Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 8, 1863

The President's message was sent to Congress to-day. I was not present, but my son Custis, who heard it read, says the President dwells largely on the conduct of foreign powers. To diminish the currency, he recommends compulsory funding and large taxation, and some process of diminishing the volume of Treasury notes. In other words, a suspension of such clauses of the Constitution as stand in the way of a successful prosecution of the war. He suggests the repeal of the Substitute law, and a modification of the Exemption act, etc. To-morrow I shall read it myself.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 112

Since the rebels have found that . . .

. . . they have nothing to hope from foreign countries, they have begun to treat Europeans very uncivilly. A Spanish gentleman who has just escaped North from Norfolk found his Spanish passport of no use, being told that as the Rebel Government had not been recognized by any Foreign Government they could not recognize his passports. The two hundred foreign residents of Norfolk, he says, are treated “like dogs.”

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862

A London letter in the N. Y. Tribune says . . .

. . . it is broadly reported there in financial and political circles that half the rebel debt is held in England, and that if it is not paid eventually, half of the British money-bags will collapse. This is the secret of John Bull’s adherence to the Confederacy.

Our army officers are not too wear straps, buttons, or ornaments in the field, because the rebel sharp shooters pick them off.

The soldiers of Grant’s army, in order to supply themselves with water, have dug wells from 20 to 30 feed deep. The number of wells about Petersburg is said to be at least five hundred.

The man who receives the money must pay for the stamp on the receipt. This is the verdict of the highest financial authorities.

An Irishman being asked how ice creams are made, replied, “Sure, they bake them in a cold oven.”

A young lady from Illinois went to St. Louis a few days ago and sold herself for an army substitute. When the examining surgeon ordered her to strip, the action did not suit her sense of propriety and she backed out.

– Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, Friday, December 30, 1864

British Civil Wars – War Debts

There are no less than thirty seven rebellions recorded in English history between the time of William the Conqueror, A.D. 1069, and the Irish outbreak in 1802. Several others have since occurred. The British foreign wars have been incessant, and their expenses enormous. That of the American revolution was six hundred and thirty millions of dollars, and the contest with the first Napoleon cost five thousand seven hundred and ninety-five millions.

The sympathy shown to the Confederates by England may thus in part be naturally accounted for, though considerable inconsistency is nevertheless yet to be explained in the want of it for the natives of India and the disenchanted population beyond the Irish Channel, who have been very anxious to possess and govern their own countries in their own way.

– Published in the Burlington Daily Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Friday, April 18, 1862 & in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862

News Summary

The Chicago Journal (Republican) says that the Congressional Apportionment Bill was passed at the recent session of the legislature, though not equalizing the districts as well as it might have done, is fully as fair as could have been expected. Stark County is in the 11th District composed of the following counties: Rock Island, Mercer, Henry, Bureau, Stark, Whiteside, and Lee. Population 231,183: Political status at last election, 15,777 Republicans,7,186 Demcrats, Republican majority 8,250.

The rumor comes through rebel sources that the gunboat Queen of the West, which ran the rebel blockade at Vicksburg, on the 3d inst., has been captured while attacking Fort Hudson, a few miles below that city up the Red River.

It is rumored that the government intend suppressing the circulation of all political papers among the soldiers and that it has already been done on the Potomac, a sensible movement.

A Washington dispatch announces the arrival there of a large number of civilian prisoners from Camp Chase, Ohio, to be exchanged and sent south.

The discovery of precious metal in Nevada warrant the belief that it will in a few years surpass California.

It is said that $23,000,000 have been stolen in the quartermaster’s department in the last few months.

Thurlow Weed, the great whig leader of Albany, N.Y., and now a conservative Republican, has been to Washington at the instance of the President, he has been in consulting with him the offshot of which is being watched for with no little anxiety.

Maj. Gen. Cassius M. Clay it is said is about to return to Russia.

Montana is the name of a new Territory which is about being organized by Act of Congress in the unorganized part of old Oregon.

The new Stafford projectile is making extraordinary havoc with iron-clad targets. Previous experiments with these projectiles prove conclusively that targets of 9 inch iron plates, back by 21 inches of hard wood can be readily penetrated. Its peculiarities of construction are kept a secret.

The spirits have predicted in Andrew Jackson Davis’ paper that France will be soon fighting for the Confederacy and England for the United States. Mr. Davis has weekly war despatches [sic] by spiritual telegraph.

The London correspondent of the Chicago Journal (probably its polite editor Charles Wilson who is sec’y of legation) says, that the ladies must be prepared to hear before many months of the abolishment of one of their daring institution – Crinoline –.

MARRYING BY TELEGRAPH. – The Syracuse Journal as the announcement of the marriage of C. S. Gardiner a soldier stationed at Washington to a Miss Palmenter of N. Volna N. Y. by telegraph, Rev. W. H. Carr officiated as the clergyman. The parents of the bride objected and this mode was planed to cheat the old folks.

The cultivation of sugar beets as well as sorghum, is attracting attention at the West and the prospect is that large amounts of beet sugar will soon be made.

– Published in the Stark County News, Toulon, Illinois, Thursday, February 26, 1863