CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



231 



agents, on the part of the Confederate States, 

 to visit different portions of the State of Missis- 

 sippi for the purpose of auditing, adjusting, and 

 paying off certificates and receipts given per- 

 sons for provisions and other property im- 

 pressed by the Confederate Government. 



The Senate then resumed consideration of 

 the House bill to put an end to the exemption 

 of persons who have furnished substitutes, the 

 pending question being on the adoption of the 

 amendment of Mr. Maxwell, of Florida, except- 

 ing those engaged in agricultural pursuits whose 

 substitutes have not deserted. 



Mr. Hill favored the amendment. There %as 

 a great clamor to put everybody in the army. 

 The ranks of the army certainly required filling 

 up, but they were thin, not because the muster 

 rolls were not full, but because the men on the 

 muster rolls were not in the ranks. Absentee- 

 ism was the greatest vice of the day, We lost 

 the battle of Missionary Ridge because of ab- 

 senteeism. Officers of that army were absent 

 who were as well as he was. He could give 

 the names of some of these officers, but not all 

 of them, as they were too numerous. But if 

 any one of them ever come before the Senate for 

 promotion, and he knew it, he would mention 

 the facts and vote against him. Gen. Bragg 

 had stated in his report that two thirds of his 

 army were absent. All of them were, proba- 

 bly, not on sick furloughs. Many of them were, 

 no doubt, engaged on provost duty. It had come 

 to this, that every little village in the country 

 must have a provost and provost guard, who, as 

 far as his own observation went, were a great 

 deal more active in annoying citizens than in 

 arresting deserters. The army was discontent- 

 ed with the Substitute law because most of 

 those who had put in substitutes had set them- 

 selves down in towns and amassed fortunes out 

 of the necessities of the country. If they had 

 betaken themselves to some occupation useful 

 and necessary to the country, this discontent 

 would not have arisen. To exempt from the 

 operation of this act men who were engaged in 

 producing food for the support of the army 

 and the country would certainly be agreeable 

 to the army. He therefore favored the amend- 

 ment. 



Mr. Wigfall said he wished to say a few 

 words, not to influence the mind of the Senate, 

 for he was satisfied the Senate had made up 

 their minds. This matter of ' substitutes was 

 one which might have once been defended, but 

 now it seemed to him that the bill abolishing 

 all substitution ought to pass unconditionally. 

 It was absolutely necessary that every soldier 

 in the army should remain there, under the 

 present organization, without any change of 

 company, battalion, or regiment. The statu 

 quo must be preserved. We could not afford 

 to disorganize the army. Incompetent offi- 

 ers must be gotten rid of by examining 

 boards. He meant what he said, and had said 

 what he meant. The army and the country 

 had been talked of in a manner calculated to 



produce confusion. The army was the coun- 

 try, and the country was the army. We were 

 engaged in such a conflict as the world never 

 saw. By a misnomer we spoke of " this revo- 

 lution," and compared it with the revolution of 

 '76. There was no comparison whatever. If 

 we had failed then we should still be under the 

 best government the world had then seen. We 

 should have been under a government which 

 reserved to us the trial by jury, &c. A half 

 dozen persons, if so much, would have been ex- 

 ecuted, and there would have been an end of it. 

 But if we failed now ? Has any man in or out 

 of the army, considered what subjugation and 

 confiscation mean what is comprehended and 

 signified by these terms ? Confiscation means 

 to have no house to cover the head ; no bed 

 whereon to lie ; to have nothing. Subjugation 

 means a negro guard in every house and a pro- 

 vost marshal at every cross road ; with no 

 right to visit a neighbor ; no right to visit 

 the house of God without a permit from a 

 Yankee provost marshal to be handed to a 

 negro guard. 



Senators should recollect that there was dis- 

 content in the army. He believed that this 

 discontent was groundless, but still it existed. 

 It had been said upon the floors of Congress 

 that there had been discrimination in favor of 

 certain classes, and this had produced dissatis- 

 faction. Those who had fought under the suns 

 of July and August, and under the frosts of Oc- 

 tober and November, and were not yet buried, 

 were discontented that their rich neighbors 

 were not in the army to share their lot with 

 them. The soldiers in the army were content to 

 remain there ; but they insisted that their rich 

 neighbors should be there also. There had 

 been reasons for the exemption of some and the 

 permitting of others to furnish substitutes. 

 Those reasons were that some men could do 

 more good, could benefit the country and the 

 cause more, out of the army than in it. We 

 were obliged to have merchants, tailors, shoe- 

 makers, and blacksmiths. But when the bill 

 passed permitting substitutes, wha.t was the re- 

 sult ? It was the fashion to talk about the 

 bone and sinew of the country, and to speak of 

 the planters and farmers as having all of the 

 religion, cultivation, education, and patriotism 

 of the country. Talk of speculators, extortion- 

 ers and Dutch Jews ! The farmers have been 

 the worst speculators, extortioners, and Dutch 

 Jews of this war. Has the population of the 

 South changed ? No. Have the Yankees 

 driven out the people from their lands, and 

 put into their places the Dutch and Irish with 

 whom they have threatened to colonize the 

 conquered States ? No. These are the people 

 of the South who are fighting for their liber- 

 ties or getting other people to fight for them. 

 And, singular to say, they think a great deal 

 more of their negroes than of their sons and 

 brothers. A gentleman of his acquaintance 

 had, last summer, met a negro on the cars com- 

 ing to Richmond to work on the batteries. The 



