control, to be carried out of the State at his bidding, old men an boys not subject under the laws of Congreess to military service, and of a class not required by him of any other State.

I cannot close this communication without noticing certain expressions in your letter which are not unfrequently used by persons in authority at Richmonrd, such as "refractory Governors," "loyal States," &c. Our people have become accustomed to these imperial utterances from those who wield the central despotism at Washington, but such expressions are so utterly at variance with the principles upon which we entered into this contest in 1861 that it sounds harshly to our ears to have the officers of a Government, which is the agent or creature of the Staes, discussing the loyalty and disloyalty of the sovereign States to their central agent-the loyalty of the creator to the creature-which lives and moves and has its being only at the will of the States; and to hear their praise of the Governors of sovereign States for their subserviency, or their dennunciation of those not subservient as "retractory." If our liberties are lost the fatal result will not be properly chargeabe to disloyal States or "refractory Governors," but it will grow out of the betrayal, by those high in Confederate authority, of the sacred principles of the Constitution which they have sworn to defend.

Had some officials labored as successfully for the public good as they have assiduously to concentrate all power in the Confederate Government, and to place the liberty and property of every citizen of the Confederacy subject to the caprice and contrl of the President, the country would not have been doomed to witness so many sad reverses; nor would we now be burned to support the vast horde of supernumerary officers and political favorities who are quartered upon us to eat out our substance, while they avoid duty and danger in the field, having little other duty to perform but to indorse indiscriminately and publicly, by newspaper communications and otherwise, every act of the President, whether right or wrong, and to reconcile the people by every means in their power to the constant encorachments which are made upon their ancient usages, customs, and liberties. If all these favorities of power who are able for active duty, and whose support in the style in which they live, while all around them is misery and want, costs the people millions of dollars, were sent to the field, and compelled to do their part in battle, the President would have no reason to make illegal requisitions upon this State for hed old men and boys, who are not subject to his control under any law, State or Confederate; but he would soon be able, by heavy re-enforcements, to fill the depleted ranks of the armies of the Confederacy. As the President is clothed with all the power necessary to compel these political favorities to shoulder arms and aid in driving back the invader, the subject is respectfully commended to your consideration as well worthy of energetic action.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH E. BROWN.

[45.]

MONTGOMERY, ALA., January 12, 1865.

General G. T. BEAUREGARD,

Meridian, Miss.:

Recent rains have destroyed bridges on West Point railroad. It may be two weeks before they can be repaired.

GEO. WM. BRENT,

Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

[45.]