Resolved, That in impressing articles of food and forage for the army, the agents of the Government should exercise a discretion, and impress in those sections of the different States where food and forage are most abundant.

Resolved, That in those parts of the country where the provision crop is short, and will not more than supply the wants of the country, the tithes due the Government should be commuted for in money, and left for the supply of soldiers' families and other destitute persons at Government prices.

Resolved, That upon the true construction of the act of Congress regulating the matter, the price of no article manufactured for the use of the Government under the said act can be more than seventy-five per cent. on the cost of production, excluding the cost of the raw material, which should only be reimbursed without a profit thereon.

The effect of these measures was to create a difficulty in procuring food for both army and people. Both suffered. Innumerable methods were resorted to for the purpose of saving property from impressment. Hundreds of producers were driven to sell clandestinely or openly their stores to non-producers out of the army, who were willing and anxious to pay fifty or a hundred per cent. more than the Government paid. The effect upon the spirit of the people was shown in the declarations of the press, the speeches of public men, and those made in the House of Congress. "These arbitrary impressments of Government," said the press, "touch the people's pride and sense of justice; and they effect a great and natural change in their sentiments toward the cause. Men who, in a romantic and pious enthusiasm for their country, have cheerfully given up their sons to the battle, and have assisted with a sort of mournful pride in the burial of their offspring slain on the field, have had their feelings and temper toward the Government suddenly changed by the rude and rapacious action of the Government pressgangs. They make this natural reflection, whether a good cause, administered in wrong and rapacity, can succeed; and these impressments have done more to shake the confidence of the country in the capacity of its public men in civil office for administering affairs than any other cause and all causes combined."

While numerous commissioners, post quartermasters, and other Government agents practised gross abuses, oppressed the people, and caused starvation to threaten whole villages and towns, and thus brought odium upon the Government, the Government itself was guilty of many abuses. The impressment law was enforced at the same time that the title or produce tax was in process of collection. The tithes were often waiting for the tithe gatherer, and even rotting for Lack of his approach. Great delay often occurred in collecting or transporting Government applies after they had been purchased, and waste and destruction were the consequence. The following remarks by ex-Senator Toombs, of Georgia, in the Hall of the Assembly of that State, on November 13th, present a very complete view of the operation of the impressment: "I have heard it frequently stated, and it has

been maintained in some of the newspapers in Richmond, that we should not sacrifice liberty to independence; but I tell you, my countrymen, the two are inseparable. If we lose our liberty we shall also lose our independence; and when our Congress determined to support our armies by impressment, gathering supplies wherever they found them most convenient, and forcing them from those from whom their agents might choose to take them, in violation of the fundamental principles of our Constitution, which requires all burdens to be uniform and just, and paying for them such prices as they choose, they made a fatal blunder, which cannot be persisted in without endangering our cause, and probably working ruin to our Government. The moment they departed from the plain rule laid down in the Constitution-that impressment of private property should only be made in cases where absolute necessity required them-they laid the foundation for discontent among the people, they discouraged labor, and incorporated a principle which is not only in violation of the Constitution, but fatal to the rights of property. The Constitution cannot be dispensed with in time of war any more than in time of peace. If it is overthrown we are already conquered. Liberty is lost when a man holds his life, liberty, and property, not under the law, but at the mere pleasure of another. Stand, therefore, by the Constitution of your country, which you have sworn to support, and which all the public officers have sworn to support, from the President down to the lowest officer in the country. There is duty, safety, and honor in that course. I hope to stand by it, in peace or in war, through evil as well as through good report.

"Then when you come to levy burdens, it matters not how heavy they be, if they are necessary, so they be just. If five per cent. of the wealth of the country will answer, take only that; but if ten, or twenty, or fifty per cent. are necessary, if the last dollar of the country, and the last drop of blood are necessary, take that; for I would rather see this whole country the cemetery of freemen than the inhabitation of slaves. Therefore it is not a question how much shall be levied for the support of our Government, but only that your levies be just and uniform. The citizens of this country demand that they shall be permitted to bear their just proportion of the burdens that may be necessary in the achievement of our independence. They demand that if provisions are necessary for the support of our armies in the field; if horses are necessary; if clothing, if property of any kind is needed-they demand that the burden of supplying it shall not fall on a few individuals, but on society at large, and in just and uniform proportion on all. It is the right, the privilege, as well as the duty of all, to bear a just and equal portion of the demands of the Govern

ment.

"When, therefore, the Government seeks to levy its supplies through commissaries, or other

agents, by impressment, instead of entering the market as others do, and purchasing them, it deprives the people of the right which they claim of bearing their just proportion of the burdens as well as of the benefits of the Government. The wisdom of twenty centuries is against this policy, and I here affirm that it will not support the army and will ruin the republic. Already it has deprived many of their honest earnings, and left their families in penury, want, and dependence, and I call on you to right them.

"Such a system has never been pursued with profit to the country, from the time of Alexander the Great down to the present time. Gen. Scott did not practise it, even when in the enemy's country. From the whole of his march from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, he obtained his supplies by purchases, and obtained them plentifully, while our armies, which depend for their support on impressments, have often been upon half rations all over the country, even where provisions are abun

dant.

"There are said to be nine millions of people in our Confederacy. There are eleven hundred thousand in population, black and white, in our State, and provisions are ample for the support of all, if they were only distributed; and yet the course which has been pursued in obtaining supplies for the army has reduced it almost to the point of starvation, even in the midst of plenty; and, in the name of the Constitution and of justice, I have come to protest against it. It is your business, as legislators, to provide for the wants of those who may have suffered from this system in your midst, and I hope you will do it. If it requires taxation, impose it; if a loan, make it; whatever is necessary, do it, that the families of those who are in need of provisions and clothing, whether because what they have had has been taken from them by the Government, or whether the absence of their natural protectors in the military service of the country has deprived them of support, do all that is necessary to make them comfortable. You have the power, and you should exercise it.

"Why cannot the Government go into the market as others do, and purchase their supplies? It is said that the people will not sell for the currency at reasonable rates. Well, if they will not sell for one price, pay another. You have the power of raising what is necessary for the country. If one dollar is not sufficient, raise ten-pay just compensation, market price for all commodities, not monopolized, and tax those who are able to pay. Why should all the burdens fall on one class, as it has heretofore fallen almost exclusively on the agriculturists? Why should the capitalist, the merchant, manufacturer, the speculator, the extortioner be passed over? They have remained at home during the war, and made money. Why should not their money be taken to carry on the war as well as the productions of the agriculturists? The latter are not a favored

class; there are no exempts among them; they have been the greatest sufferers in this war, both in blood and treasure.

"But shall I proceed? If a man advocates such principles as these, it is to be said he is against the Administration.

"I say to you all in candor, that the course our Government has pursued in obtaining its supplies has sowed the seeds of discontent broadcast over the land, and is generating hostility to the Government itself. Look at the practical workings of it in our own State. In the northern section of it the hand of Providence has been laid heavily upon them for the last two years. Last year the rains were withheld from them. Sterility cursed, and old mother Earth seemed to forget her children. This year the frost has come, and, in addition, the foot of the invader has been set upon the land, and blighted the prospects of the agriculturists. Famine, war, and worse than impressment, has laid its hand upon them, and you are asked to make provision for the support of many who will be unable, from these causes, to support themselves, and I hope you will do it. In addition to this, the impressing agent has gone around, and, in many cases, robbed the families of their meagre support for the year. As a consequence, the soldiers in the field have become discontented, and desertions have taken place.

"It is useless to attempt to conceal these facts. You know them to be true, and our enemy knows them to be true. The part of wisdom is to rectify the evils, not to conceal them. It is your duty, as the guardians of the people of Georgia, to speak out, and see to it that the republic shall suffer no detriment at the hands of those whose duty it is to guard and defend her interests. You are bound to see to it that the rights and liberty of the people are maintained."

The embarrassment which arose from this state of affairs was greatly increased by the decay of the railroads. The means of transpor tation possessed in the Confederate States have become more and more limited during each year of the war. In Virginia the railroads were on the point of giving out at the beginning of 1863. Their rate of speed was reduced to ten miles an hour as a maximum, and their tonnage diminished from twenty-five to fifty per cent. This change in the rate of speed and quantity of freight was made through necessity. The wood work of the roads had rotted, and the machinery was worn out, and owing to the stringent enforcement of the conscription law among the men employed by the railroad companies, they had not been able, with all their efforts, to renew the one or repair the other. This failure extended to the roads in all the States. The scarcity of iron for rails was another serious injury, which could not be repaired. In this respect, the pressure of the blockade was more severely felt than in any other. So completely were these roads a part of the military system,

that serious apprehensions existed that the armies might be obliged to fall back from some of their positions in consequence of the difficulty of getting to them food for men and horses. The country, in the vicinity of the armies, had been stripped of its provisions and forage, and they depended for their existence and the maintenance of their positions upon the railroads. The better the roads were, the more certain were the supplies of the troops and their ability to resist all the efforts of the Federal army to occupy the country.

In two instances the Government made roads, to complete the internal system, where grans existed. From Selma, in Alabama, to Meriden, in Mississippi, a link was built which completed this great highway, from west to east, and superseded the necessity of a long detour by Mobile, and rendered useless any attempt by the forces at Pensacola to cut off communication by destroying the railroad which connects Montgomery with Mobile. The other instance was the line, of fifty miles in length, between Danville, in Virginia, and Greensborough, in North Carolina. By this work the Government was relieved from a dependence upon the line of railroad which runs from Richmond through Petersburg and Weldon, and which has for years been the great Eighway between the North and the South.

But while the armies were exposed to want, from the probable inability of the roads to transport sufficient provisions, the situation of the inhabitants in some parts of the Confederacy was equally critical, from the same cause. The northern part of Virginia, the fruitful valley of the Shenandoah, and the eastern section of North Carolina produced in ordinary times most of the grain which supplied bread to the South, and which was exported to South America. Each of these districts was now in possession of the Federal forces. In Middle Ten

nessee agriculture was suspended, and the aged men, women, and children who adhered to the Confederacy, were forced to retire still farther south and increase the number of mouths to be fed there. Another source of ply, the North Carolina Fisheries, which anally yielded millions of herring besides shad o be salted, was also cut off. The wheat crop 1852 was an unusually poor one; and alhough a sufficiency of grain for the year's supy of food was grown, the limited means of transportation possessed by the Confederacy ere taxed to the utmost to bring this grain From the remote corners of States to the spots where it was demanded for consumption-to rag the food and the mouths together. Such was the aspect, relative to provisions, in the ginning of the year. It was evident that a eat change must be made in the production enable the country to surmount these evils. e Government, foreseeing the danger, made igorous appeals to the people. A series of lutions were passed by Congress on the bject, one of which requested Mr. Davis

VOL. III.-14 A

to issue an address to the people. In compliance with this request he soon after issued an address, dated Richmond, April 10th. After presenting a most flattering view of the general military result in staying the Federal progress, he turns to the subject of provisions, and thus proceeds:

With such a contest before us there is but one danger which the Government of your choice regards with apprehension; and to avert this danger it appeals to the never-failing patriotism and spirit which you have exhibited since the beginning of the war.

of last year, reduced the harvests on which we depend The very unfavorable season, the protracted drouths far below an average yield, and the deficiency was, unfortunately, still more marked in the northern part needed for the army. If, through a confidence in an of our Confederacy, where supplies were especially early peace, which may prove delusive, our fields should now be devoted to the production of cotton and tobacco, instead of grain and live stock and other articles necessary for the subsistence of the people and army, the consequences may prove serious, if not disastrous, especially should this present season prove as unfavorable as the last. Your country, therefore, appeals to you to lay aside all thought of gain, and to devote yourselves to securing your liberties, without which these gains would be valueless.

It is true that the wheat harvest in the more south

ern States which will be gathered next month promises an abundant yield; but even if this promise be fulfilled, the difficulties of transportation, enhanced as it has been by an unusually rainy winter, will cause embarrassments in military operations and sufferings among the people, should the crops in the middle and northern portions of the Confederacy prove deficient. But no uneasiness may be felt in regard to a mero supply of bread for men. It is for the large amount of and the supplies of the animals used for military operacorn and forage required in the raising of live stock, tions, too bulky for distant transportation; and in them the deficiency of the last harvest was mostly felt. Let your fields be devoted exclusively to the production of corn, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, and other food for man and beast; let corn be sowed broadcast for fodder in immediate proximity to railroads, rivers, and canals, and let all your efforts be directed to the prompt supply of these articles in the districts where cur armies are operating. You will thus add greatly to it is impracticable to make those prompt and active their efficiency, and furnish the means without which movements which have hitherto stricken terror into our enemies and secured our most brilliant triumphs.

Having thus placed before you, my countrymen, the reasons for the call made on you for aid in supplying the wants of the coming year, I add a few words of appeal in behalf of the brave soldiers now confronting your enemies, and to whom your Government is unable to furnish all the comforts they so richly merit. The supply of meal for the army is deficient. This deadopted which will, it is believed, soon enable us to ficiency is only temporary, for measures have been restore the full rations; but the ration is now reduced at times to one half the usual quantity in some of our armies. It is known that the supply of meat throughthe distances are so great, the condition of the roads out the country is sufficient for the support of all; but has been so bad during the five months of winter weather through which we have just passed, and the attempt of grovelling speculators to forestall the market and make money out of the life blood of our defenders, have so much influenced the withdrawal from sale of the surplus in the hands of the producers, that the Government has been unable to gather full supplies.

The Secretary of War has prepared a plan, which is similar means to be adopted by yourselves, you can asappended to this address, by the aid of which, or some sist the officers of the Government in the purchase of

the corn, the bacon, the pork, and the beef known to exist in large quantities in different parts of the country. Even if the surplus be less than believed, is it not a bitter and humiliating reflection that those who remain at home, secure from hardship and protected from danger, should be in the enjoyment of abundance, and that their slaves also should have a full supply of food, while their sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers are stinted in the rations on which their health and efficiency depend?

Entertaining no fear that you will either misconstrue the motives of this address, or fail to respond to the call of patriotism, I have placed the facts fully and frankly before you. Let us all unite in the performance of our duty, each in his sphere; and with concerted, persistent, and well-directed effort, there seems little reason to doubt that, under the blessings of Him to whom we look for guidance and who has been to us our shield and strength, we shall maintain the sovereignty and independence of the Confederate States, and transmit to our posterity the heritage bequeathed to us by our fathers." JEFFERSON DAVIS.

This was followed by appeals from the governors of several States to their citizens, and by resolutions of legislative bodies. A very extensive effort was also made to secure the planting of more wheat and corn.

An extra session of the Legislature of Georgia was called by Governor Brown, to meet on March 25th, "to secure the use of all productive labor in the cultivation of grain and articles necessary to sustain life." Governor Vance, of North Carolina, in March issued an address to the people, urging them to plant corn and raise articles of prime necessity, saying: "By universal consent there is allowed to be but one danger to our speedy and triumphant success, and that is the failure of provisions. Everything depends now upon the industry and patriotism of the farmer." Governor Shorter, of Alabama, issued an appeal to the people, saying: "The failure to raise the largest possible quantity of supplies in the present year may bring disaster to our cause." (See ALABAMA.)

On the 3d of April, the Legislature of South Carolina assembled. The Governor in his message stated that they were called together for the express purpose of considering the proper measures to be taken to provide food for the sustenance of the army and the people.

The prospective result of these efforts was thus described in a letter from the CommissaryGeneral to the Secretary of War, as follows: ATHENS, April 25th, 1963.

Hon. James A. Seddon, Secretary of War: SIR: As the excessive want of supplies in this department will require me to proceed back to Atlanta, Georgia, before returning to the capital, I deem it expedient, in view of the present importance of time, to acquaint you by letter of the impressions I received from my conference with the Governors, etc. Governors Brown, Shorter, and Vance only were present; but Governor Pettus, I have learned, arrived at Milledgeville after my departure.

All agree that the planters of their States evince no disposition to seed for more than the usual quantity of grain and other articles necessary for the subsistence of the people and the army. Neither the reso lutions of Congress, requesting the President to appeal to the people, nor the appeal itself, have produced any visible effect. Such of the planters as doubt the ex

pediency of raising more cotton and tobacco seem bent upon clearing up new lands instead of tiling those now fit for cultivation. In riding by mail from Milledgeville to this point, I passed, as you are aware, through one of the best corn districts in Georgia, and not one acre in fifty, as I am assured by my own observations and the reports of travellers on the reads, is being prepared for raising that indispensable article, or other products requisite for the subsistence of man and beast.

It is lamentable that the people are so deaf to the many appeals of their representatives and so blind to their own interests. It is obvious that something must be done immediately, or both the people and the army must starve next winter. This is an alarming refle tion, but it is fully warranted by the situation. Now is the time to avert the impending danger. A few days more and it will be too late.

Several plans were suggested by the Governors fr promoting our object-among them that of conveking the farmers, at numerous points throughout the States, and addressing them through prominent speakers ca the absolute importance of meeting the wants of the nation. Although this plan was favorably regard ed, it was deemed too late in the season to attain the finally decided to send an address-not to be publisidesired results by its execution; and the Governors ed by the press, exposing our wants to the enemy-to all leading planters in their respective States, urging upon them the imperative necessity of producing a the grain, live stock, etc., possible. But since the sp citizens, what response can we expect them to make to peal of the President is disregarded by this class f similar appeals of the Governors? In my judgment, none.

It is only by more rigorous, and indeed orbitrary, measures that we can prevent distress in our towns, and subsist the armies in the field through next wi ter and spring. The appeal put forth by the Pres dent, and the one proposed by the Governors, will be entirely useless. This is the opinion also of General Bragg, with whom I yesterday conferred for two hours

at Dalton.

The general suggests three plans for preventing the threatened famine. The first is, that the President, by proclamation, prohibit the raising of any more cathe and tobacco, or clearing of new lands, until furt notice. The second is, that by proclamation he order all planters to seed a certain number of acres of gra or other articles of necessary consumption in propertie to the quantity of cleared land and negroes belonging to them. The third is, for the Government to take session of the plantations, or such portion of thems the owners do not intend to seed with grain, etc., srå to employ the negroes belonging thereto in raising such agricultural products as may be deemed rece sary. Officers and soldiers who have been rendered by wounds and disease unfit for further service in the field could be employed as superintendants and over

scers.

The last mentioned plan appears to me to be feas ible and entirely the best that can now be adopted As reasonable compensation would, of course, le lowed for the use of the land and negroes, etc., I think the plan would in general meet with favor. At events, the measure would not be more arbitrary than others the Government has been forced to resort to and in view of the emergency, and as a military necessity, it would be perfectly justifiable.

The wheat harvest, it is easy to see and learn from a trip through the country, will not be half as bount ful as we have anticipated; and the belief into which the Government has been led, that there are laz quantities of bacon in many parts of the country, is erroneous. The inventory ordered by Governor Brown of the bacon and live stock in Georgia (of which yea have by this time probably received a copy) shows the well-nigh exhausted condition of that State, and yet, beyond peradventure, it is less nearly exhausted than any other State in the Confederacy.

It will, therefore, be no easy matter to keep our ar

mies in the field without causing suffering among the people till the harvests are gathered next autumn. From that time we shall be entirely dependent on those harvests, and that they may be rendered adequate to our wants I unhesitatingly recommend the adoption of the third plan suggested by Gen. Bragg. Let the emergency be urged upon the President, while there is yet time to save ourselves. Your obedient servant, L. B. NORTHROP, Commissary-General, C. S. E.

Three canses operated during the year to distress the people for provisions: the desolation by war of some of the most productive portions of the country, and the reduction of the number of farmers by conscription; the difficulty of transportation thereby equalizing the production; and the absence of any proper medium of exchange to induce the farmers and planters to exchange their produce. The first and severest sufferers under these circumstances were those inhabitants of cities and towns who were dependent on wages, and those who composed the families of soldiers in the army. Early in the spring, the dissatisfaction which existed broke out in open tumults. At Salisbury, North Carolina, a body of soldiers' wives, on March 19th, assembled to make an attack upon a storehouse where flour was deposited. On the 25th, a similar occurrence took place at Raleigh, in the same State. On the 2d of April, a riot broke out in Richmond, the object of which was to obtain food. Another occurred in Mobile, Alabama, about the 15th of April. (See ALABAMA.) In other places similar disturbances took place. In all the cases women were the actors. (See RIOTS.)

These public disturbances soon ceased with the advance of the season. By the military operations which followed, the supply of cattle from Texas was cut off, and also the produce from Middle and Eastern Tennessee. The crops during the summer were represented to be good, but as the latter part of the year approached, the apprehensions of a scarcity were manifest. It was said, "the coming winter will be one of unusual trials." In October the following facts occurred at Richmond. One firm sent one hundred barrels of

flour to be sold at $27, while the price in the stores was from $65 to $75, and promised to the city all the flour on hand and all the tolls they might receive at Government prices. Another firm offered to sell all the flour sent for Consumers without any charge for commissions. Another offered to grind all the wheat purchased by the city, at the cost of labor. The city of Richmond established a Board of Supply to purchase articles of necessity to be sold to the poor at cost. Petersburg did the same, and the Secretary of War instructed the officers of the Government to facilitate the labors of these committees. All the churches and civic societies undertook to support their own poor. One firm, after strenuous efforts for several days, were unable to purchase a lot of flour for the accommodation of their customers, and concluded that the farmers were prevented

from sending in their wheat because they were required to sell it at five dollars per bushel. That there was an abundance in the country, and to spare, no one doubted. On the 29th of October, beef was quoted in Richmond at a dollar to a dollar and a half per pound. The butchers said they were unable to get cattle, and might be compelled to close their stalls. By an arrangement between the butchers and the Government, it ought to have sold at sixtyfive to seventy cents per pound. The newspaper press of Richmond said: "By a very decided vote the consumers of Richmond have agreed to pay the market price for everything. But if nothing is brought to market, and the people are made to suffer for food and fuel, when both are abundant, then it is very certain that force will secure what funds cannot. Consumers have done their duty; producers must do theirs." The agents of the city of Richmond sent to Louisa and the adjoining counties reported that "the farmers had nothing to sell." It was said that graziers would not bring their cattle to the city to be seized, if they did not sell to the butchers at Government prices. As an illustration of the operation of the "maximum (price fixed), considerable slaughtered beef was received by some of the butchers. Slaughtered beef was exempt from impressment. It was said, on November 2d:

The speculators are now masters of the situation in regard to the prices of flour-a barrel of which, of any kind, at any price, is next to impossible to obtain. The hoarders should be made to come to terms-that is, to put their stores in the market.

Beef is in great abundance in the Piedmont country, we learn, and also in the upper valley, and sells at from thirty-five to fifty-six cents on the hoof. If the impressing officers will hold off their hands, we need have no fears for the coming winter.

At an early hour on Saturday morning the meat supplied at the city market gave out, and numerous families in consequence had to dine off Grahamite dinners. So long as beef is impressed for the benefit of twelve markets may be expected to continue. thousand Yankee prisoners, this condition of the city

The condition of the supplies in Charleston is thus described:

Since the necessaries of life have reached the very

exorbitant rates which they now command, our city

fathers have been most zealously laboring for the benefit of the citizens at large, and with what success the thousands who are now daily supplied with flour, rice, &c., at less than half the current market prices, can gratefully testify. The action of the council in this matter, as well as for the supply of fuel, has tended but for this course, would be much higher. Yesterday very materially to check the inflation of prices, which, afternoon one hundred and fifty cords of wood were distributed in quarter cord lots to six hundred families, at the rate of twelve dollars per cord.

It was reported that in Southeastern Alabama, and Southwestern Georgia, fifty per cent. more of hogs had been raised than at any previous season of the year. The crops of wheat gathered in those sections were unusually large. In North Carolina the agents of the city of Petersburg were quite successful in procuring supplies. It was asserted that either North or South Carolina, Georgia, or Alabama, could