SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of the 7th inst., referring to a conversation which you allege occurred at my house in April last. I have no distinct recollection of the conversation to which you refer, but I know that I felt much indignation toward the rebels and traitors of Texas, who not only repudiated the authority of the Federal Government, but expelled from the State the friends of the Union. I thought there was less excuse for them than the rebels of the other States, because they were indebted to the Federal Government for protection against the Mexicans and Indians. In expressing my indignation against their conduct I may have expressed the hope that the Mexicans and Indians would attack them. I intended to express only the wish that they might be made to feel the value of the protection they had forfeited. I certainly did not suppose that my language could be construed to imply a wish that the Union men who had been expelled from their homes by these rebels should suffer from such agencies. I regret very much to hear of the misfortunes which have befallen your brothers and which add to the long catalogue of evils which have resulted from this most unnatural rebellion. For the last five months I have been urging the War Department to send troops to New Mexico to protect the loyal people of that territory and keep the Indians in proper subjugation. If my urgent request upon this subject had been complied with, the disaster which has befallen your brothers would not have occurred. Very respectfully, CALEB B. SMITH. I learned later that the newspaper was incorrect and that my brother W. W. was unlawfully seized by the Texans in Mexico as a spy. Smith soon afterward left the Cabinet. I learned later of the events which led to my brother's death. The Texan Rangers, under the McCulloughs and Colonel Baylor, were rapidly receiving the surrenders stipulated in the treaty between Twiggs and the Texas commissioners. My brother, W. W., much persecuted and threatened, wrote to Judge Watts of the disloyalty of Captain Lane and several other officers at Forts Bliss and Fillmore. Then he went to Santa Fe to confer with Colonel Canby, in command of the Department of New Mexico, to explain the large quantities of government stores at Fort Bliss, and the danger that they might fall into the hands of the rebels. Colonel Canby had already sent Major Lynde with reinforcements aggregating seven hundred and fifty men to Fort Fillmore, directing Lynde to relieve Lane. Canby sent my brother to Fort Fillmore to report to Major Lynde with dispatches.