spare, to be transferred from McRee to Fort Morgan, any columbiads? If so, how man, and when could transfer be made?

L. P. WALKER,

Secretary of War.

[1.]