Various conjectures are made as to the object of his month's
tour of speech-making. Some deem the cause very desperate, others that the
President's condition is desperate. If the first, they say his purpose was to
reanimate the people by his presence, and to cultivate a renewal of lost
friendships, and hence he lingered longest at Charleston, in social intercourse
with Gens. Beauregard and Wise, who had become estranged. The latter is the
oldest brigadier-general in the service, and still they have failed to promote
him. The President's power is felt in the army, and his patronage being almost
unlimited, it was natural, they say, that he should be received with cheers.
From a lieutenant up to a general, all are dependent on his favor for
promotion. At all events, his austerity and inflexibility have been relaxed,
and he has made popular speeches wherever he has gone. I hope good fruits will
ensue. But he returns to find the people here almost in a state of starvation
in the midst of plenty, brought on by the knavery or incompetency of government
agents.
What is remarkable is the estimate of $50,000,000 by the
Commissary-General for the purchase of sugar, exclusively for the sick and
wounded in hospitals, the soldiers in the field being refused any more. One-fourth
of the whole estimates ($210,000,000) for sugar, and not an ounce to go to the
army! And this, too, when it is understood nearly all the sugar in the
Confederacy has been impressed by his agents at from 50 cts. to $1 per pound.
It is worth $2.50 now, and it is apprehended that a large proportion of the fifty
millions asked for will go into the pockets of commissaries. No
account whatever is taken of the tithe in the Commissary-General's
estimates.
Flour sold at $125 per barrel to-day. There must be an
explosion of some sort soon. Certainly Confederate notes have fallen very low
indeed.
Another solution of the President's tour, by the
uncharitable or suspicious, is a preparatory or a preliminary move to assuming
all power in his own hands. They say the people are reduced by distress to such
an extremity that, if he will only order rations to be served them, they will
not quarrel with him if he assumes dictatorial powers. Legislation has failed
to furnish remedies for the evils afflicting the community; and, really, if the
evils themselves were not imputed to the government, and the President were
ambitious — and is he not? — he might now, perhaps, play a successful
Cromwellian role. But can he control the State governments? The government of this
State seems like potter's clay in his hands, the Legislature being as
subservient as the Congresses have hitherto been. It is observed — independence
first — then let Cromwells or Washingtons come.
My wife, to-day, presented me with an excellent under-shirt,
made of one of her dilapidated petticoats. A new shirt would cost $30. Common
brown cotton (and in a cotton country!) sells for $3 per yard. I saw common
cotton shirts sell at auction today for $40 per pair. Beef is $1.50 per pound,
and pork $2. But these prices are paid in Confederate Treasury notes, and they
mark the rapid depreciation of paper money.
The enemy, however, in spreading over the Southern
territory, are not completing the work of subjugation. It would require a
million of bayonets to keep this people in subjection, and the indications are
that the United States will have difficulty in keeping their great armies up.
It is a question of endurance.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
89-91
No comments:
Post a Comment