The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1874-04-09


cupying the country, upon the supplies
of which the proper subsistence of our
armies materially depends.
"Of the immediate measures to be
adopted in attaining this cad, the full
importance of which am sure you ap-
preciate, you must be the best Judge,
after due inquiry and consideration on
the spot shali have maturcd an opinion.
It is my desire that You should commu-
nicate fully and freely with me concern
ing your proposed plan of action, that
all the assistance and cooperation may
be most advahtageously afforded that it
ID in the power Of the government to
render.
Trusting that your health may be
preserved, and that the arduous and re-
sponsihle duties you have undertaken
may be successfully accomplished, re-
main very respectfully and truly yours,
"JEFFERsoN DAVIS"
/ was unable then, as now, to mag
inc any military object for which this
letter could have been written, especi-
ally by one whose time was supposed to
be devoted to the most important con-
Germs of government. The president
could not have thought that I was to be
taught the moral and material condition
of the army around me by him, from
the observations of his aidc-de.camp,
who had never seen military service,
instead of learning them by my own.
Nor could he have believed that the ar
my which he so described was compe.
tent to recover "Lhe territory from which
it had been driven" He had visited it
sOme two months before, and seen that
it could make no forward movement for
the purpose then, when the opposing
federal army had not been increased
by the corps of 10000 veterans led
from Mississippi by Sherman nor ours
weakened by the withdrawal from it of
Longstreet's corps, and its losses Mt
Missionory Ridge. Those losses must
have been severe, for such troops are
not easily driven from strong and in
trenched positions, still less easily rout-
ed. As / had much better means of
information on the subjects of this pa.
per than it's author, it could not have
been written for my instruction.
THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOUTH.
Much has been written and much
moro said of the cause of the overthrow
of the confederate states in their great
contest for independence. One class,
and much the largest-for it includes
the people who were victorious in the
war, and those Europeans who watched
the struggle with interest, as well as
many of the southern pcople-ascribes
it to the superior population and great.
er resources of the northern states. An.
other. n class of s, uthern people, attri-
butes our defeat to n want of perseve-
ryoncn rronimitv and even of LOYALTY
on our own part, ana the consequent
abandonment of tho government of the
confedcracy in its efforts by the people
themselves. In my view both are far
wrong.
The cause of the subugation of the
southern states was neither want of
wealth and population nor of devotion
to their own cause on the part of the
people of those states. That people
was not guilty of the high crime of I'M
dertaking war without the means of
wnging it successfully. They had am
pie means, which, unfortunately, were
not applied to the object of cqlupping
great armies and bringing them into the
field.
A full treasury was necessary to de
fray the expenses of great war. The
soGth had the means OF making one, ~
it's cotton alone. But it's government
rejected those means, and limited its
financial efforts to printing bauk-notcs,
with which the country was soon
flooded. The necessity Of actual money
in the treasury, and the mode of rails
ing it, were generally understood in the
country. It was that the government
should take the cotton from the owners
and send it TO Europe as fast as posi-
bile. TO be sold there. This was easily
practicable, for the owners were ready