Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1862-10-10
From the Richmond WEig.
The Confederate Currency.


The Confederate Currency.
Dear Sir You say that there persons in
your county who refuse to take the notes OF
Ihe Confederate States, and you ask me "to
express An opinion n reference 10 the ultimate
ability of our Government to redeem them,
~, that (you) can use the reply in giving con>
silence to the .'holders of these notes
am somewhat SUPP ised at your statement
aud can but think that the who refuses
to take the notes of Government, under
existing circumstances, Is an enemy TO the
cause which that Government is seeking to up
hod-that he Is just much engaged in giving
AID comfort to the enemy-ln tact Is aiding
and assisting them and weakening us. just
the most open and defiant traitor possibly could
Our success must depend upon united constant
aud earnest efforts to become tree people.
To achieve our Independence SACRIFICES must
b. made-lusses must be expected aud incon-
venicnce uust be submitted to. Ii our fathers,
amid tn. periIs of'76, had not been willing to
suffer afllictinn persecution and even death,
for the great of human liberty, we should
have been now without history, and, to day
might have been the vandals of crowned heads
the ignuble of nameless fathers aud the
drgraded victims of passive obedience To des
pots and tyrants. And if we could now go back
to the progress of our Revolutionary struggle
with the mn'he country and find the man who
had retu ~e,s to take the old Continental money,
We should see him with all the other marks of
a subject of Gtpfge the Third, aud with the
maine of Tory written even his very fore>
head ~ a .4e *-
Gereral Washington in letter to his broth
er .'ohn Augustine Washington, dated Phla
delphia, June 10th, ITS, more than twelve
months before tie Declaration ol Independence
announcing his appointment rs Comm ander in
Il
siberty to inform you that Congress, in Com
snittee, have consented to a Continental cur
rency, and have ordered two millions Of dollars
TO be struck for the payment of the troops
and other purposes, and have voted $4,000
men AS a Continental Army" With m unfal-
termg trust IN the justice OF the cause, and
confiding in the blessing of God, he and
his coinpatriots in arms went forth to meet
the enemy, then IN our midst, never presuming
to question the wisdom of Congress tu meet
the high expectations of those who proposed
to pay them i'll the currency Of mere embryo
nation, which, as vet, had uot even declared
itself tree and independent of the neither
country God, however, did bless them after
seven years war and these colonies became
free, sovereign and independent States. But
now, after the lapse of more than three fonrths
OF century ,an effort is again made to en-.
slave US Shall our enemies be more successful
when we have come to be great and mighty
nation-"hen We are prepared to make good
our claims to independence, though other ma
tons have not as yet, recognized us No
though England and France may stand aloof
we can defy all our enemies abroad if we shall
out DC true to ourselves at home. i
Our ancestors supported the war Of The
Revolution almost entirely by artificial credit
Up TO l779 they had issued zoe, ,ooo, 900 Of "a
per dollars, had borrowed 45 900, 900 ON loar
officer certificates at home, and all they corlf
in Europe, besides the monthly supplies reoei,
ed from the States, founded on paper issues also
amounting to 100000 more. All this VA
done when Congress was but assemblag
OF State Commissioners, without any form o
AGovernmentl powers, except such as wer
derived from their dicordant commissions. Il
i7oo, however, the taxes and loans proposes
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