Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1861-08-28
Why is it that our Soldier, ar. NJ, p.,a,

houses OF the Legislature, entitled Especial Report
OF the Quartermaster and Paymaster General" in
reply to resolution passed by the House of Com
mons on the 18th instant The report Of the Pay.
master General, Mr.. Branch, is dated the 20th and
was communicated to the Legislature by Gov Clark
on the 2lst.
from the Qnartermaster 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 service and
when they have not been mustered into the State
service, they are 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.
olina are mustered into the State service, and the
me" are dorae ON the muster rolls from tile date
they were accepted by the Governor, they will be
paid from that date"
MIR. 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 bv that GOV.
ernmcnt; that delay has occurred ir pavinr 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 ii could under the circumstances, be adds:
"Apprecating the distress and Inconvenience
thus imposed on the officers and men, and anx,ons
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
Skoto of,
six hundred thousand dollars, if the Government
would Issue to the State its bonds for that amount
proceeded to Richmond and made the PROPOSE
ton, hut it was not acceded to- l earnestly, hone
that the General Assembly, if it can do 50. will
make provision for raising the money and dire:. 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"
i 1t appears, therefore, that all our troops would
have been paid off from the date of their accep.
tancc by the Governor, if the Confederate govern
men had agreed to issue its bonds to this State for
the amount paid. The pouer to pay was claimed,
and the cter to pay made on certain conditions
These facts being undeniably established by the
record ard the further fact being of record that the
Convention, on the 2Sth of June, made ample pro-
vision to pay the troops, by authorizing the State
authorities to borrow the sum of three millions of
dollars, including the amount already borrowed by
authority of the Legislature, we trust 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 arhole duty on tho suJect-
If the troops have not been pad-f the muster-rolls
have not been fully made out from the earliest Pc
rod 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,u0O,
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
deavored to produce the impression that the Con
venton is to blame for all the mismanagement and
delay in regard to the payment of the just claims
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 VT
i think the six hundred thousand dollars ought t.
have been promptly advanced to our troops, wheth
er the Confederate government issued its bonds o.
:. not 1t was we'll understood by the Convention
~ fund
was passed that these funds would be used, if nee
essary, as advances to the Confederate government
. in paying our soldiers; and that the government
would assume the debt thus created against it, AM
pay it at the end Of the war. We know the Cover
nor feels for our brave boys who have not been paid
and that he would gladly relieve them, if he coul
!. do so at all consistently with his ofduty
in this respect We differ with him only in udgmen
and as to the assumption of responsibility. If tn
Confederate government embarrassed as it is wit
II nearly two hundred thousand men, cannot pa
, promptly or cannot pay until our brave troops hav
i begun to suffer for their wages, then say let
e State pay and pay long there is dollar lief
not merely in the State treasury, but in the State
10 Let the muster rolls be made out, SO that ever
IL private as we'll as every officer shall have ustlc
IT when pay day comes let the bounty money, whc
'e is still withheld in many cases, be paid at once, an
Or let us hear no more from deputy Paymasters, tn:
70 ait will blot their books" to pay bounty money
Us one time and monthly wages at another. As "
said in our last, the taxes to which the people al
now submitting, and to which they will be called
ne submit during the war; and for years after the WI
y, shall have ceased, are part Of the price Of OF
tn liberties We pay part of this price in money
the soldier pays his part in wounds, and sufferin
to and DEATH Our loss-our privations will be ligf
Ike compared with those of our brave defenders, if
"a shall take all we have to carry on the war. Blu
ms better that all should go-better that our Sta
I'd should be reduced to aect poverty and that wan
y. and famine, and pestence should afct and destrc
I,at ehould thinlx auor