than those of her sister States, which I have every reason to believe is not true. Yet has any other Executive been appealed to isue proclamations, and to employ the militia in arresting it? Has the "too ready interposition" of the judiciary of South Carolina and Georgia been reduked for almost similar decisions rendered? Exuse me, sir, for writing in this strain; I feel that our exertion are scarcely appreciated properly, and I can but speak plainly when I approach the subject.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Z. B. VANCE.

[18.]

RICHMOND, VA., May 26, 1863.

General R. E. LEE,

Commanding Army of Northern Virginia:

Was mistaken as to your views in regard to Pender and Helh. Wait for letter.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

[25.]

RICHMOND, VA., May 26, 1863.

General R. E. LEE,

Commanding Army of Northern Virginia, near Fredericksburg, Va.:

GENERAL: Yours of the 25th, with its inclosure, was received last night, and I find that to some extent your views as contained in the letter of the 20th were misapprehended. I inferred from the first letter that you considered Helt, by seniority and equal merit, the preferred candidate for promotion, but that you doubted the propriety of promoting him, because a former nomination to make him major-general had failed in the Senate. I felt the high commendation you bestowed upon Pender to be fully due to him, having marked his conduct in the campaign before Richmond with peculiar admiration. I did not suppose Ransom to be included in the comparison, because the proposition to form a division of Ransom's, Cooke's, and Pettigrew's brigades, in conjunction with a high estimate I knew you put upon Ranson, indicated him as your probable preference for the command of that division. As the case now stands, I perceive that Pender might be promoted to command the division formed of four brigades of A. P. Hill's former division, and Heth to command a division to be formed of the brigades of Heth, Archer, and two others; but it would seem hard that Ransom's brigade should be one of them. This either postpones Ransom's promotion or separates him from the army immediately commanded by yourself, which I believe would not be agreeable to him. The only alternative would be, regarding your letter and that of General Hill as concluding the question of Pender's promotion, to cancel the promotion of Helt, or accepting the condition of separating Ransom from the Army of Northern Virginia. He might be promoted and sent to Mississippi, or exchanged for French or Whiting by sending one of them to Mississippi. You will realize the embarrassment resulting from the fact of Heth's appointment before your second letter arrived, for though the letter of appointment might be withheld, the fact of its having been made probably will be, if it has not been, communicated to him in some unofficial form. I have nothing from General D. H. Hill