Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1874-04-09
Adam: g Tire fruit Of a gen
,ets,l ..sse.as SSome other person,

"a -
Adam 4 6g tire fruit Of gen
esssl-sss et ssome other peraAa
He atfs failure of the South
ern Con- = to the blunder Q
the Gover1meR, at,its first institu
ton, in nst possessing Itself Of tn
cotton crop ths2 in the hands of tn
planters. This cotton (accorcling t
the General fs6puld nave ben ship
ped in nti@aAion OF. the blockade
and it would then have furnished
basis for iuturelcredit. As was-a
that time ID charge Of the Treasury
Department, theresponsibility Of thil
failure would rest chiefly on me; ant
you will thesIoe not consider;it ou
of place that should correct misap
prehensions with seem tohave mis-
led yourself .aaSl Gen. Johnston
The Coz q Government wa
organized in FEBRUARY, the blockade
was instituted in May, thus leaving
a period Of three months in which
the whole cotton crop on. hand, say
four milAees>e4s bales, ought, accord
IL to the military fnancier, to have
Fbeen got into the hands of the Con
federate GssFs;ament, and to have
been shipped abroad. This woulC
have requirs p fleet Of four thous
and ships. alFoMng one thousand bales
to the ship ghere would these yes
sells have b procured, in the face
of the notification Of the blockade
and was notas much of the cotton
shipped by PAate enterprise as coulc
have been aped by the govern.
shipped. .tha--pra.
ceedsof as were in most cases
sold to the government in the shape
of bills of. f.eAhange. The. superio,
advantage ofEis plan is evinced by
the fact thaRthroughout the year
the governRait exchanged its OWL
notes for bills on England at par
with which itpaid for all its arms
and muuitionsof war.
Of course lbs vast amount of cot.
ton could only have been procured in
one of three ways-by seizure, by
purchase or BY donation.
Certainly no one, ut the first incep'
tion of the Cohtederacy, would have
ventured to piopose to seize upon the
crop then in the hands of the plan
ters, and which furnished their only
means Of subsistence.
Could it not, then, have been puf.
chased?
At the commencement Of the gov.
ernment the tre easury had not funds
to pay for the table on whicl, the sec.
retary was writing; and the first pur.
chases of the Government made
abroad were male on the private
draft of ,he secretary. There was
not to be found. in the whole Con,
federacy, IL sheet vi bank note paper
OH which to pri,t !, nple. Forecast.
lng this need, the secretary had or.
,lered, from England. !. consignment
of, nete paper and photographic ma,
se*iaasD the:ssszsel ca;lt:.iuing WHICH
WAS captured lr-vnr--nrgfr se;tss-;; arit,
many Of the friends Of the late Col.
Evans, Of our, city, will remember
that he nearly 1ost his Lille in the at
tempt to- bring across the lines =. sim
gle parcel of note paper. 1t Is with
n the memory Of the printers OF
these notes, that months elapsed be-
fore bonds or notes could be engraved
aud printed; and these constituted
our entire currency. How, then, was
,he cotton to be paid for?
And when the mechanical difficult
,ies were overcome, the financial pre-
sented an equal barrier, 'lhe scheme
ior raising money, adopted BY Con-
yress, was to issue Confederate notes,
funding the redundant notes in in
,erest- bearing bonds; and all pay
nents at the treasury xere made
with these notes. The daily demands
On the treasury exceeded greatly the
means Of supply. Now. ii instead OF
applying the notes 10 the daily pay.
nents required at the treasury they
aad ben used to purchase cotton, the
would have found itself fill
I'd with cotton, without any money
TO meet the wants OF the government
until that cotton could be shipped
abroad and sold.
If, instead OF payment in notes,
the bonds of the government had
been used to purchase the cotton
crop; Shesa Soflds would hav. been
thrown in the market to meet the ne
,essities of the planters, and their
value as a means of funding the sur
plus currency would have been de-
Iti is obvious to any one &C.
lualnted with finance, that this would
have broken down the Confederate
currency within the first year of ills
Whereas the plan pur-
sued sustained the credit Of the Con
federacy until brnl.en down by ca
lamities under whicl. no credit could
survive. ~ 3
!. The only remaining mode in which
Tile cotton could have been procured
BY the government was by donation
from the planters. So far was this
donation from being possible, that
the treasury actually had to issue a
circular in response to applications to
the government for aid to, the plant
ers in making loans oathem, and not
a bale of the crop of that year was
contributed, to the government. An
effort was made to get pledges of the
next years crop in exchange for
bonds of the government. ITO accom-.
plish this it was deemed necessary .tc
allow the planters to ge their OWL
price through their own factors, with.
out allowing the government to fix
its price, and the whole amount thus
pledged did not reach fifty millions
or about two months expenses of the
governments of which perhaps one
third was s{never received.
Every 5ne conversant with the