The Louisville Journal says the defeat of Burnside is
“sickening,” and that this sad condition of affairs cannot be borne long.
It is said that Confederate bonds are bringing quite as much
in New York as in Richmond; and that the bonds of Southern men are freely
discounted in the North. These, if true, are indications of approaching
peace. Cotton at 50 cents per pound, and our capacity to produce five million
bales per annum must dazzle the calculating Yankees. A single crop worth
$1,000,000,000! What interest or department of industry in the United States
can promise such results?
Letters were received to-day from Nassau, dated 12th
December. Mr. L. Heyliger, our agent, reports a number of steamers sailing, and
about to sail, with large amounts of stores and goods of all kinds, besides plates
for our navy. A Mr. Wiggs has several steamers engaged in this business.
Our government own some, and private individuals (foreign speculators) are
largely engaged in the trade. Most of these steamers run sixteen miles an hour.
A Mr. Hart, agent for S. Isaac Campbell & Co., London,
proposes to clothe and equip 100,000 men for us, and to receive certificates
for specific amounts of cotton. This same house has, on this, it is said,
advanced as much as $2,000,000 on our account. This looks cheering. We have
credit abroad. But they are Jews.
Mr. Heyliger says he has seen letters from the United
States, conveying information that Charleston is to be attacked about the
holidays — the ensuing week — by four iron-clad gun-boats. Well, I believe we
have three there; so let them come!
Every day we have propositions to supply the army and the
country with goods, for cotton; and they succeed in delivering stores, etc., in
spite of the vigilance of the Federal blockading squadrons. There is a prospect
that we shall have abundance of everything some of these days. But there is
some wrangling. The Quartermaster-General complains to-day that Lieut.-Gen.
Pemberton has interfered with his agents, trading cotton for stores. Myers is a
Jew, and Pemberton a Yankee — so let them fight it out.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 223-4
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