CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



207 



the President to issue a proclamation requiring 

 all foreigners to take np arms or leave the coun- 

 try in sixty days. lie was tired of feeding 

 drones. Whilst we were blessed with abun- 

 dance, and these people were of no disadvantage, 

 he was willing to tolerate their presence. But 

 now they are eating out our substance, and, by 

 their speculative proclivities, are depreciating 

 our currency. They were of no earthly use 

 to us. On the contrary, their presence here 

 was of great disadvantage. He knew of no in- 

 ternational law which forbid us from saying to 

 them, "the time has* come when we can enter- 

 tain you no longer." Shall we fail in doing 

 our duty to ourselves, for fear some foreign 

 power may take offence ? It may be safely as- 

 sumed that nineteen-twentieths of these people 

 are engaged in traffic. They are the men who 

 run the blockade, depreciate our currency, and 

 appreciate the Yankee currency. The man who 

 goes secretly to New York, or any other Yan- 

 kee city, and brings goods here, knowing that 

 in doing so he violates our laws, that man is 

 not to be trusted in making communications to 

 the enemy. He would- rather this day have a 

 regiment of Yankees turned loose on this city, 

 than longer tolerate the presence of such peo- 

 ple. There will, he said, be no burthen on the 

 Government if you enact wise laws, and have 

 them faithfully administered. But if you hesi- 

 tate every time a little doubt as to power is 

 raised, he would not be responsible for the con- 

 sequences. In the midst of plenty, the wives 

 and children of our soldiers are starving, and 

 their limbs are exposed to the blasts of winter. 

 Will Congress arouse from its lethargy and 

 apply a remedy ? How long will the farmers 

 of Virginia be allowed to extort the whole 

 month's pay of a soldier in the field for a bushel 

 of meal ? This is done by men who are allowed 

 to remain at home " that the army may be fed." 

 How long are we to tolerate this state of things ? 

 He would say to these farmers, " Disgorge ! you 

 can't be allowed to stay at home while others 

 are in the army, and, under the wretched plea 

 of a 'depreciated currency,' wring from the 

 soldiers' families their last cent ! " ifr. Brown 

 said he would commence by picking these men 

 up and poking them into the army. This pro- 

 ceeding would no doubt surprise these grandees, 

 who think they have grown too great to serve 

 the country. If there is to be any substantial 

 improvement of the currency let us stop this 

 tinkering with it. No government ever yet 

 restored its credit by taking up notes that did 

 not bear interest, and issuing bonds that do 

 bear interest. That is the proposition of the 

 Secretary of the Treasury. Never could he be 

 brought to vote for any such proposition. He 

 proposed the counter proposition of levying 

 taxes upon the property of the country. He 

 agreed with the President, that the debt is the 

 debt of the people. It is growing into fright- 

 ful proportions, and the time has come to com- 

 mence its extinguishment. Better undertake 

 to pay now $400,000,000 in non-interest bear- 



ing notes than $60,000,000 in gold after tho 

 war. He proposed to tax Treasury notes about 

 twenty-five per cent., and the man who as- 

 sessed should collect the tax. To avoid the 

 concealment of the notes, he would appoint a 

 convenient time and place for the notes to be 

 presented. Let the agent retain one-fourth as 

 a tax and stamp the other three-fourths. All 

 notes not so stamped should, at the end of 

 three months, cease to be currency, By this 

 plan, assessment and collection would be si- 

 multaneous, counterfeits would be detected, 

 and what would be left of the currency would 

 be sound. Mr. Brown further discussed the 

 financial question, and advocated the propo- 

 sition to make Treasury notes a legal tender. 

 His next proposition was to prohibit all traffic 

 in gold and silver. Nothing, he said, has con- 

 tributed so much to the depreciation of our 

 currency, and the traffic should therefore be 

 prohibited. He found the power to do this in 

 the necessity of sustaining the public credit. 

 It is nonsense to tell him that the framers of a 

 piece of political machinery designed that it 

 should run down like a clock, and none to 

 have the power of winding it up again. With- 

 out a strong army and a sound currency what 

 is the Constitution worth ? We are not living 

 under a constitution which requires us to sacri- 

 fice our liberties. If he had taken an oath to 

 support such a constitution he would disregard 

 it, because he believed there was no such con- 

 stitution. He had sworn to support a constitu- 

 tion which gave to the Government just such 

 powers as would enable it to conduct this war 

 to a successful conclusion. Lastly, he proposed 

 to declare these laws war measures, and mako 

 those violating them amenable to the military 

 courts. He was unwilling to submit legislation 

 upon which hangs the destiny of this Con- 

 federacy to the judgment of every little petty 

 State Judge, who, by his decisions, may turn 

 loose the flood of Yankee despotism to over- 

 spread the whole land. He believed that all 

 of the laws he had advocated were absolutely 

 necessary to sustain the country in its im- 

 perilled condition. 



In the House on Jan. 30th a debate ensued 

 on the bill to amend the act of Jan. 5th, by abol- 

 ishing exemptions (see ARMY, CONFEDERATE), of 

 which the following debate is reported : 

 Mr. Smith, of North Carolina, said : 

 We had at this time 400,000 men on our 

 muster-rolls. How many were actually in the 

 field he was unable to state; probably it was 

 one-half 'were not there, and it was well 

 known that we were unable to feed the frac- 

 tional part who were in the field. If, how- 

 ever, there were half if 200,000 should re- 

 quire the possible seizure of one-half of the 

 provisions of the country where, he would 

 ask, were the means to feed the ten times that 

 number who remained at home? With this 

 condition of affairs staring us in the face, it 

 was now proposed to break up the farms, and 

 reduce the agricultural interests of the country 



