The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-01-15

record that the people are in temper to
stand extravagsnt taxation. For many
weeks past the Confederate cabinet has
been eagerly engaged in discussing and
excogitating scheme of relief, and a
financial Convention of the Presidents of
Southern banks is to assemble at Augusta
on the 10th inst. I have reason to think
that some such plan as the following has
found favor in the eyes of influential men,
Authority will be given to the Secretary
of the Treasury to issue 100,O00,O00 of
per cent. coupon bonds, and simultane-
ously to impose an annual tax of five per
cent on real and personal estate capital
lied, of which tax one half is to be paid
in currency and the other half in specie or
coupons of the 1OO,OOO,O0O loan. There
will be inducements offered (such as
bonus of per cent. at once to buy up
or convert currency into this loan. and it
is hoped that so much of the existing cir
culation will be quickly retired as will i'm
mediately reduce prices, and admit of a
limit being put to the outstanding cur
rency. Other details of this scheme there
are in abundance, but, concisely stated, its
outline is not far from this. My opinion
is that it will not be prompt enough
in its operation to sweep away at once tho
vast redundancy of the currency, to in
spire confidence in a distrustful people,
and to bring supplies promptly into mar
ket. If it fails there is no alternative left
for the government but to seize and i'm
press whatever it wants with a high hand,
and to this step it will be impelled, rather
than yield to the hated Yankee, by the
almost unanimous voice of the confeder-
ate people. 1t was long ago remarked by
Machiavelli that no people once embarked
in war is ever forced into peace by req
son of pecuniary inanition, and never
were there nations less amenable to cone
siderations of cash than the two sections
of a sundered republic, which three years
ago exhibited an average of individual
wealth among its citizens such as could
be found nowhere else upon earth. The
embarrassments of the confederates in adj
justing their currency, in getting the sup
plies which abound in distant Florida and
elsewhere Up to the mouths which need
them, and in introducing through an in
creasingly stringent blockade all that is
vital for their continued struggle, may be,
and probably will be, grievous and per-
picking; that they will be such as to ex-
tinguish or paralize future resistance will
not be lightly credited by one who knows
what difficulties have already been sur
mounted, what short comings supple
mented, what energy and ingenuity dis
played.
The reported capture of the two princi-
pal Government vessels which have since
January last been engaged in running the
blockade, and which have made nearly
fifty round voyages between them, will
doubtless be held up to England by Mr..
Seward as great instance of Yankee
vigOr; and yet it requires large charity to
regard as effective such blockade as has
been for eleven months pierced at will by
the Cornubia and Giraffe, or, as she has
recently been called, the Robert E. Lee.
Doubtless fresh Government vessels will
soon be obeying the behests of the Ord
nance Bureau, and in the meantime such
is the glut of blockading goods introduced
into the Confederacy by the vessels be-
longing to private companies, that un-
derstand there are at this moment fifteen
cargoes warehoused at Wilmington, await
ing rise in prices before they are offered
for sale. Never since the establishment
of American independence have there
been such supplies of brandes aud wines
in Richmond, Augusta, and many other
cities at this moment. Thes blockade
running seems about to be intermitted.
not so much by reason of the increased
energy of the blockading squadrons as of
the fact that the Southern market is glut-
ted by the goods already introduced. *
l cannot conceal my own impression
that very little energy has been shown by
the Confederate Government in their ope-
ratiens against Knoxville and Eastern
Tennessee. Successes have been gained
at Loudon by the Confederates, and it
would seem that nothing more was re-
quired to drive Burnside out of Knoxville
than hearty and harmonious cooperation
between Gen. Stephenson, who is at Lou
don, and Gen. Sam Jones, who is in West
ern Virginia. But no energy, no enter
prise, has in this quarter been exhibited,
although am assured by officers attached
to Jones' command that, in their opinion,
10000 Confederates could sweep East
Tennessee clear of Federals. fear that
the harmony of action between the armies
of Gems. Lee and Bragg, which has been
represented in England as existing, is as
imaginary as the transfer to and fro from
Virginia to Tennessee, and back from Ten
nessee to Virginia, of Gen. Longstreet and
his corps. They who have witnessed the
slowness and difficulty which ACCOMPANY
the movement of army corps, who are
cOgnizant of the weeks and weeks which.
such an upheaval exacts, will understand
the impossibility of any such strategy as
the Confederates have been credited with.
Great as has been the acumen exhibited
by the English press throughout the war
in sitting Northern versions of the news
an acumen which has often been COM
mended in my hearing since l came to the
South-you have yet to learn that in re-
gard to the number of the Confederate
troops engaged, and to the Confederate
Generals in command, there is often in
Northern accounts of battles not one grain
or vestige of truth.