When in the office of the Board of Trade to-day, Mr. Buckner informed me that you had written him within the last few days saying that your understanding was that all the convicts now at Hickory Nut Gap would be moved to Ridgecrest.

Personally, I favored your plan of concentrating all the work on the Ridgecrest road till completed, and then not later than August 1st, removing all the convicts to Madison County, provided there would be absolutely no question about Madison County's getting at least 100 men on the date named. But since the Madison County people objected to this course, and the plan is abandoned, I sincerely hope you will see to it that the Madison County camp, now numbering less than 25 working men, is increased to at least forty or fifty at the earliest possible date.

With assurances of my best wishes, I am