The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-02-05
THE SOUTHERN PRESS.
DESPERATE CONDITION OF
THINGS.
Fears of Slave Instructions,
The Last Throw Of the Dice.
A FEW FACTS.


The cry is for great armies Everybody
is to be put in the ranks except such as
are detailed. Very good, if by so doing
we can end the war next year and be done
with it. But let us look at few facts.
An army correspondent writing from
Longstrcet's corps says there are three
thousand barefooted men in that corps
alone. From Johnson's Qate Bragg's
army comes piteous appeal for blankets.
Lees army is also in need of blankets,
and not week ago paper, reputed to be
the government organ in this city, called
upon the ladies to devote their energies
to knitting socks for Lees soldiers. For
some weeks past, the Young Mems Chris
tan Association has been furnishing cot
ton yarn to knit into socks for these same
soldiers. Woollen yarn was not to be
had. Day by day the clothes made for
the soldiers exhibit less wool and more
cotton. What is the prospect for clothing
next year? The blockade at Wilmington
is now SO rigidly enforced that supplies
from abroad cannot be counted upon. An
intercepted letter from Nassau, printed in
Yankee papers which came by the last
flag of truce, states that nothing has en-
tered Wilmington for month" We must
then depend on the home markets for
clothing materials What do we find !?
Any one who has bought beef has discov-
cred that the quarters and sides are rap.
idly diminishing in size. Younger cattle
are being slaughtered every year. 1t
is now thought that we will have to
fall back on mich COWS. As cattle
diminish, mutton must be substituted,
and hence the sources both of leather
and wool may be expected to de-
crease every month. Thus the prospect
at home does not encourage the belief that
we will be able to clothe armies larger than
those which are now shivering in naked
ness. An army must be fed as well as
clothed. The facts just stated iu regard
to the supply of beef, apply with even
more force to the question of subsistence
than to that of clothing. Very little bacon
is left, beef is going, and mutton will hardly
supply great armies, even if the supply were
double what it is. 1t is said that Gen.
Lee dnring his last visit to this city, ex-
claimed that the citizens had no right to
indulge themselves while the soldiers were
living on quarter of pound of meat per
day. The hue and cry against the starva-
ton of Yankee prisoners had scarcely sub
sided, and the excuse that three of our
largest hospitals were forced to do without
meat for day or two at time, had not
been forgotten. East Tennessee, on which
we relied mainly for supplies, has fallen
into the hands of the enemy The clamor
about impressments and the stoppage of
supplies on their way to market, still rings
in the ears of the government The stand
ing crops in entire counties have been
impressed at one fell swoop. under the
plea that in no other manner could.a sufi-
cient supply for the army be certainly
secured. Under this system, and because
of real scarcity as well, flour of a low
grade is selling this day in the confederate
capital at $l2Oa barrel.
It appears, therefore, that the prospect
of feeding the army already in the field,
much less one twice or thrice its size, is
not encouraging. Without labor there
can he no production. Our labor is that
of the African slave, who requires the su-
peryision of white man at all times, and
never more than when an unusual amount
Of work is demanded of him. Women,
Lads. sexaqenerians, cannot make the ne
GRO do his duty fully and faithfully; a
man in the prime and vigor Of his life is
needed Already the fear OF Instruction,
occas one.l by the absence of the greater
norton of the arms bearing white popula
ton. has produced a leniency and indul-
oencs among the farmers, which have en-
couraged the natural laziness of the slaves,
and resulted in a "a id and yearly increas-
inc diminution of the crops. Take away
ali or nearly all the vigorous whites and
leave tre negro to the feeble control OF
,ha women. children and old men, and
the danger is that famine will be superad-
ed to instruction. 1.-THE negroes still re-
maining within our lines were made to
work as hard as the white hirelings of the
north and of Europe, they could scarcely