The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-04-17
COTTON AND THE coNFEDERAoY
Ex-Secretary Memminger Replies to
General Joe Johnston.

| EX.secrebaEy MemInlnRer tept1eS Z
General Joe Johnston.
@. G Memminger, the first confeder
ate secretary of the treasury, has writ
ten letter in response to Gen. Joe
Johnston's charge that the south failet
in the war through the blunder of it
government in not possessing itself O
the cotton then in the hands of tn,
planters. Mr.. Memminger says:
| "The confederate government wa
organized in February, the blockad,
was instituted in May, thus leaving
period of three months in which tht
whole cotton crop on hand, say 1000,
600 bales, ought, according to the mill
| tary financier, TO have been got into tht
hands of the confederate government
and to have been shipped abroad. Thii
would have required a fleet of 4, 00(
ships, allowing 1000 bales to the ship
Where would these vessels have beer
procured, in the face of the notification
of the blockade? +? and was not as mucI
of the cotton shipped by private enter
prise as could have been shipped by the
government? When SO shipped, the
proceeds of the sales were in most cases
sold to the government in shape of bills
OA CAShAASOs AhO
of this plan is evinced by the fact that
throughout the year, the government
exchanged its own notes for bills or
England at par, with which it paid fol
all its arms and munitions of war.
"Of course this vast amount of cot
ton could only have been procured in
one of three ways-by seizure, by pur.
chase or by donation.
Certainly no one, at the first incep-
tion of the confederacy, would have
ventured to propose to seize upon the
crop then in the hands of the planters,
and which furnished their means OF
subsistence.
could it not, then, have. been pur-
chased?
cat the commencement of the gov
ment the treasury had not funds to pay
for the table on which the secretary was
writing, and the first purchases of the
government made abroad we're made on
the private draft of the secretary.
There was not to be found in the whole
confederacy sheet of bank-note paper
on which to print note. Forecasting
this need, the secretary had ordered
from England a consignment of note
paper and lithographical materials, the
vessel containing which was captured on
the high seas; and many of the friends
of the late Col. Evans, of our city, will
remember that he nearly lost his life in
the attempt to bring across the lines q
single parcel of note-paper. It is with
in the memory of the printers of these
notes that months elapsed before bonds
or notes could be engraved or printed !;
and these constituted our entire cur
rency. How, then, was the cotton to
be paid for?
"And when the mechanical difficult
ties were overcome, the financial pre-
sented an equal barrier. The scheme
for raising money, adopted by congress,
was to issue confederate notes, funding
the redundant notes in interest bearing
bonds; and all payments at the treasu-
ry were made with these notes. The
daily demands on the treasury exceeded
greatly the means of Supply. Now, if
instead of applying the notes to the
daily payments required at the treasury
they had heen used to purchase cotton,
the treasury would have found itself
filed with cotton, without any money
to meet the wants of the government
until that Gotten could be shipped
abroad and sold.
elf, instead of Tayment in notes, the
bonds of the government had been
used to purchase the cotton crop, these
bonds would have been thrown in the
market to meet the necessities of the
and their value as a means of
the surplus currency would
nave been destroyed. 1t is obvious to
my one acquainted with the finance,
IL 4 L
,onfederacy's currency within the first |
plan pursued sustained the credit of |
he confederacy until broken down by |
,alamities under which no credit could |
survive.
The only remaining mode in which |
he cotton could have been procured by |
he government was by donation from |
he planters. So far was this donation |
rom being possible, that the treasury |
ctu lily had to issue circular in res
,onse to applications to the government
or aid to the planters in making loans
o them, and not bale of the crop of |
hat year was contributed to the govern
nent. An effort was made to get |
,ledges of the next years crop in ex-
hange for bonds of the government. |
20 accomplish this it was deemed nee
ssary to allow the planters to get their
wn price through their own factors,
Without allowing the government to fix |
Is price, and the whole amount thus
ledged did not reach $50, 100000 or
bout two months expenses of the gov
of which, perhaps, one-third
7as never received.
"Every one conversant with the pol
tics of the day knows that it was the
urrent expectation that the blockade
ould not be continued for the year. The
congress were so informed
rhen they adopted the internationa
greement as to privateers. The gov
rnment of the United States equally
opposed that the war would be of short
uration, as is apparent from President
Iincoln's proclamation calling for
roops for ninety days. There could,
government to store up
Otton as a basis of credit When it
ecame apparent that the blockade and
ne war would continue, the government
hen made arrangements for using cot
IN as the basis of a loan; and the
lrge foreign cotton loan negotiated in
ny MSSSGS. |
bundant resources to the government
Or its supplies from abroad. But even
} the last its power over the crop was
by the large quantities held
private hands, which could not be
at all. At no time that am
ware of was it in the power of the gov
,nment to get possession of the cotton
,op, unless it had seized the same by
,rce, and by the same force compelled
ayment in a deprecated currency,
igh-handed course which could never
ave received the sanction of the states
an who administered our government.
he only approximation to it was in the {
lape of tax in kind, when the cur !
ncy failed to command supplies, and {
hich was made as just and equabIe as
~ other tax. {
s'The truth is, that if Gen, John
on's recollections of history were as {
vid as his knowledge of military tao
cs is great, instead of censuring the
lancial administration CT the confed-
ate government, he would have dis 6
'vered no instance on record where
ar of such dimensions, in a constantly
,creasing territory, has been sustained s
r four years by mere financial expe- {
ents, without the aid usually derived 6
ON taxes-for in the whole confeder- !