tarn. Duke University Libraries Report of Speci Conf Pam #726 IN SECRET SESSION. SPECIAL ORDER FOR THURSDAY, JAN. %.- ml KEPORT OF 8PP]CIAL COMMITTHE NO. 8. The Special Committee charged with considering and reporting the means by which the State can afford most ready and efficient aid to the Coniederate authorities, in expelling the invaders from our borders, have endeavored to perform the duty assigned to them, and bog leave to report as follows : To furnish troops is the first requisite for expelling the enemy. The Acts passed by the Provisional Congress, and by the General Assem- bly of this State, provide largely for raising troops. The number of men already placed in the field by the State, or now forming into Regiments, is very large, being, as appears by the late Message of the Grovernor to the Convention, upwards of thirty-two thousand — a num- ber o(iual to about two-thirds of the whole white male population between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. Your Committee do not see that any legislation on the subject by the Convention is necessary- but they think it is to be recommended, that in any further levies of troops, the term of service shall be for the war, or for three years, unless sooner discharged. As there is great need of arms, and as they cannot be furnished in sufficient number by the Confederate Government, your Committee recommend that the Governor be authorized to raise and expend three hundred thousand dollars for the purchase of arms and munitions of war from whatever (quarter may be practicable, and that the General Assembly be instructed to provide the means for meeting this expense. Your Committee think that the subsistence of the troops on our seacoast would be much focilitated, and with advantage to the country, by substituting, in part at least, rice and ground corn in place of flour for the rations; and recommend that the Governor be requested to make such arrangement, if practicable, wi^h the Confederate au- tliorities. There is a great deficiency in the means of transportation for the army defending our coast. Your Committee recommend that the Gov- ernor be requested to concert measures with the Confederate authori- ties, for obtaining a full supply of wagons, ambulances, horses and mules. Your Committee would also recommend, that the Governor be re- quested to adopt all proper measures for aiding the operations of the army, by contributions of labor, materials and supplies. To give effect to the reconimondation for the purchase of arms, your Committee recommend the adoption of the following resolution : Rrsnlccd, hji the People of the State of South Carolina, in Conven- tion nssrjnbird, That the Governor be authorized to borrow the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, and to expend the same lor the pur- chase of arms and munitions of war from whatever quarter may be practicable; and that the General Assembly be instructed to provide the means for meeting this expense. All which is respectfully submitted. MAXCY GREGG, Chainnau of Committee. Hollinger Corp. pH8.5