The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-07-21

Feeding tho Rebel Administrations
Cotton Operators and Their Transac-
lions.
We print elsewhere report made to the rebel
Congress of the working Of the rebel Commits
sary Department This report gives view Of
the resources of the confederacy at the COM
mencement of the war; and of the difficulties
encountered by the rebel government in the
progress Of the struggle in the simple matter
of feeding it's forces. It shows that it was
utterly impossible for the rebel States to pro-
duce supplies enough to sustain the rebel
armies, and that they never did 80; and it also
shows that many attempts made to feed those
armies by meats that ran the blockade were all
crippled by the laundering stupidity of JEFF
Davis and his associates.
This report, moreover, makes some remark
able disclosures of the operations Of men on
our side the lines. 1t shows that there were on
our side, in 1862, a great many men ready to
furnish the rebels with all necessary army sup
plies, and that these men had sufficient in
fuence with our government to be able to get
their boat loads of stores through the lines and
to evade all the "watchfuness" of the Trea-
sury Department and the military commanders.
There was not one of these men-nor two or
three. There were great many. They were
in Memphis and they were in New Orleans
both when Butler and when Banks commanded
there They were not contemplate obscure
peddlers either They did business on so
large scale that they could contract at once
to deliver thirty thousand hogsheads of bacon,
thousands of sacks of salt, -four for an army cof-
fee in abundance and all other necessary stores.
Who were these men! Were they copperheadss
Were they politically affiliated with the
Treasury Department that they could get its
permits for these transactions! Answers to these
questions would involve some little facts that
the people would like to know-facts bearing
no doubt upon the "purity" and patriotism"
of men that may even now stand high in the
confidence of the country. Who are theyf
Eventually contracts were made between
Northern men and the Southern government
for the supply of Southern armies, and Lees
army was fed in that way to great extent
carly in 1868; but at the commencement--at
the first proposal-there was great resistance
His opposition resulted from his delusiOn in
relation to cotton. Il was shown to him that
there was not enough meat to give the soldiers
half rations, and that there was bus one way to
get 1t, which was to purchase it through the
lines with cotton. He refused his consent be-
cause that cotton would enable US to pay the
interest on our debt; and he believed that if
we did not get it we could not pay that in
terest-our public credit would fall, and the
war would be stopped simply by our financial
difficulties. He moderated us, and he over
rated cotton; and that enormous delusion of
his was an advantage to us all the way through.
The report discloses the impotence in many
points Of the rebel government, and the
errors and weaknesses of Davis; but it dis
closes, also, the fact that the rebellion was kept
alive and the war prolonged by villanies car
ried on from our side the lines by league Of
the copperheads and of corrupt men In the
confidence of the government