Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-08-28
why i. /, tina, oar soIa,sr, are NO, Paid,

We have before us document printed for the two
houses Of the Legislature entitled Especial Report
of the Quartrrmaster and Paymaster General, - in
reply to a resolution passed by the House of Com
mons on the 18th instant The report Of the Pay.
master General, Mr. Branch, is dated the Both, ind
was communicated to the Legislature BY Gov Clark
on the Dist
Mr.. Branch SETS out in his report letter to him
from the Quartermaster General of the Confederate
States in which he says that .volunteers are paid
by the Confederate States from the date of their
muster into the State service, on the transfer Of
their muster rolls to the Confederate serrice and
when they have not been mustered into the State
service they paid from the date Of the order d.
recting them to proceed to any destination by the
War department If the volunteers of North Car
DINA are mustered into the State service, and the
men are borne on the muster rolls from the date
they accepted Jst the Governor, they will be
paid from that date"
Mr.. Branch says this is explicit embracing and
providing for all our troops, whether for one or
three years. He adds that arrangements were made
accordingly with the Confederate government; that
several regiments have been paid off by that gov
ernmcnt; that delay has occurred il paying off
others, but he has received no official information
that the Confederate government has or will refuse
to meet its engagements. Referring to this delay,
and to the fact that the government has done the
best it could under the circumstances, he adds:
"Apprecating the distress and inconvenience
thus imposed on the officers and men, and anxious
if possible to afford them some relief YOU directed
me on the oath July last to proceed to Richmond
and propose to the Confederate authorities that the
State would pay off Its troops to the amount of
six hundred thousand dollars, if the Government
would to the State its bonds for that amount
proceeded to Richmond and made the PROPOSE
ton, but it was not acceded to. l earnestly hope
that the General Assembly, if it can do so, will
make provision for raising the money and direct all
the North-Carolina State Troops and Volunteers to
be paid from the State Treasury. If invested with
the authority and provided with the funds, can,
with the aid you are ready to give me- cause the
twenty five organized regiments to be paid in ten
days. But am at present without either the funds
or the authority"
1t appears, therefore, that all our troops would
have been paid off from the date of their accep-
lance by the Governor, if the Confederate govern
ment had agreed to issue its bonds to this State for
| the amount paid. The pOwer to pay was claimed,
and the offer to pay made certain conditions.
| These facts being INCIDENTALLY established by the
record and the further fact being orecord that the
| Convention on the 2Sth of June, made ample pro-
vision to pay the troops, by authorizing the State
authorities to borrow the of three millions of
dollars including the amount already borrowed by
authority of the Legislature, we trust we shall not
hear again charged that it is the fault of the Con-
vention that the troops have not been paid. The
! Contention did its trhOle duty on the subject
bot bovo rtI,o II,
have not been fully made out from the earliest pc
riod at which the claims of the soldiers begin to rum
| the Convention is not to blame for this neglect
Authority was given by that body to raise all the
money which might be necessary; and it is appa
| rent that the money could and would have been
raised, for Gov. Clark authorized Col. Branch to
offer to make payment to the amount of S6O0,0OO
if the Confederate government would issue its bonds
to that amount. Col Branch also earnestly appeals
to the Legislature to make provision for paying the
troops and he says he pay them all in ten days.
if furnished with funds, and authorized to do So
We entertain no doubt, from conversations with
volunteers and Others that certain persons have en-
deavored to produce the impression that the Con-
vention is to blame for all the msmanagement and
delay in regard to the payment of the just claims of
! our soldiers. What more could the Convention do
than authorize the authorities to borrow the money
Without intending to censure or to reflect on Gov.
Clark, we must be pardoned for saying that we
think the six hundred thousand dollars ought to
have been promptly advanced to our troops, wheth-
er the Confederate government issued its bonds or
not. 1t was well understood by the Convention,
when the ordinance authorizing the raising of funds
| hot f,pd In
essary, as advances to the Confederate government
in paying our soldiers; and that the government
would assume the debt thus created against it and
| pay it at the end of the war. We know the Cover
nor feels for brave boys who have not been paid,
and that he would gladly relieve them, if he could
do so at all consistently with his sense ofduty and
in this respect we differ with him only in judgment
and as to the assumption Of responsibility. If the
Confederate government embarrassed as it is with
nearly two hundred thousand men, cannot pay
promptly, or cannot pay until our brave troops have
begun to suffer for their wages then sag let the
State pay, and pay long there is dollar left,
not merely in the State treasury, but in the State
Let the muster rolls be made out, so that every
private as we'll as-every officer shall have justice
when payday comes let the bounty money, which
is still withheld in many cases, be paid at once, and
let US hear no more from deputy Paymasters, that
sit will blot their books" to pay bounty money at
one time and monthly wages at another. As we
said in our last, the taxes to which the people are
now submitting, and to which they will be called to
submit during the war, and for years after the war
shall have ceased, are part Of the price Of our
liberties. We pay part of this price in money
the soldier pays his part in wounds and suffering,
and death. Our loss our privations will be light
compared with those of our brave defenders, if it
shall take all we have to carry on the war. But,
better that all should go-better that our State
should be reduced to abect poverty, and that want