Evening star., 1896-12-19
PAPER MONEY AND THE SOUTH.

"HS the SOhIcOcfdcy Fa1Ied, by
the Son of n Southern Officer.
Duncan Rose In the November Century.
Three principal causes contributed to
the fall Of the confederacy: % the excess
sive issue Of paper money. (2) the policy of
dispersion. and 81 the neglect Of the cav
airy.
The confederate government was smoth-
cred and strangled to death with its own
irredeemable paper money.
1t has been proved beyond shadow of
doubt and cavil that war cannot be waged
with paper money. Our forefathers proved
1t in the war of the revolution. and had not
the French and Dutch come to their rescue
with real money, the American govern
ment, with its continental bills, would have
been strangled like the confederacy, and
would likewise have a-borning"
However we'll or Ill paper bills may answer
for money In time of peace. In time of war
they will not do The "sinews of war"
mean specie. and nothing but specie And
to get specie. and those things which specie
VIII buy. there must be taxes, taxes and
taxes. A people who are unwilling to be
Taxed have no business to engage in war.
me southern people knew that war meant
taxes. and they were willing to be taxed
to carry on their war. The sacrifices they
made. the eagerness with which they
loaned their money to the government,
showed that they were willing to be taxed
But the southern people were not fighting
LOT independence only; they were contend
ing as well for certain theory of govern
ment In order to be consistent with this
theory, II was necessary for their leaders
In framing constitution, to render IL nm
lawful for the government to tax the lands
and goods of the people except under con-
ditions which made all taxation of nron-
erty by the general government imposs,hje
According to this theory, a government
might lawfully order a man to shoulder
MS gun and march to the front TO he shot
at with cannon and rifle. but could not lew
tax upon his property to feed and c!ot he
MN while fighting for his country. The
ports of the confederacy were all block
aaeo, .,u SO there was really nothing that the
government could do to raise money except
issue bonds and paper bills. OF these he
lore the war ended, between one and two
thousand million dollars-nominal value
;n.. i,au neen emitted. the paper bills amount
OF the whole. Nor does this include the
millions of paper bills issued by state an
thority and by banks, of which it would he
,ant ,raru 10 give even an approximate esti-
mate. during the same time, to the end
o! 1854 there was raised by taxation the
pltlful sum of forty-eight millions of dol
lars; and that all paper money. 1t, too
might just as well have been nrinted for
the cost Of collection would then have been
saved. What more need be said to show
why the confederacy failed?
An those beautiful paper bills, so nice
an ana clean and pretty, but every one as
ueauiy Zoe to the south as an armed en-
emy. And how the people ran to get them
ana now those printing presses rumbled
au pi intins paper money! They shook the
eaftn. ana almost drowned the noise of the
cannon wheels rolling to the front.
southerner should hate the sight of one of
those paper bills. Every one of them rem
resents blood fruitlessly spilled, treasure
wasted and hopes blasted.
pt.t IN tho
one seemed to suspect an enemy in thai
beautiful money. The government, at
least. acted upon the theory that all 1t had
to do to raise money was to print It, They
did not seem to realize that. being the
largest purchaser In the market it was
necessary for the government to keep
down prices as much as possible; that
every issue of bills must inevitably raise
prices and render new issue necessary;
that every rise in prices must be followed
by new issue, until the bubble must col
lapse of Its own expansion and redun-
dancy.
At last the lesson was learned that a
printing press cannot take the place of a
tax collector in providing the sinews of
war. but it was then too late; the giant
was already prostrate and helpless. When
starving and freezing in camps and
trenches. the government having not the
means to buy them food and clothing or
pay for their transportation. when 1t had
come to pass that the war department
was compelled to pay thousand of its
paper dollars for pair of army boots.
when it had come to pass that a months
pay Of soldier would not buy him single
ration OF bread and meat. the lesson was
then learned; but it was too late. In the
last gasp of the struggle the government
attempted to abandon and throw off its
make-believe money; but 1t was alread1,
buried. smothering and strangIng undar
an avalanche, a mountain of paper dollars
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