130 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



may be sold for cash money at Petersburg, they refuse 

 absolutely to give paper any currency. The paper 

 chosen for the new money being very fine and thin, 

 the people fancy (especially as from former examples 

 the guarantee seems to them uncertain) that such thin 

 paper was selected on purpose, so that a part of these 

 bills might be torn and destroyed before the time fixed 

 for redemption, which would be so much gain for the 

 treasury. This mistrust is proof that the people have 

 not the highest regard for the government. A Gen- 

 eral was paying off North Carolina troops in paper- 

 money and they refusing to accept such bills as were 

 any way damaged, he tore and cut bits from the whole 

 supply, and dispensed these bills with the notification: 

 that if they would not take the torn, they should have 

 none of any sort. 



A certain amount of this new paper-money comes 

 back to the State treasury in taxes, which must be set- 

 tled partly in paper-money and partly in ' certificates ' 

 which during the war the state issued to the inhab- 

 itants for services rendered, supplies furnished &c. 

 Even those who have none of these certificates for 

 deliveries made by them, must make use of them for 

 paying a certain part of their taxes ; a number of the 

 inhabitants are therefore obliged to buy these certifi- 

 cates from others for the purpose. They are readily 

 exchanged, not for paper-money, but for cash or 

 goods, at a fourth or a third of their face value; the 

 people's distrust of the government making them glad 

 to get free of the certificates as well as may be. The 

 government has reckoned on this exchange to dis- 

 tribute more evenly among the inhabitants the burden 

 of contributions to the war, and the sums coming in 



