Although Richmond was delighted to hear this news, these successes in the Trans-Mississippi West had a strange effect on the thinking of Confederate leaders. President Jefferson Davis and the War Department suddenly came to look on Kirby Smith’s scattered, unpaid, and poorly organized army of 30,000 men as a powerful source of reinforcements for hard-pressed Confederate commands to the east of the Mississippi River. Orders were issued for heavy portions of Kirby Smith’s army to cross the great river in August, 1864. At the last moment, however, these plans were cancelled—partly because of the near impossibility of the river crossing operation and partly because of heated protests from General Kirby Smith. While the War Office was justified in seeking relief for the divisions in the east, Kirby Smith made it clear that his regiments were barely capable of securing the Southwest. The loss of any appreciable number of men would spell sure doom for his department.[104] While Texas now seemed temporarily safe from military advances, other signs of weakness were to be observed. Confederate paper dollars came to be worth only twenty cents or thirty cents in specie. Texas tried to correct this condition by issuing state treasury warrants, but this paper likewise suffered a drastic drop in real value as the war continued.[105] The heavily indebted state pressed Richmond for payment of defense claims; but unfortunately for Texas, these claims were never honored.[106] As for cotton sales in Mexico, this one great source of revenue for the Lone Star State was very poorly managed. Due to conflicting rules set down by the Confederate government, by the departmental commander, by the state military district commander, and by the state civil government, the entire commerce was badly hampered.[107] Added to this were the manipulations of dishonest state and Confederate purchasing and marketing agents. About the only successful cotton brokers were those men who flaunted the laws and smuggled bales across the Rio Grande.