Frices of Food, etc. current values of merchan- | girl, eighteen years, $1855; girl, eighteen years, dise in the seaboard cities $1735; girl, twenty-two years, $1660; boy, ten of the Confederacy, we have the report of an years, $1300, etc., etc. importer's sale made in Charleston, early in April, viz.: Coffee, $2.80 per lb.; gunpowder tea, $6.75 a $7 25 per lb.; castile soap, $1.70 per lb.; yellow soap, $1 per lb.; brandy, in cases, $125 a $137 per doz.; claret, $45 per doz.; matches, $4.25 per gross; London starch, $1.55 per lb.; sherry wine, $77 a $S5 per doz.; striped cotton drill, $2 30 per yard; cotton check, $2 per yard; Union tweed $3.50 per yd; French mixture, $2.80 a $3 per yard; mourning prints, $2.72 per yard; fancy prints, $2.50 per yd; muslin, $2.62 per yard; tweeds, $3.20 a 86.25 per yard; black broadcloth, $25 per yard; black cas simere, $12 per yard; mixed alpaca, $3 per yard; ruled cap paper, $50 per ream; ledger paper, $150 per ream; envelopes, $55 per M.; letter paper, $35 a $45 per ream; note paper, $20 a $26 per ream; cap paper, $47 a $52.50 per ream. What a comment is this matter-of-fact "commercial report," upon a public sentiment which not only tolerated the hideous traffic in human beings, but which sought, by the most gigantic efforts, to establish a government wh se bascs should be laid in a slave system! The Ruling Motive. It, indeed, required a stern devotion to duty for the people to bear up under the burdens imposed in the way of taxes, forced levies, conscription, destruction of estates in regions of conflict, stampede of slaves, high prices and short supplies of food: but when, added to these, came notes of warning from the North of renewed zeal in prosecuting the warwhen it was made apparent that no help by way of "intervention" could be expected from abroad-that the Confederate financial system was rapidly losing stability-it is evident that a motive of unusual power controlled the Southern mind, to keep it up to the fighting point. That motive unquestionably was the old element of arrogance and scorn of the North. Pride, of all passions, is the last to be appeased or humbled; and so keen These were "exchange" prices. Confederate currency having ceased to be a standard of value, the notes of certain well established banks became the medium of transactions, to a great extent. But, cotton and tobacco offered a more convertible medium for a foreign commerce, and in all the ports frequented by blockade runners these staples took the place of currency, and, indeed, of gold, since a return cargo was one of the chief tempta-ly alive to this fact were the secret maniputions of the contraband venture. The prices above cited did not, therefore, indicate the comparative worth of the Confederate treasury emissions, for, as already stated, the rebel Government bonds and currency, after two years' experimenting, ceased to represent any fixed or redeemable value. Another singular item, Prices of Slaves. having a historic interest, was the price of negroes sold in the slave marts, which, up to that time, maintained their repulsive influences. The Savannah, Ga., Republican, of May 8th, 1863, reported the following, as the values for May 6th: One negro woman, aged twenty-two years, for $1900; man, aged forty-five years, and not warrant ed, $900; girl, aged seventeen, $1875; boy, aged fifteen. $1355; boy, aged ten, $1330; mulatto girl with infant child, $2000; one mulatto girl, sixteen years old, $2000; one mulatto boy, fifteen years, $1855; one negro man, $1400; man, $2000; girl, sixteen years, $1210; girl, twenty years, and child two years old, property not warranted sound, $1760; lators of the rebellion, that state documents, committee reports and "leading editorials" literally scintillated with the fury and fire of Southern scorn or hate of Northern society, government and civilization. The report of a committee of thirteen, appointed by the Confederate Senate, consisting of one Senatar from each State, "to collect and report the evidences of outrages committed by the enemy upon the persons and property of our citizens, in violation of the rules of civilized warfare and the rights of humanity," was submitted May 1st. It was a document well calculated to maintain the Southern passions at a fever heat. The concluding paragraph, giving the summary of the Committee's conclusions, read: "The Committee feel warranted in saying that the conduct of the war on the part of our enemies has not exhibited the moderation, the forbearance, the chivalrous courtesy, the magnanimity or Christian charity which the spirit of the age demands and which the practice of civilized nations for several THE FOREIGN COTTON LOAN. 119 centuries last past has generally illustrated. It has been a war not more against our unarmed men and helpless and innocent women and children. It has been prosecuted to destroy not only our means of defense, but our means of subsistence also; not only house of Erlanger, Paris-was "allotted," in specific sums to specific places, and so admi to rob us of our weapons and armor, but of our food and raiment; not only to conquer but to extermi-rably worked as actually to command a prenate. It has been a war not only against the bodies but against the spirit of our people also; their souls have been tortured by all the base arts of cowardly despotism; by subjecting them to insults and humiliations, as if the very slaves of their enemies; by robbing them of priceless treasures, consecrated in their affections by association with dead or absent kindred; by false reports to those within their lines, and who were cut off from communication with their fellow citizens beyond those of repeated defeats and cessions of the hopelessness of our cause; by dese disasters attending Southern arms, and of our con. crating graves, churches and other sacred places; by destroying things which do not add to means of hostility, but are only useful in peace, and serve to promote the common and perpetual interests of mankind. In short, it has been prosecuted as if with the full purpose of subjugating both the bodies and souls of our people, or of exasperating and exterminating them. It has been a war against property, both public and private; against both sexes, and against all classes of society; against the political, moral and religious sentiments of our people; against their honor and their public affections; against whatever has hitherto been deemed sacred. inoffensive and exempt from hostility by all civilized nations. It has been conducted so as to insult while they injured, to exhibit toward us contempt as well as hatred. It has been waged as if they wished never to have peace with us, or expected us never to hold in future any equality with them. Its prospective policy has not been to restore the Union, or to have any future commerce or intercourse with us as independent and friendly States. They disdain to conciliate, and design to subjugate or exterminate our people." The last sentences, reiterated by the press, by orators, in proclamations of field commanders, in gubernatorial "appeals" and mandates, in churches and in the social circle, were the subtle messengers potent enough to sustain the war spirit of the Southern masses through the fiery trials of the third and fourth years of their "war for independence." Among other means to render available foreign sympathy for their cause., the Confederate Cotton Loan was arranged and put upon the European market by the Confederate mium ere it had been on the market a fortnight. It was advertised as "a seven per cent. Cotton Loan of the Confederate States of America for £3,000,000 sterling, at ninety per cent.-the bonds to bear interest at the rate of seven per cent. per annum in sterling from March 1st, 1863, payable half yearly in London, Paris, Amsterdam or Frankfort-the bonds exchangeable for cotton on application, at the option of the holder, or redeemable at par in sterling in twenty years, by half yearly drawings, commencing 1st March, 1864." The agents added, that the loan was especially secured by an undertaking of the Confederate Government to deliver cotton to the holders of the bonds, on application, after sixty days notice. During March this scheme was put upon the several bourses above named, and, in a brief time, the sum allotted to London and Liverpool was absorbed, so eager were certain English sympathisers with the Confede rate cause to attest their faith in its success. Said the London Post (government organ) in its issue of March 20th: "That the dream of establishing a Confederacy independent of the United States Government is not so chimerical as Northern statesmen and Northern Senators would have us believe, the negotiation of this loan abundantly proves. There must be many who not only believe that the Southern Confederacy will ultimately establish its independence, but that it will not repudiate its debts, otherwise three millions of money would not be lent, even on the substantial security which is offered in the shape of cotton." It is one of the remarkable features of this wild operation, that none questioned the ability of the Confederate States to deliver the cotton upon a sixty days' summons. How it was to pass the blockade, none of the subscribers seemed to ask. Like the South Sea Bubble, it was assumed that the security had an existence, and would, some how or other, come at the call. Even the London Times, which, at the beginning of the war, had discountenanced subscriptions to a Federal loan, The Foreign "Cotton whose coupons were to be | hope which long had been made payable in London wanting among the people; -on the ground that such subscription "would be scarcely consistent The Critical Hour. but the overwhelming reverses on the Mississippi, and Lee's discomfiture at Gettysburg, with the encouragement of a neutral feeling" | sent terror and despair into all Southern cir-found it in its philosophy to encourage the Cotton Loan.* The London News, in its city article of March 20th, thus remarked upon the extraordinary success of the subscription: "It is a peculiarity of this loan that, though of limited amount, it is to be distributed over so many markets. In the Stock Exchange to-day the price (which closed yesterday at 23 a 3 premium,) touched 5 a 5 premium; and after relapsing to 4 a 4. left off at 4 a 4 premium. By a general understanding among the dealers, all the transactions are to be settled on Friday, the 24th of April, before which date the scrip will be ready for issue." The bonds were duly issued and became a feature on change;" and, only when the highly expectant investors began to investigate as to the nature of their securities, did the holders see how purely problematical was pay day. In a few months' time the bonds were rated at five shillings to the pound. So efficient proved the Federal blockade that no considerable quantity of cotton escaped the sealed ports, while the constant destruction of the staple, through the fortunes of almost daily reduced the accumulated stock upon which the Confederate Government had based its credit. war, cles. The end seemed near. If Gilmore should succeed in operations against Charleston, and Rosecrans should follow up his successes by a blow which should defeat, and perhaps destroy, Bragg's army, the Confederate cause must become too utterly hopeless to warrant further resistance-subjugation would be the work of but a few months. But, the failure to follow up the vast advantages won the repose after victory-gave the somewhat recruit their armies by a searching enemy both time to recover spirits and to and merciless conscription; while the growing turbulence, in the North, of the disloyal elements-the Irish riots in New York and the general spirit of resistance to the National draft, shown by the foreign and "copperhead" element, both in the East and West— the organization of numerous secret societies, dangerous to the cause of the Administration, all conspired to give the rebellion a new lease of life, to a greater degree than even the Federal authorities were aware, Said Pollard: "The most remarkable quality displayed by the Southern mind in this war has been its elasticity under reverse, its quick recovery from every inThe success of this loan, the failure of the pression of misfortune. This, more than anything Federal operations against Charleston, Hook-else, has attested the strength of our resolution to be er's repulse at Chancellorsville, and Lee's confident attitude, conspired to produce, for a brief period, during May and June, a spirit of Said the Times: "If the Northern Government had held large stores of wheat, and had offered them upon certain terms, either for present or future delivery, according to circumstances, we should readily have entered into negotiations; but we should have done so not because we wished to aid the North, but because we wanted the wheat. In like manner it is perfectly legitimate to take the Confederate cotton, and there is nothing that should prevent any of our merchants or capitalists from subscribing for it, provided that they are satisfied with the price." Nothing to prevent providing the purchasers were satisfied with the price! an expression illustrative of the leading journal's willingness to make a breach of its professed neutrality if a "good thing" could be made out of it. Many hundreds of pounds were subscribed upon the Times' endorsement of the legitimate nature of the loan. free, and shown the utter insignificance of any peace party,' or element of submission or compromise in the Confederacy. Great as were the disasters of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, they were the occasions of no permanent depression of the public mind; and as the force of misfortune could scarcely, at any one time, be expected to exceed these events, it may be said they taught the lesson that the spirit of the Confederacy could not be conquered unless by some extremity close to annihilation. A few days after the events referred to, President Davis took occasion, in a proclamation of pardon to deserters, to declare that a victorious peace, with proper exertions, was yet immediately within our grasp. Nor was he extravagant in this. The loss of territory which we had sustained, unaccompanied as it was by any considerable adhesion of its popu lation to the enemy, though deplorable indeed, was not a vital incident of the war: it had reduced the resources of subsistence, but it had multiplied the spirit of resistance, and it was yet very far from the centre of our defense. While Mr. Seward was making to Europe material calculations of Yankee success in the square miles of military occupation and in the comparative arithmetic of the military power of the belligerents, the Confederacy had merely postponed its prospect of a victorious peace, and was even more seriously confident of the ultimate issue than when it first declared its independence." A Presidential proclamaThe Conscription. tion, July 15th, enforced the Conscription act of the Confederate Congress, by calling to the field all white men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, to serve three years, under penalty of being punished for desertion in case of refusal to report. But, so severe had been the pressure prior to this time, forcing all capable into the service, that comparatively few really able bodied men remained to answer the call. The most sanguine estimated an addition of one hundred thousand to the rebel army strength; but it resulted in producing barely enough to fill up the ranks to the standard of July 1st, 1863. The State of Virginia furnished, according to official returns, 102,915 men of a 1 services—not including conscripts -up to October, 1863. Her entire white population, according to the census of 1860, was 1,105,196. Computing one in seven for ma'es of military capacity, we would have about 160,000 capables. But, the loss of all the counties west of the Blue Ridge, by the creation of the new loyal State of West Virginia, reduced her available population by one third, while the escape to the North of thousands of men, unwilling to serve in the rebel ranks, still further subtracted from her military strength; so that the Old Dominion's See Appendix page 511. 15 121 contribution of men had been greatly in excess of her census allotment. If other States in rebellion had contributed as freely, of men and means, the Confederate army must have equalled, in numerical strength, that of the it was not until a year later that the chief Army of the Union, then in the field. But, malcontent, South Carolina, had in the field her proper proportion of fighting material, and at no time during the struggle did that State, or the States of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi contribute so fully as Virginia to sustain the war. Arming of the Ne groes. The Union project of arming the negroes excited the Southern mind to the point of exasperation. Not that there was any danger of the slaves rising en masse, to fly to the Federal ranks; but, the elevation of the blacks to the equality implied by their enlistment, and the necessity for recognising them as soldiers, were contingencies which the slave propagandists had not considered as among the rights of "civilized warfare." Every conceivable epithet was exhausted, by Southern editors and orators, to denounce the inhumanity, the meanness, the impolicy of the Administration's course in the matter. But, the Northern mind, day by day, as the war progressed, came up to the question of the negro's status with clearer apprehension and with less prejudice; and though a large class of "conservatives" and disloyalists in the Free States during 1863 inveighed against the course affairs were taking in reference to the black race, they were not strong enough, at any time, to resist the set of popular opinion, which unerringly and uncompromisingly tended toward the equality of races in rights and responsibilities. CHAPTER IX. AFFAIRS IN THE LOYAL STATES, FROM APRIL FIRST TO AUGUST FIRST, 1863. Attitude of the THE threatened prolon- | permanently establish the so called Southern Confederacy. Attitude of the gation of the war to the designed or not, the immense resources of men and money freely given by the people have been dissipated and destroyed, without accomplishing any favorable results. South, gave the peace partisans and those op- by this Administration has been a failure. Whether posed to the war new cause for alarm. As a consequence, during the winter and spring (1863) secret societies with disloyal intent multiplied: the opposition press grew more bold and imperative in language; “democratic" leaders and managers held numerous meetings to organize the anti-Administration strength and to shape issues for the coming Presidential canvass. The fact that a large section of the democracy sustained the war rendered it necessary to create other issues than those connected with the prosecution of hostilities. Such, it was not difficult to find. In a struggle involving the life of the Republic-such a struggle as the framers of the Constitution had not even remotely provided for-it was simply impossible that extra-constitutional acts and procedure should not occur. These afforded the opposition the ready material for their antagonistic resolves and speeches. A large gathering of the Democracy, at which Fernando Wood officiated as chief orator, held in New York, April 7th, may be regarded as the incipient step toward organization for the impending political campaign. That meeting resolved, among other things: "That, under these circumstances, we declare for peace. This Administration cannot conquer the South if they would- and would not if they could. Thus, war proving unsuccessful, we favor peace and conciliation as the only mode left to us to restore the Union. Force in the hands of our rulers having accomplished nothing, we demand a change of measures-not for separation, but for restoration—and those who oppose are either mistaken zealots or traitors without patriotism. "That we call upon the Judiciary of the State of New York to sustain and vindicate the right of the people to the sacred and imprescriptible writ of habeas corpus, and to preserve the freedom of speech and of the press; that under no possible contingency, not even in an insurrection, or amid the throes of civil war, can the government justify official interference with the freedom of speech or of the press, any more than it can with the freedom of the ballot; that the licentiousness of the tongue and of the pen is a minor evil, compared with the licentiousness of arbitrary power; and that, in the lan guage of the Constitution of this State, every citizen may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right, but responsible to the laws of this State, only." These resolves, sustained by the sympathy of the large assembly at which they were which lurked in the bosoms of their endorsadopted, were less significant of the treason ers than the speeches and remarks made. All indicated views and hopes scarcely consistent with respect for Government or the safety of its cause. The most envenomed bitterness |