206 



CONFEDERATE STATES. 



now undercurrent hints at final repudiation, and raise 

 our bonds to the highest standard in all European 

 markets. 



If this tax or forced loan be levied equally on all 

 the wealth of our country, its necessity, justice, nnd 

 propriety will commend it to everybody, for all would 

 sec that it is better to give up even half of our estates 

 than to become a conquered people and lose all. 



The following is another view that was pre- 

 sented : 



When the first excitement of war stirred the patriot- 

 ism of the people, it was believed that every man able 

 to bear arms would volunteer, and it was equally be- 

 lieved that every dollar of property would be willingly 

 held subject to the call of the Government. But dis- 

 appointment has attended both expectations; and as 

 the conscription act was necessary for the army, so a 

 property conscription act has become equally neces- 

 sary for the Treasury. Funding and volunteering both 

 "played out" about the same time, and as the Gov- 

 ernment found it necessary to abandon volunteering, 

 nnd to resort to compulsory conscription, to make all 

 men bear their proper part of the burdens of the army, 

 so now it has become necessary for the money arm of 

 the Government to abandon voluntary funding, and 

 to resort to compulsory loans upon the property of the 

 people. 



Two expedients only remain to the Government 

 the forcea loan and the public sale of Confederate 

 bonds for what they will bring, both to be accompa- 

 nied with a cessation of the issue of Confederate Treas- 

 ury notes. 



The most serious consequence which result- 

 ed from the depreciation of the currency, was 

 the refusal of the agriculturists to sell their 

 produce for the Government notes, or to sell 

 only at the highest price. This determination, 

 if adhered to, would result in the destruction of 

 the army from a lack of supplies, and the starva- 

 tion of the people who were engaged in other 

 industrial pursuits in towns and cities. In an- 

 ticipation of this danger, an act was passed by 

 Congress in the beginning of the year, which 

 authorized the Government to seize or impress 

 all the produce necessary for the army. It 

 provided that a board of commissioners should 

 be appointed in each State, who should deter- 

 mine, every sixty days, the prices which the 

 Government should pay for each article of pro- 

 duce impressed within the State. A central 

 board of commissioners was also appointed for 

 all the States. The act authorized the agents 

 of the Government to seize all the produce of 

 the farmer, except so much as was necessary 

 to maintain himself and family. For this pro- 

 duce the agent paid at the rate fixed by the 

 State commissioners. The operation of the act 

 created an unparalleled excitement among the 

 people. A fanner in Louisa county, Virginia, 

 thus wrote, on October 23d, to the papers at 

 Richmond : 



You speak of the tardiness with which the farmers 

 are sending forward their crop of wheat. I do not 

 know how it may be in other counties, but so far as 

 Louisa is concerned, there is none to send, as the Gov- 

 ernment has taken the entire crop. As far as I have 

 heard from, it has all been sent to Richmond on Gov- 

 ernmcnt account, at the fixed price of five dollars per 

 bushel, barely leaving sufficient for seed and family 

 use. All the hay and oats have long since been hauled 

 off to our army in Orange and Culpepper. 



Another farmer, on James river, at the same 

 time, wrote as follows : 



I see that you and other papers state that there is no 

 wheat in the city mills, and none arriving ; and you 

 blame the farmers. You write in ignorance of the facts. 

 The farmers are not blamable. The Government agents 

 have impressed all the wheat, and flour nnd beef in this 

 region, which was destined for Richmond. I suppose the 

 same is the case all over the State. This will explain 

 to you why no wheat arrives the farmers have none 

 to send it has been seized by Government agents. 

 Look to them. JAMES RIVER. 



Soon after the act authorizing impressment 

 took effect, instructions were issued from the 

 "War Department regulating this proceeding. 

 The details upon which difficulty arose became 

 the subject of further instructions. The follow- 

 ing explains some of these details, and shows 

 the severity with which the law might be en- 

 forced : 



General Orders, No. 19. 

 ADJTTTANT AND INSPECTOR-GENERAL'S OFFICB, ) 

 RICHMOND, VA., March. Wth, 1S63. f 



In consequence of numerous applications made by 

 various persons to the War Department, it is obvious 

 that some misconception in regard to the instructions 

 of the Secretarj' of War, in relation to the impressment 

 of supplies, must exist on the part of the people, or 

 that the agents of the Government have violated their 

 instructions. Now, therefore, for the purpose of re- 

 moving such misconception, and to prevent any viola- 

 tion orthese instructions, it is hereby ordered : 



I. That no officer of the Government shall, under any 

 circumstances whatever, impress the supplies which a 

 party has for his own consumption, or that of his fam- 

 ily, employes, or slaves. 



II. That no officer shall at any time, unless specially 

 ordered so to do by a general commanding, in a case of 

 exigency, impress supplies which are on their way to 

 market for sale on arrival. 



III. These orders were included in the instructions 

 originally issued in relation to impressment by the 

 Secretary of War; and the officers exercising such au- 

 thority are again notified that " any one acting without 

 or beyond" the authority given in those instructions, 

 will be held strictly responsible. 



In conformity with the foregoing, to prevent any in- 

 considerate action on the part of officers or agents 

 charged with the duty of impressment, they are en- 

 joined, until further orders (which will not be given 

 unless under imperative exigencies for the supply of 

 the army), not to impress any necessaries of subsist- 

 ence to man, owned by producers, in tran-situ to mar- 

 ket, or after arriving at market, unless retained an un- 

 reasonable time from sale to consumers. 



By order, S. COOPER, 



(Signed) Adj't and Insp.-Gen. 



At a meeting of the board of commissioners 

 for impressment in the Confederate States, held 

 at Augusta, Georgia, near the close of the year, 

 the following regulations, among others, were 

 adopted : 



That the practice of the Confederate Government's 

 agents in making contracts for the purchase of manu- 

 factures and other articles for the army, at higher 

 prices than those adopted by the several boards of 

 commissioners in the different States, is highly repre- 

 hensible, injurious to the Government, and should be 

 stopped at once by the Secretary of War. 

 _ Jiesolsed, That the habit which prevails in many sec- 

 tions of the Confederacy, with the quartermasters and 

 commissaries and their agents, in impressing articles 

 for private consumption in families, is contrary to the 

 acts of Congress regulating impressments, and should 

 be prohibited by the War Department. 



