Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-07-28
Rebel Murmer Against ExtortIon

charged for everything. It is directed to
Messrs. Harrison, Hubbard, and Gibbony,
Commissioners to assess Government pri-
ces for the state of Virginia.
| We extract portion:
| What is the meaning, moreover, of the
provision of law which alloys exemption
| from service to certain producers on their
pledge to sell to the government all their
| surplus at Commissioners rates? Your
vast market scale laughs to scorn that
equitable contract; loads with wealth the
easy exempt whose compatriots are in
the field toiling, suffering, bleeding, dy-
| ing for his precious interests, and bank
i rupts the government he is sacredly bound
to aid, not only as a citizen, but as an
honest contractor.
But where is your market price? Shall
few wealthy planters, who raise the sup;
plies for Richmond, combine to fix market
values that shall fill their Golfers and
starve the country2 1 am credibly inform.
ed that, before your schedules appeared
thousands upon thousands of bushels of
wheat could have been purchased in Far
uuier and adjacent counties at five dol
lars a bushe; that the people were anxi-
GUS for the government to secure 1t at that,
and that they can scarcely believe that you
are in earnest in assigning the unheard OF
figures, thirty dollars bushel
Indeed, worthy gentleman, an officer of
the army, just returned from home, where
he had been recovering from severe
:. wound, assures me that, previous to the
PRONUNCIATION of your schedule, no body in
Farouier would give ten dollars for wheat,
and, even after your scale was published,
he could not accept more than twenty dol
| lars for some he had to sell-even that
seeming to him, Notwithstanding the effect
of your list, scarcely less than an outrage
upon honesty.
| This monstrous and needless scale of
prices must be great encouragement to
the enemy. He will say, as indeed will
| everybody, either there is an insutticiency
| of food in the country or the people have no
confidence in their money; either the starv-
ing point is at hand, or the currency is
worthless. Nothing short of imminent
starvation or utter failure of Government
credit can warrant such prices. Although
these ideas are both untrue, as already in
| timated; to the full extent of your official
influence you give them support, and to a
like extent do you encourage tie enemy
and induce him to believe that, nearly ru-
ined AS the South is, he has only to pass
his destructive policy while longer and
the prize is his.
Not only so, but You are, at the same
time, discouraging Southern martyrs them
selves You are proclaiming to them, be-
hold gaunt famine about to devour you,
and dishonorable treasury unable to help
you; your Ease is hopeless why struggle
against destiny !-give up at once and die
in despairI Sad, indeed, that Virginians,
men of standing and intelligence, should,
by i'll considered action in posts of such
critical Significance, give authoritative
support to these mischieVous decisions.
Congress, at the late session, became
satisfied that army officers were literally
starving and therefore provided for them
one ration furnished, another to DO pur-
chased. This purchased ration, under
your scale, costs more than the entire pay
of hundreds, nay thousands of officers
Do you say let them do Without Then
they must virtually neglect their duties or
yacate their posts. For an officer cannot,
to any good purpose, serve his country
while he is cook, ostler, &c. All the pay
OF those officers being thus consumed I'M
der your schedule for the scantiest fare,
bare enough to keep soul and body togeth
err, what are they to do for clothing? Some
of them have dependent families. How
are they to live =?
tell you, gentlemen, you have not half
weighed this matter. The clique surround
ing you or having your ear you have heed
ed, but rights and interests vastly more
important you have not appreciated
Breed extensive discomfort among the off
GERS of all grades in the army, let them
find by your course that, for the sake of a
pamperel class at home, you are mocking
all their sacrifices and sufferings, or that
at their cost you are experimenting the
theories of certain Congressional debators
and you are preparing an experience for
4 those favored ones of which they like to
dream. 't Al
The army refuses to protect them what
becomes of their stores, their gains2 Be-
lieve me, you cannot safely trample upon
the rights, the claims, the interests and
the feelings of the patriotic men who, by
\ barring their breasts to the common enc
my, have hitherto shielded their fellow
citizens at home, and allowed them oppor-
| tunity to pursue in safety their pleasant
avocatious. Let these latter upgratefully
return intolerable injury for priceless ben
eft, and by sel6shly refusing their share
of public burden, if not grasping at iuor-
| dinate gain, throw a double portion OF
sacrifice upon their protectors; and they
must not be surprised if their victims de-
cline by and by to retain such relations.
Virginia farmers and spectators, turned
over to the tender mercies of Yankee raid
ers, will soon learn the value of the protec-
/ tors. 1ouI SentleLneuJ are now neiplnR
them to despise, and find what an amazing
mistake was made in attempting to relieve
themselves from any share of Government
support, while throwing upon the country's
defenders such iutolerable cost, in addition
to their other trials. f H
Never was people protected by nobler
army but if Virginians, instead of con-
tributing fairly to support that army, thus
practice upon it and leave it to suffer and
starve, they may rest assured the army will
go where it can subsist, and leave them to
the fate they will richly deserve.
Depend upon it, gentlemen, there are
truths here you may we'll ponder. And if
you dor ere long reduce your schedule
to reasonable scale, fearful will be your
responsibility for the consequences.