limit of the State; " sixth, the discipline of the slaves, their clothing diet, and general treatment will be under the supervision of the State agent.

Fourth. The question as to how far the State can meet the requisitions of the Confederate Government through the operation of the State law it is very difficult to determine. If the call of Major Echols of 3,000 slaves be regarded as a distinct call from, that made through the Bureau of Conscription, the aggregate of the two is beyond the present energy of the State law.

Your Excellency is forbidden to levy at any one time more than the one-tenth of the male slaves between the ages of eighteen and fifty years. The returns from the several districts show an aggregate of about 36,000 male slaves in the State liable to impressment. Assuming that these returns fall short of the accurate number (and such, I have no doubt, is the fact), and that a close enumeration would show even 50,000, the levy of one-tenth of this number-distributed as the slaves are among many owners, a large, and perhaps a larger, part of them owning less than ten, and still another portion having fractions above ten-would scarcely yield the 2,500 called for through the Bureau. The other requisition could only be met by another and subsequent levy. But it is worthy of consideration whether the requisitions are distinct. The orders of the War Department direct the Bureau of Conscription to procure "according to State rules and regulations" 2,500 slaves, "to be turned over to the engineer officer instructed to receive them, for labor in the engineer and other departments of the service. " The engineer himself applied for these slaves, varying the number to 3,000. It must be assumed that he is acting under the instructions of the War Department; that he is, in the language of the general order, "the engineer officer instructed to receive them. "

The instructions of the War Department for the levy of the 2,500 do not indicate any other purpose to which they are to be applied than that indicated in the general order.

It is therefore reasonable to assume that the 2,500 are wanted for the same purpose as the 3,000 called for by Major Echols, and that the receipt of the 2,500 by Major Echols, "an engineer officer authorized to receive them," would be on the part of the State a compliance with the requisition ordered through the Bureau under General Orders, No. 86.

Fifth. If it be assumed that the levy called for through the Bureau of Conscription is distinct from the called for by Major Echols and for other purpose than those contemplated by the act of the Legislature, I have no hesitation in saying that it cannot be made. The purposes for which the slaves are wanted would preclude the operation of the State law for the purpose of raising them, whilst the conscript authorities, being required to act in conformity with the State law, would have no authority to resort to any mode of impressment other than that prescribed by the State law.

Should the War Department disembarrass the question by ordering the impressment to be made in pursuance of the Confederate law of impressments and irrespective of StaI am fully assured, from my knowledge of the difficulties and embarrassments which attend the levying of slave labor, that the conscript authorities cannot successfully proceed with such impressment. So continuous have been the calls for slave labor for the past three years, so widespread has become the dissatisfaction among slave-owners with the treatment