The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-11-22

revision Making it Impossible to Raise
Money by iaxation Was Copied
Verbatim, from the Constitution
OF the United States.
Three principal causes contributed TO
he fall Of the Confederacy: % the ex-
essive Issue of paper money, (2) the poll
OF dispersion, aud CD the neglect of
be cavalry.
1. The Confederate government was
mothered and strangled to death with
IS own irredeemable paper money.
1t has been proved beyond shadow OF
oubt and cavil that war cannot be waged
Eith paper money. Our forefathers prov
Ia it in the war Of the Revolution, and
lad not the French and the Dutch come
O their rescue with real money, the
American government, with its conti-
hental bills. would have been strangled
ike the Confederaey, and would likewise
have died a-borning." However well
BIZ i'll paper bills may answer for money
|n time Of peace. in time of war they
will not do. The "sinews OF war mean
specie, and nothing but specie And 10
ret specie. and those things which specie
will buy, there must be taxes, taxes, and
axes. i people who are unwilling to be
faxed have no business to engage in war.
fThe Southern people knew that war
meant taxes, and they were willing to be
AZ
they made, the eagerness with which
they loaned their money to the govern
ment, bought its bonds, and took its
paper money, showed that they were will
ling to be taxed.
But the Southern people We're not
lighting for independence only; they We're
|contending as well for a certain theory
LOT government In order to be consistent
with this theory, it was necessary for
their leaders, in framing a constitution,
Ito render it unlawful for the government
Ito tax the lands and goods of the people
Iexcept under conditions which made all
Taxation of property by the general gov
'ernmenI impossible. According to this
Theory, Il government might lawfully or
Her man to shoulder his gun and march
10 the front to be shot at with cannon
nd rifle, but could not levy tax upon
is property to feed and clothe him
Thile fighting for his country. The ports
4 the Confederacy were all blockaded,
there was really nothing that the gov
rnmeIt could do to raise money except
;sue bonds and paper bills. OF these, be-
pre- the war ended, between one and two
thousand millions of dollars-nominal
alue-had been emitted, the paper bills
mounting to nearly one billion, or over
ne half of the whole. Nor does this in
ude the millions of paper bills issued
State authority an by banks, Of which
would be hard to give even an approx
nate estimate. During the same time,
the end Of 1864, there was raised by
lxation the pitiful sum of forty-eight
billions of dollars, and that all paper
oney. 1t too might just as well have
zen printed, for the cost Of collection
ould then have been saved. What more
Fed be said to show why the Confeder
" failed?
All, those beautiful paper bills so nice
I'D clean and pretty, but every one as
BADLY d foe to the South as an armed
henry. And how the people ran TO get
hem! And how those printing-presses
lmbIed, all printing paper money! They
hook the earth, and almost drowned the
Dise Of the cannon wheels rolling to the
rout. A Southerner should hate the
chit Of one Of those paper bills. Every
ne of them represents blood fruitessly
,illad. treasure wasted, and hopes blast
1.
But i'm tie beginning Of the struggle
one seemed to suspect an enemy III that
BEAUTIFUL money. The government, at
hast. acted upon the theory that all It
ad to do to raise money was to print It.
Fhey did not seem TO realize that, beng
be largest purchaser III the market, 1t
Eas necessary for the government 10
eep down prices as much as possible;
nat every issue of bills must inevitably
aise prices and render a new issue nee
ssary: that every rise IN prices must be
allowed BY new issue, until the bub-
he must collapse of its own expansion
nd redundancy.
At last the lesson was learned that a
rinting press cannot take the place of
ax-coIlector in providing the sinews Of
,ar. but it was then too late; the giant
kas already PROSTATE and helpless. Vhen
had come TO pass that the armies were
IdENiuG anu lIGtAiiE III camps
renches, the government having not the
means 10 buy them food and clothing or
ay for their transportation, when it had
ONE TO pass that the War Department
Vas compelled to pay thousand Of its
baper dollars for a pair Of army boots,
yhen it had come to pass that months
BAY Of II soldier would not buy him
single ration Of bread and meat, the les-
ION was then learned; but it was too late
n the last gasp Of the struggle the gov
.rnnent attempted to abandon and throw
IF it's nake-belieye money; but it was
lready buried, snothering and strangling
lnder avalanche, 4 mountain, Of paper
dollars.
3. Tho policy OF dispersion.
pbe frontiers Of the Confederacy ex-
ended over many thousands Of mites.
rio policy which the government adopt
N III tie beginning Of the war and up
,eId "a tie end. was that every foot Of
hal frontier must be defended. To this
nd. the whole Confederacy was divided