The Confederate CONFISCATION OF NORTHERN CLAIMS. 135 May 14th, the Congress passed a resolution | that they were expected to invest a few score calling upon their President to name a day of bales, each, in the "National fund." This for fasting and prayer. This was done in vitalized the bonds for a brief period; but, open session. As only acts of secondary im- Southern intelligence soon began to compreportance were done in open session, the in- hend the true nature of the transaction :-The ference was natural that the resolution was cotton depots might be found wanting of harmless—an inference strengthened by the cotton when the day of redemption came. fact that the usual word humiliation was Thus, the Confederate authorities were ciromitted from the invocation. That word cumscribed by the "lack of a generous confiwas too offensive to Southern ears to be used dence in their ability to meet every emergenin a resolve of their Congress. cy”; and, adopting the shinplaster policy of States, corporations and individuals throughout the South, the Government relieved its "pressing necessities" by the emission of Treasury notes to a perfectly limitless extent. It need not amaze another generation that such a baseless currency really became the circulating medium. To refuse a Treasury note was to incur the odium of disloyalty and to run the risk of arrest; therefore, in selfdefense, the currency was accepted. Gold ere long became unknown in the channels of trade; the extraordinary. premium which it soon commanded was not able to draw it from its secret hiding-places. The history of the Confederate currency system, if it can be truthfully written, must prove one of the curiosities of modern literature. A second financial scheme adopted by the Congress, and approved by Jefferson Davis-the person most instrumental in inducing Mississippi to go into repudiationwas the act "prohibiting Southern persons, owing moneys to Northern creditors, from paying the same to such creditors, and providing for the payment of the sums due such creditors into the Treasury of the Confederate States.' As about one hundred and twenty millions of dollars were due to commercial men alone, in the North, this act, if it could be enforced-as it was to some extent—would give the Confederates pocket-money for some time. What with arsenals robbed, forts seized, mints, custom-houses and post-offices appropriated, and Northern debts confiscated, the Confederate Government started off with very fair prospects of "meeting every emergency”; but, alas for it! even these enormous robberies did not suffice for its needs, and the stability of Southern institutions soon became allied to the instability of the shinplaster currency. May 17th, the Congress authorized the issue of fifty millions of dollars in Confederate bonds, payable in twenty years at an interest not to exceed eight per cent-twenty millions of Treasury notes to issue in lieu of bonds, without interest, of small denominations for general circulation, if the needs of the Departments required. It was a wise substitution. The needs of the Departments did require the twenty millions, and the Treasury notes soon became "generally circulated," as very few persons cared to keep them longer than necessary. The remaining thirty millions did not sell well-in fact, were not to be sold through the ordinary monetary processes, and further legislation was afterwards resorted to to provide a basis for redemption in order to give the bonds the validity of security. But what security could the Confederate Government give? It had no property —it was but an experiment-the State Rights doctrine stripped it of the power of State or local taxation-the blockade rendered the tariff receipts nothing; and thus, there was only "Southern honor" for security. But, even that intangible basis of redemption was suspected. The men who had participated in the celebrated repudiation of Mississippi indebtedness—thereby rendering many a confiding capitalist in Europe and America a beggar-were not implicitly trusted, even by those who had been benefited by the act of repudiation; hence, the sale of the bonds was despairingly slow:-like the snake coming out of its state of torpidity-it seemed as if there never would be sun enough to warm it into life. Later in the day the shrewd few in power conceived the happy idea of taking cotton for the bonds, storing it in Government depots. Large planters were politely informed Confiscation of Northern Claims. Adjournment to After much secret legis- | people, and to the loss of speculators in real lation looking to a consoli- estate. Could the disappointed ones have dation of its power, the cast the horoscope of the future, they might Confederate Congress adjourned (May 21st) have seen the Congress flying in terror from to meet at Richmond, Virginia, July 20th. Richmond, taking its peripatetic way back Montgomery for a brief season had sported again to the "balmy land" where yellow its Capital honors. It now subsided into its It now subsided into its fever was expected to stand sentinel on the former obscurity—much to the chagrin of its ramparts and keep "the Yankees” at bay. CHAPTER VIII MILITARY DRESS. ACTIVITY OF THE SOUTH. GOVERNOR PICKENS' AD- DISAPPOINT MENT AND CHAGRIN AT THE DESERTION OF THEIR NORTHERN DEFIANCE O F THE NORTH. FRIENDS. THE PRESIDENT. SOUTH. DEFAMATION O F TROOPS THE WOMEN OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. Military Organizations | tired" from the United States army afforded good men in plenty for the work at hand. Many, too, had seen service in Mexico, and on the Texan border. Commissions to competent men did not go begging. The Confederate service already embraced Beauregard, Bragg, McCullough, Ripley, Hardee, Huger, Magruder, Whiting, and others of equal capacity; and the rapidity with which they put their forces in the field, in an ef fective shape, reflected creditably upon their capacity. The direction of the revolution eventually was ́committed to the hands of the men whom the United States had nur tured; and the extraordinary obstinacy with which the Southern troops met the fortunes of reverse may be credited as much to their good discipline as to their asserted propensity for fighting. MOVEMENTS in the Southern States during the latter part of April and in May, indicated great activity in military circles. Much excitement prevailed among the people. The call of Davis for thirty-two thousand five hundred troops, soon following the requisition for nineteen thousand five hundred men, absorbed most of the organized militia and independent companies. "Home Guards" organizations then became popular, into which great numbers of the well-to-do citizens of the South found their way. The enthusiasm of the people seemed to grow with the gathering danger of the hour; and if, in any of the seven "original" Seceded States, any persons entertaining Union sentiments still remained, they were thoroughly awed into silence by the implacable spirit which swept over that whole country like a simoon. Governor Pickens strainThe several States prepared to meet the re- ed every nerve to place his qu'sitions of the Confederate authorities by State first among the decreating reserves and a thorough organiza- fenders of their soil, in point of equipment, tion of their separate military establishments. | discipline, and effectiveness of her volunteer The large numbers of officers who had "re-regiments. The address issued to those Governor Pickens' Ardor. DEFIANCE AND DEFAMATION OF THE NORTH. 137 Disappointment and called upon the last requisition embodied | to be as resistless as the such inspiriting strains as the following: "Hold yourselves in readiness to march at the word to the tomb of Washington, and swear that no Northern Goths and Vandals shall ever desecrate its sacred precincts, and that you will make of it an American Mecca, to which the votaries of freedom and independence from the South shall make pilgrimage through all time. Let the sons of Carolina answer the calls from the sons of Colonel Howard, who led the Maryland line in triumph over the bloody battle-field of Cow-professed to be the friends of the South, and the oppens. Let them know we will return that blood with full interest, and let them feel mighty torrent of the river that fed the city with its life-blood. All the daily press of the Cres cent city mourned over the consolidated sentiment of the North, and, like their Governor, used hard words, which disguised nei|ther their apprehensions nor their regret. Thus the Picayune said : now as then that we are their brothers. I shall endeavor not to expose our own State, and shall only march you beyond our borders under a pressing emergency; but, whereever the Confederate flag floats, there, too, is our country, now and forever." Patriotism. Governor Moore, in callGovernor Moore's ing for his quota of five thousand troops under the last requisition, gave vent to his patriotism in this characteristic manner: “The Government at Washington, maddened by defeat and the successful maintenance by our patri "We are unwilling to believe the telegraphic reports of the total apostacy of the majority of the citizens of the city of New York, who have ever ponents of Black Republicanism, as their vote in the late Presidential contest exhibited. We know that there are good men and true there, who are willing to stand by the South to the last. We have been in formed by a gentleman lately from that city, that all the telegraphic reports from thence in relation to this apostacy of New York citizens are enormously exaggerated; if it be not so, the change is certainly extraordinary. What has become of the Union procession of the bone and sinew of New York City, which turned out seven miles in length, in opposition to the Wide-Awakes? We shall wait for confirmation before we are willing to believe in the apostacy of New York City." last. Had the press of the South, knowing Willing to deceive and be deceived to the the truth, confessed it freely, the people thus otic people of their rights and liberties against its mercenaries in the harbor of Charleston, and the de- fully informed would have hesitated long termination of the Southern people forever to sever before incurring the responsibilities of an asthemselves from the Northern Government, has now sault on the Federal Union; but, like the thrown off the mask, and, sustained by the people miserable wretch who has tasted the fumes of the non-Slaveholding States, is actively engaged of the hasheesh, the Southern leaders prein levying war, by land and sea, to subvert your ferred not to be told of their danger. Realiberties, destroy your rights, and to shed your son could do little with such perverted men blood on your own soil. If you have the manhood-deaf to the past, dumb to the present, and to resist, rise, then, pride of Louisiana, in your might, in defense of your dearest rights, and drive back this insolent, barbaric force. Like your brave ancestry, resolve to conquer or perish in the effort; and the flag of usurpation will never fly over Southern soil. Rally, then, to the proclamation which I now make on the requisition of the Confederate Government." This language showed the undercurrent of disappointment and anger which set in Like a flood when it became known that the North was a unit on the question of sustaining the policy of the National Executive. A Mississippi crevasse could not have caused more consternation in New Orleans than the crevasse of the loyal States which bade fair blind to the future. In the now popular strain of defiance and defamation Defiance and Defamation of the North, did Mr. Stephens appeal to "What is to take place before the end, I know "As I told you when I addressed you a few days ago, Lincoln may bring his seventy-five thousand soldiers against us; but seven times seventy-five 1 Defiance and Defamation of the North. thousand men can never con- We have now Maryland and Virginia, and all the Border States with us. We have ten millions of people with us, heart and hand, to defend us to the death. We can call out a million of people, if need be; and when they are cut down, we can call out another, and still another, until the last man of the South finds a the cities—the degraded, beastly offsccuring of all quarters of the world, who will serve for pay, and run away as soon as they can when danger threatens." Hundreds of similar notices were set afloat, until the great majority of Southern people were led to believe in their truth. The effect of such shock Atrocious Aspersions of the President. bloody grave, rather than submit to their foul dic-ing falsehoods, upon the minds of the men tation. But a triumphant victory and independence, of the North, who had answered their counwith an unparalleled career of glory, prosperity, try's call, was only to aggravate a rapidlyand progress, awaits us in the future. God is on our growing detestation of their enemy. side, and who shall be against us? None but his omThe aspersions of course nipotent hand can defeat us in this struggle." reached the President. The opinion was assiduously disseminated that Mr. Lincoln was a drunkard and a lascivious man, degrading, in his daily conduct, his high office. Thus the Richmond Whig, (April 20th,) had "reliable information" that "Old Abe had been beastly intoxicated for the previous thirty-six consecutive hours, and that eighty border ruffians from Kansas, under command of Lane, occupied the East Room, to guard his Majesty's slumbers." This, coming from a paper which had held out for the Union to a late day, He also added, to strengthen his point of exciting disgust of the "Vandals" in the minds of the Southern people, the following interesting incidents connected with the oc-| cupation of Washington by "Lincoln's hirelings": "Lincoln has occupied Georgetown Heights. He has from fifteen to twenty thousand soldiers stationed in and about Washington. Troops are quartered in the Capitol, who are defacing its walls and ornaments with grease and filth, like a set of Vandal hordes. The new Senate Chamber has been converted into a kitchen and quarters-cooking and sleeping apparatus having actually been erected only marked the depth of degradation to which the press of the South was reduced in order to satisfy the demands of the secession spirit. The New Orleans, Delta (April 29th) repeated the wretched fabrication in this strain: A gentleman arrived here this morning, who, with several others, was arrested, while passing through Washington, for being Southerners, and were taken into the presence of the august Baboon. He declares that Lin coln was so drunk that he could hardly and placed in that elegant apartment. The Patent Office is converted into soldiers' barracks, and is ruined with their filth. The Post-office Department is made a storehouse for barrels of flour and bacon. All the Departments are appropriated to base uses, and despoiled of their beauty by those treacherous, destructive enemies of our country. Their filthy spoliations of the public buildings and works of art at the Capital, and their preparations to destroy them, are strong evidence to my mind that they do not intend to hold or defend the place, but to aban-maintain his seat in the chair. It was notodon it after having despoiled and laid it in ruins. Let them destroy it-savage-like-if they will. will rebuild it. We will make the structures more We glorious. Phoenix-like, new and more substantial structures will rise from its ashes. Planted anew, under the auspices of our superior institutions, it will live and flourish throughout all ages." It would be interesting to show to what an extent Secession orators and presses proceeded in defamation of the character, courage, and strength of the Free State people. The Raleigh Banner, in urging the attack on Washington, said: "The army of the South will be composed of the best material that ever yet made up an army; while that of Lincoln will be gathered from the sewers of rious in Washington that he had been in a state of intoxication for more than thirty-six hours. The man is nearly scared to death; and few people, in that city, are in a better condition." That these scandalous inventions passed uncontradicted by those who well knew their infamous falsity, is only one of a thousand evidences of the designed deception practiced by the leaders to work the heart of the Southern masses up to a point of frenzy against the Northern people and President. The movement of troops northward commenced by April 20th-Richmond being the rendezvous. April 23d the Montgomery (Ala.) |