Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-10-12
CONFEDERATE COTTON.
WHY THE GOVERNMENT FAILED
TO BUY AND SHIP 1T.
Some Letters from Secretaries Mem min
ger and Trenholm on the Subject
Excellent Reasons for the Action of
the Confederate Authorities.

| ger ana Arenholm on the Subject
Excellent Reasons for the Action of
the Confederate Authorities.
Ne10 Orleans TiD1es-DeHocrat Cor. October T..
In the issue of your journal of yesterday
was published a speech of the Hon. AIexan-
| der II. Stephens made recently at Macon,
Ga, IN which appears the following para
graph:
II saw, or thought I saw (excuse what
may seem to be vanity or egotism)-
thought l saw great danger from the supe-
| rior shipping and naval power of the North
that our ports might be blockaded. My
idea was to get the 4,500, 900 bales of cotton
that we then had out and abroad before the
blockade commenced by giving the planters
cents per pound in s per cent. bonds. That
would have amounted to 5000 ,0O0, 900. By
shipping it abroad we would have-holding
1t there in Europe at so cents a pound-we
would have capital of at least $500, 900 900.
All this you will see in my speeches. Did
that look as II there was any infidelity or
disloValty to the Confederate causep The
| policy was not adopted. l believe It was
sfterward admitted. Dr. Craven, Mr.. Davis
physician, stated that he admitted to him In
Fortress Monroe that If that policy had
| been adopted the financial troubles would
never have occurred, and there might have
briefly and reverently, that there never was
any personal controversy or difference be-
tween Mr.. Davis and myself"
a similar assumption of error on the part
of the Confederate administration was pub
lished by Gen. J. E Johnston, and was so
utterly refuted'in 1874 by the two men best
able to expose the injustice of the assump-
tion, viz: the first and second Secretary of
the Confederate Treasury, hence 1t could
hardly have haaD e11nn0ead hot ono Lose In
formed than Mr. Stephens would have re-
peated the statement. As the letters Of
Messrs. Memminger and Trenholm may
have been forgotten, will you, in the inter
est OF Confederate history, republish them
In your columns
c. 8. Memminger, the first Secretary of
the Treasury, wrote as follows:
"CHARLEsToN, March 81, 1874.
''Io the Editor of the NeaOS and Courier:
II observe by your paper of yesterday,
which extracts passage from Gen. john
ston's book, that he follows the ancient ex-
ample Of our forefather Adam-in casting
the fault Of a general calamity on some
other person. He attributes the failure of
the Southern Confederacy to the blunder of
the government, at its first institution, In
not possessing itself of the cotton crop then
In the hands Of the planters. This cotton
(sccording to the GeneraD should have been
shipped In anticipation of the blockade, and
1t would then have furnished a basis for
future credit. AS | was at that time in
charge of the Treasury Department, the re-
sponstbility of this failure would rest chiefly
on me; and you will therefore not consider
1t out OF place that | should correct misap-
prehensions which seem to have misled
yourself as well as Gen. Johnston.
"The Confederate Government was or
ganized in February, the blockade was in
stituted In May, thus leaving a period of
three months In which the whole cotton
crop on hand, say 4 4,000, 900 bales, ought, ac-
cording to the military fnsncier, to have
been got into the hands of the Confederate
Government and shipped abroad.
"This would have required feet of four
thousand ships, allowing one thousand bales
to the ship. Where would these vessels
have been procured in the face of the noti-
ication of the blockade? And was not
as much of the cotton shipped by private
enterprise as could have been shipped by
the government When so shipped, the
proceeds OF the sale was In most cases sold
to the government in the shape OF bills of
exchange. The superior advantage of this
plan is evinced by the fact that, throughout
the year, the government exchanged its own
notes for bills on England at par, with
which 1t paid for all its arms and munitions
of war.
"Of course that vast amount of cotton
three waYs-by seizure, by purchase, or by
donation.
"Certainly no one at the first inception of
the Confederacy would have ventured to
propose to seize upon the crop, then in the
hands OF the planters, and which furnished
their only means of subsistence.
"Could 1t not then have been purchased ?
At the commencement of the government
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 were made on the private draft
OF the Secretary. There was not to be
found in the whole Confederacy a sheet of
bank note paper on which to print note.
Forecastlng this need, the Secretary had
ordered from England con-
signment OF note paper and litho-
graphic materials, the vessel containing |
which was captured on the high seas. Many |
OF the friends Of the late Colonel Evans, Of |
our city, will remember that he nearly lost |
his life in the attempt to bring across the |
lines single parcel of note paper. 1t is |
within the memory of the printers of those |
notes that months elapsed before bonds or
notes could be engraved and printed, and |
these constituted our entire currency.
'How then was the cotton to be paid for? |
"When the mechanical difficulties were |
overcome, the financial presented an equal |
barrier. The scheme for raising money |
AuOPb6Q ny buS OOURT65S WAS 10 issue Con- |
federate notes, funding the redundant notes
in interest bearing bonds; and all payments |
at the Treasury were made with these notes. |
The daily demands on the Treasury exceed |
ed greatly the means of supply. Now, II |
instead of applying the notes to the daily |
payments required at the Treasury they had |
been used to purchase cotton the Treasury
would have found itself filed with cotton,
without any money to meet the wants of the |
government, until the 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, those bonds would
have been thrown on the market to meet
the necessities of the planters and their value
as means OF funding the surplus currency
would have been destroyed. It is obvious
to any one acquainted with finance that this
would have broken down the Confederate
currency within the first year of its exist
ence, whereas the plan pursued sustained
the credit of the ConfederacY until broken
down by calamities which no credit could
survive"
The successor of Mr.. Memminger as Sec
retary OF the Confederate Treasury was
George A. Trenholm, for many years exten-
sively engaged in the foreign cotton trade, |
and who held, both at home and abroad, |
the highest reputation as a man and mer-
chant On the same subject which had |
attracted the notice Of Mr.. Memminger, he |
wrote as follows:
"To the Editor Of the Neacs and Courier:
''The NesCs and Courier, quoting from the |
forthcoming work of General Johnston,
gives as the views Of the author as to the |
cause OF our failure. Those who ascribe It |
'tO the superior population and greater re-
sources OF the Northern States and those |
who attributed cur defeat to "a want Of per |
severance, uuanimity and even of LOYALTY on |
our own part are in nv view, Gays the |
General, both far wrong We are inclined |
to believe there Is neg q third party
wrong Tie Confederate Government,the |
Al fp1x h. h. ataa