Rained last night—and this morning we have warm April
weather and bright sunshine.
It is getting to be the general belief among men capable of
reflection, that no jugglery can save the Confederate States currency. As well
might one lift himself from the earth by seizing his feet, as to legislate a
remedy. Whatever scheme may be devised to increase the value of the Confederate
States paper money, the obligor is the same. For the redemption of the currency
(now worth about five cents in specie to the dollar), every citizen, and every
description of property, has been pledged; and as the same citizens and the
same property must be pledged for the redemption of any newly created currency,
there is no reason to suppose it would not likewise run the same career of
depreciation. Nor can bonds be worth more than notes. Success in the field, only,
can appreciate either; for none will or can be paid, if we fail to achieve
independence.
The weather, this afternoon, is warm, calm, and clear; but
the roads are too soft for military operations.
I am reading the Memoirs of Bishop Doane, by his son, Rev. William
Croswell Doane. He was the great bishop truly; and his son proves an admirable
biographer. I knew the bishop personally, and much of his personal history; and
hence this work is to me, and must be to many others, very interesting. The
coming year is to be an eventful one. We shall be able (I hope) to put 400,000
effective men in the field; and these, well handled, might resist a million of
assailants from without. We have the center, they the circumference; let them
beware of 1864—when the United States shall find herself in the throes of an
embittered Presidential contest!
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
114-5
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