American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1851-1863, 1861-09-21

sale for cotton from which alone our peo-
pie derive their incomes The cost oil this
ensanpment cannot be- less-fts may 6e
more--than half million of dollars.
and this sum is 10 be added to the State
and Military tax Of about one million. The
county and Levee Taxes more than half
a million, and the tax of the Confederate
Government which il is supposed viii be
near three millions of dollars, making
total Of abont five millions of dollars TO
be provided for during the next year.
Unless the block ade is raised and We can
sell cotton these taxes viii produce an
amount of suffering and sacrifice OF
property never before witnessed in this
State i therefore think that any policy
which unnece ssarily adds to these bur
dens, is deeply to be deplored. | am
the last man in tie State to object 10 any
tax necessary to carry on the war. For
such a tax every dollar of money, every
acre Of land, every particle of property
owned by me | am ready cheerfully 10
surrender. But | am opposed to any
policy involving a useless expenditure of
money and such consider this encamp-
ment. Our President, Jefferson Davis.
must be presumed to know how many
troops he wants, and had he desired
these troops be certainly would have said
so, as Mississippi had responded to all
his previous calls with alacrity and if
they had been called by him it would
have been at the expense of the common
treasury of the Confederate Government
and not the whole burden thrown upon
the State of Mississippi. | concur in the
opinion that troops are necessary for the
defense of our sea coast, but l insist they
should be placed there at the expense Of
the Confederacy. Mississippi has twenty
thousand of her sons defending the soil
of Virginia and other States. She is
ready and willing to defend her own soil,
but she has right to demand. and if de-
manded the Confederate Government
would not refuse to incur the cost of de-
Tending our sea coast in war conducted
not alone for Mississippi but for the COM
mon interest of all the States.
But it bas been charged against me
that / became a candidate at the instance
of a party originally opposed to secession.
This IS not true. The call was made on
me without reference to former political
divisions, and of the thirty-one names
signed to it twenty five had been Demo
Gratis and six of them had been Wings.
But no true friend of his country would
now attempt to keep up the party differ
ences which heretofore divided US. When
Mississippi withdrew from the Union, we
were no longer Wings or Democrats, no
longer Co-operationists or Secessionists,
We were Mississippians; as one man our
State came forward to defend her rights,
Democrats. Wings. Co-operationists, Sc
cessonists, all alike and with equal alac-
rity stepped forward in her defence.
When the morning drums beat on the
plains of Manassas the roll call of Missis-
sippi was answered alike by Wing and
Democrat, Co operationist and Secession
ist Side by side and shoulder to should
err, they struggled on that fierce fought
field together; while living they struck the
foe, and the remains of the glorious dead
| repose beneath the same monument. No
patriot under such circumstances, for any
purpose, would wish to revive the party
differences of the past, producing discord
and Discussions where all are now harmo
NOUS and united and struggling together
for common purpose with fraternal feel
ing. MADISON MCAFEE.