been under great obligations to him. I must not forget another ground of the call, as you term it, which was that some of these troops (the 10,000 organized militia) had been detailed for objects not admitted by enrolling officers in the State to be authorized by Confederate law, and others were claimed as primarily liable or previously subject to Confederate service. This, you say, had "engendered controversy," which it was most desirable to "anticipate and preclude." As Confederate enrolling officers had denied the right of the State to make details, and had claimed certain me whom the Governor did not at once yield to the pretentions of those Confederate officers, but wad disposed to contend for the rights of the State, the President, unwilling to allow the controversy, determined to relieve the State of her whole militia by making requisition for it and taking it all into his own hands, which would "anticipate and preclude" any further controversy; as the State, having no militia left, need have no further controversy about her right to any particular individuals as part of it. This new discovery of the President of the mode of settling a controverted right, and the magnanimity and statesmanship displayed by him in this affair, cannot be too highly appreciated. By imitating his example in future the stronger party can always make a speedy settlement with the weaker without allowing any unpleasant controversy about rights.

Your assertion that my past action and public expressions have given encouragement to our enemies to the mortification of many patriotic citizens of the Confederacy, may be properly disposed of by the single remark that, if we may judge of the encouragement of our enemies by the general expression of their public journals, the President gave them more delight, hope, and encouragement, by his single speech at Macon, than all the past acts and public expressions of my life could have done had I labored constantly to aid and encourage them. He who can satisfy wo-thirds of the men who compose our gallant armies are absent from their posts, affords them delight and encouragement indeed, as they will no longer doubt, if this be true, that the spirit of our people is broken and that our brave defenders can no longer be relied on to sustain our cause in the field. All remember the mortification which this speech of the President caused to the patriotic citizens of the Confederacy. If it had been true, surely it should not have been publicly proclaimed by the President. But I am satisfied it was not true and that in making the statement the President did grievous injustive to the brave men who compose our gallant, self-sacrificing armies. It has also been agreeable to you to speak of my action as springing from a spirit of opposition to the Confederate Government and animosity to the Cheif Magistrate. I have but a word of reply to this unjust and ungenerous attack. Some men are unable to distinguish between opposition to a Government and unwillingness blindly to indorse all the errors of an Administration or to discriminate between loyalty to a cause and loyalty to their master. My loyalty is only due to my country, you can bestow yours where your interests or inclinations may prompt.

I do not consider that the point you attempt to make about the pay and subsistence of the militia while under the Confederate general commanding the department has in it even a show of plausibility. They were accepted by him for the time as an organization and while under his control he has the absolute command of themn, and the Governor of the State does not exercise the slightest control over them. What possible pretext for saying that he may not order this division