Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-09-13
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From the Memphis Commercially
Our great Southern staple, cotton, seems
to be the peculiar object Of legislative-ofi-
eial and unoiiicial-Oppression The =" king"
has been discroWned, detlironed, disCraced
but, as II this were not enough, his enemies,
il appears cannot be satisfied until he is ut
terly robbed and finally decapitated. Not
until his snowy kingdom is utterly darkened
and devastated, and his royal hoary head
rolls in the dust-not until the sceptre has
passed away from the South forever, does il
appear that these Northern enemies Of cot
ton will be content to cease their systematic
prosecutions.
Here in Memphis, as We suppose else
where throughout the South, the enginery
Of oppression has already been put in mo-
ton. One day last week a cotton broker Of
this city had an experience" of the new
regime about TO begin-already begun, he
says, which he relates in this wise: He had
4 lot of two hundred bales cotton ready on
Monday for shipment TO New Orleans
which, indeed, he had made arrangements 70
ship on boat that was 10 leave that day.
Tbs fact, il seems, ascertained by the
Government officers here, whose business il
is 10 see that no cotton is shipped that has
not paid the Government tax, and who mott
fed him that his cotton could not leave I'M
til they examined IL, found that it had the
brass tags all right, and gave him GER
tifeate accordingly. The broker stated
(what was the fact) that everything was
right; that he had arranged to ship his cot
ton that day and that il was Of the first
importance 70 his business that it should be
sent of Immediately; and earnestly re-
quested that the officers should proceed at
once TO the examination, and the issuance Of
the necessary certificate, or credentials. But
nO,-they refused il was not convenient;
they must not be hasty, etc. The broker,
anxious 10 comply with the law and with
all legal formalities, was compelled 10 de
tain his cotton 10 wait the pleasure, the
lordly convenience, of the officials The
boat was disappointed, and went or with
out the cotton, which laid upon the bluff
three days. At the expiration Of that time,
the broker finally got the consent Of the
officers 10 60 and examine and certify TO the
cotton, If found a. all right And here is
the way the thing was done: The officers
came round upon the sidewalk on Front
Row, where they stopped opposite this lot Of
two hundred bales of cotton, which laid in
a pile Far out upon the bluff, some hundreds
Of yards distant. Addressing himselfto the
broker, and pointing toward the cotton, one
Of the officers said ......-s ..... y
OFFIcER-"Y on say that is the cotton"
BRoKER-"Yes, that's the lot out there,
about two hundred and fifty yards to the left
Of another pile you see there"
OFFICER" All right. You say it has paid
the tax and has all the tags on%
BROKER-"Yes."
OFFIcER--@Very well; come along with
me to the Office, and you shall have your
papers fixed up at once"
And sure enough, without further Tex
animation" the certificate was given; thus,
showing that, 80 far as any real intelligent
executions Of the provisions Of the law is
concerned, il might as well have been done
three days, or a month before, OF a mile of,
as then and there But we leave the reader
20 draw his own conclusions in regard 10 this
otcial transaction.
The preparations for expressing cotton
planters, and cotton merchants, too, we are
told, are going forward in New Orleans on
grand scale. In addition 10 the new and
wonderful invention, engendered during the
war, and 70 which We shall refer further on,
called "sIICING,D we are informed that Gen.
HEBRON, Government agent and Collec-
tor" has organized great Government
warehouse, for the more safe and convenient
storing Of all cotton which may reach New
Orleans without having prepaid the tax.
All private and public warehouses are 10 be
ransacked all steamers are TO be boarded on
arrival, and any luckless cotton bales found
without The indispensable brass tags" are
10 be seized and carried off TO Gen. HER
RoE's warehouse, where the unconstitutional
tax Il % be collected, and the expense Of
double commissions, double drayage, double
storage, double weighing, and mayhap dou-
bic "slicing," are to be incurred. When the
cotton Of the planter, and particularly Of
the small farmer, the freedman included,
has passed through the whole of this grand,
long-drawn-out process of Sealing or
"aeecing,n or cali it what you will, the
reader may imagine how much Of the pro-
ceeds Of their years labor will be left
The new process of "slicing," TO which
we have referred, may be defined to be an
exaggeration Of the old, honest operation Of
"sampling" II is the process of sampling
developed and multiplied by the "war
power, may, by steam power. In some
quarters, Il il said that the business OF
dslicings has been carried 10 such perfection
as 10 enable the cotton merchants and Others
TO raise very fine crops of cotton in their
warehouses. The cotton is planted, cult
waited, gathered baled, and sen TO market,
by the use of a single labor-saving imple-
mcnt, invented during the war, under the
rule Of BUTLER, perhaps and appropriately
named "The Slicing Machine" or "The In
dustrious Sampler"