#3M 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON.- A. G. BEOWIST, 
 
 • MM 
 
 OF MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 In the Confederate Senate, December 24, 1863. 
 
 Mr. Brown said : 
 
 Mr. President — -The Senate need be under no apprehension that I 
 im going to weary its patience or consume its valuable time in debat- 
 ing irrelevant matters. The time has come when we should think 
 earnestly, speak briefly, and act promptly. I hope it is not vanity 
 that prompts me at this hour to break my accustomed silence. If I 
 i:.& not think, at least, that I have views to express worthy of the at- 
 tention of the Senate I would not ask its indulgence. 
 
 The two great demands which the States and the people make of 
 their representatives to day are, to strengthen the army and improve 
 the currency. If these things be done, and done speedily, victory 
 will take the place of defeat, and our banners, now trailing in the dust 
 oa many fields, will everywhere float in triumph, and our armies, no 
 Laager receding to the centre, will, with the coming spring, begin 
 to swell and expand towards the circumference, and before the sum- 
 mer is begun they will drive the invaders from our green fields back 
 to the icy regions from which they come. 
 
 Shall the Confederacy stand or shall it fall ? That is the question 
 which to-day, more potentially than at any former period of our brief 
 history, urges itself upon our attention, and in thunder tones demands 
 3ur consideration. If it stands, the brightest hopes of enthusiatic patri- 
 ots will be speedily realised. If it falls, all their glorious anticipations 
 will fall with it. If it stands, it will be a perpetual memorial to the 
 names and deeds of the heroic dead, who have died it its defence. If 
 it falls, it will live in history only to tell that they and all of us were 
 traitors! and deserved our doom. 
 
To say, Mr. President, that no doubt' had ever floated over my 
 mind — that no cloud had ever floated athwait my mental vision — 
 would be to speak uncandidly. The victorious arms of our enemies 
 have not appaled me. Their triumphant march, almost to the centre 
 of our Confederacy, has not chilled my hopes nor caused me to de- 
 spair of ultimate success. But when I look abroad over the land, and 
 see the thousands and tens of thousands who have given up their 
 souls to mnmmon, and in their eager race for money, have forgotten 
 their country, and left it to its fate ; when I see everywhere able- 
 bodied men, capable of bearing arms, notoriously shirking duty ; 
 when I see fathers and mothers, and other kin eagerly hunting places 
 putside of the army lines for their sons and sons-in-law, their 
 nephews and pets; when I see abuses everywhere — abuses under 
 which the army is melting away, and the currency is becoming worth- 
 less. I confess, Mr. President, the gloomy shades of despondency 
 settle abouc my heart. But when I mingle among the people, and 
 witness their inflexible determination to demand a : nd hav£ reform in 
 all these particulars ; when I witness on every side so many evi- 
 dences of demotion to the cause and heroic determination to stand by 
 it to the fa&fc* and when to these I add the pleasing hope that 
 Congress is about to do its duty, anel its whole duty, without fear, 
 favor or affection despondency gives way to glorious anticipations, 
 and I see the young Confederacy emerging from the goary field- of 
 battle, bearing aloft ;tke. triumphant banner of peace and independence", 
 .-and about to take her piace among the nationalities of the earth. 
 
 If I were asked, Mr. President, what the country most needs in 
 thk hour of peril, I would say patriotism ; an all pervading and uni- 
 versal patriotism ; not. fihe babbling, noisy patriotism, that prates of what 
 it is about to do or has .&sae, but the earnest, heartfelt, quiet, 
 but bounding, patriotism that does all things and dfares all things, 
 and wholy oblivious as to ^elf, lives only for the' cause. Such 
 patriotism will strengthen our , army and improve our currency. It 
 will fill up the ranks, convert paper iato gold, put shoes on the feet 
 ^f our eoldiers and shirts on their hacks. It will nerve the arms and 
 quiet the hearts of husbands and, fathers in the field, by feeding and 
 clothing their loved ones at home. Then., Mr. President, let us all, 
 high and low, rich. and poor, from this day for£h cultivate a more earn- 
 est and ardent patriotism. 
 
 But I znust come to the consideration of ,the propositions embracer] 
 in the resolution; that they may he fresh in the recollection of 
 Senators, I ask that they be read. 
 The Secretary read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That in the present condition of the country. Cou.gms ought, with the 
 least practicable delay, to enact the following laws : 
 
 First. — To declare every white male person residing in the Confederate States, and ca- 
 pable of bearing arms, to be in the military service of the country. 
 
 8eco?id. — To repeal all laws authorizing substitutes or granting exemptions. 
 
 Iliird. — To authorize the President to issue his proclamation requiring all male per- 
 sons, claiming and receiving foreign protection, to make their election, within sixty days, 
 •to take up arms or quit the country. 
 
 Fourth. — To detail from those in the military service such only as are absolutely needed 
 in civil pnnuitfe, havii'g reference, i.) making such details, to competency alone. 
 
Fifth. — To make provision for feeding and clothing the destitute families of aoUieif 
 In the field. 
 
 Sixth. — To levy a direct tax of per cent, on all kinds of property, accordi- g to its 
 Value in Coniederate notes, including the not ^3 themselves. 
 
 Seventh. —*-To make Confedera'.e notes & legal tender in payment o- d-?bts after the ex- 
 piration of six months. 
 
 l£ighth.-~ To prohibit the buying and selling of gold and silver coin, or the not^s of hanks 
 in the United feJttes, or United States treasury not- s during the -^ar. under heavy penalties; 
 or, in lieu thereof, to prohibit. " running the blockade," by individuals, under pain of for- 
 feiture of t e goods brought, in. and imprisonment during the war. 
 
 Ninth. — Declare these laws war measures, and make those who violate them, amenable 
 to the military courts alone. 
 
 Mr. BroVn, (resumed.) Doubtless, Mr. President, the thought has 
 crossed the mind of many Senators that these propositions trench close 
 upon, if they do not violate, the Constitution. If I am proposing to 
 violate the Constitution, I do not deserve support, and if convinced of 
 my error I shall not desire it. Do the propositions violate the Con- 
 stitution ? If they do they fall, of course. I shall attempt, there- 
 fore, to settle them on a firm constitutional basis before I proceed to 
 consider their merits. 
 
 I hold this to be true, that when the States, composing this Con- 
 federacy, delegated to this central governmect the exclusive right and 
 power to make war, they necessarily gave with it all the rights and 
 powers incidentally necessary to make the war grant efficient 
 and effective. It would be a mockery to clothe Congress and the Ex- 
 ecutive with the power to make war, and then so trammel them with 
 constitutional chains and bands that they could not conduct the war 
 to a successful termination I am very certain the framers of the 
 Constitution designed to do no such thing. They have not given us 
 a government that bears within itself the seeds of its own dissolution. 
 A government that must perish, while we hold in our hands the means 
 of saving it. To say that the men who made the Constitution have 
 forbidden us to use means that are necessary to its preservation is to 
 charge these men with making a government and requiring it to com- 
 mit suicide. 
 
 The country trembles in an almost even balance between triumph 
 and destruction. If something be not- done, and done quickly, the 
 scales will turn—- the country will fall, and the Constitution will fall 
 with it. Is it at such a time and with such surroundings that I am 
 to be called on to ponder well the phraseology of the Constitution, 
 and remembering that I am a strict constructionist, give to those 
 words such interpretation as I would stand by in times of peace. No, 
 Mr. President, no; I would save the country first, and settle constitu- 
 tional constructions afterwards. This brings me to inquire whether 
 these measures that I have brought forward are necessary to save the 
 country, and whh it the Constitution and the liberties of the people. 
 
 My first and main position is that the army must be strengthened. 
 To do* this I propose — 
 
 First. " To declare every white male person residing in the 'Con- 
 federate States and capable of bearing arms to be in the military 
 service of the country." I suppose it will not be charged that there is 
 any violation of the Constitution in that. We have already declared',. 
 
by law, that all between the age3 of eighteen and forty-five years are 
 in the military service. 
 
 If we had the right to do that it will hardly be denied that we may 
 go a step farther and include all others capable of bearing arms. 
 The justice and equality of such a law commend it warmly to my 
 favor. There may have been some violation of the spirit of the Coa- 
 stitution in calling out men between eighteen and thirty-five and 
 afterwards between eighteen and forty-five and leaving all others at 
 home. But if all are called, without reference to age, no one will 
 have just reason to complain. As all are equally interested, so all 
 are equally bound to lend a helping hand. The only question worth 
 considering, is the expediency of the proposed measure. Is it neces- 
 sary to strengthen our army ? That it is, no one, I suppose, entertains a 
 doubt. That it must be strengthened by the addition of every available 
 man is one of those self-evident propositions that calls for no elucida- 
 tion. The mournful tales that come to us from every battle field 
 admonish us in terms stronger than words, that from the beginning 
 our armies have been too- weak. From our first great success at 
 Manassas, down through a long list of magnificent victories, to the 
 great and glorious triumph of our arms at Chickamauga, we have had 
 the same sad story. Our arms were victorious, but when the conflict 
 was ended our men sunk upon the battle field, too much exhausted to 
 reap the fruits of their own succees. We have won rich and teeming 
 Seld3, but the harvests have been lost because the reapers were not 
 there ; shall we learn nothing by experience? Shall we go on as we 
 have been doing, calling out a few men here and a few men there, divi- 
 ding our strength, and getting whipped in detail, or else concentrating 
 just enough to win a victory, but not enough to crush out and utterly 
 destroy the foe ? If this is to be our policy in the future, as it seems 
 to me to have been in the past, then God save the country. For 
 myself, I wish a different course. I am for calling out all our 
 strength, collecting all our resources, massing and consolidating all 
 our power and hurling ourselves against our enemies like a mighty 
 avalanche. If this be done^I shall expect to see the invader driven 
 back, and his poluting foot 'prints brushed fr3m our soil. If it be 
 not, I drop the curtain and refuse even a glimpse into the future. 
 
 I am asked, Mr. President, if I mean to put every body in the army, 
 and leave no one at home to attend to home pursuits. No sir, no, 
 emphatically no. I have contemplated no such folly as that. I know as 
 well as you dr any one, that the army and people must be fed and 
 clothed, and that, as a consequence, large numbers of people must be 
 left at home. But I will treat of this when I come to consider my 
 fourth proposition. For the present, I must follow up my main idea 
 that the army must be strengthened. This brings me to consider my 
 proposition 
 
 Second, " To repeal all laws authorizing substitutes and granting 
 exemptions." 
 
 These laws have been the fruitful source of untold mischief to the 
 arrav. In practice, they have decimated the ranks, bestowed favors 
 on thousands and tens of thousands of the least meritorious, and 
 
sowed the seeds of discontent broad cast among the brave men who, 
 at all seasons, and under all trials, have stood by their country. The 
 mischief they have done is written on every patriotic heart ; the good 
 is no where recorded. Such laws are a standing reproach to our 
 wisdom, justice, and patriotism, and we can only vindicate ourselves 
 by promptly repealing them. I pause to return my thanks to the 
 House of Representatives for having so effectually wiped out the sub- 
 stitute law. It has laid the axe to the root of the evil ; how long shall 
 we be in finishing the good work by expunging the last vestage of 
 that most odious legislation from the statute-book ? 
 
 The plausible pretexts under which these laws were passed, and by 
 which it is now proposed to maintain them, is that the exempts and 
 persons furnishing substitutes would be profitably employed in pro- 
 ducing food, clothing, and other necessary supplies for the army, and 
 for home consumption. Is this true.? Have these classes of persons 
 been altogether producers, or producers to any material extent. To 
 my observation the exact contrary is true. They have reaped when 
 they have not sown, consumed when they have not produced. Who 
 is it that throngs the streets, crowds the hotels, packs theatres, and 
 fills railroad cars, at all times, to a perfect jam. They are able-bodied 
 men, capable of bearing arms ; why are they not in the service ? The 
 answer is, they have escaped through holes and crevices in your 
 careless legislation. To-day there is a full brigade of this gentry on 
 the streets of Richmond, and a hundred thousand of them at least 
 are at large in the Confederate States. Hotels and theatres are not 
 workshops, and the streets of cities are not the places to plant corn. 
 If these men are out of the army under exemption that they may be 
 of more service elsewhere, in heavens name let them go to work, and' 
 cease to offend .the war-worn and scar-covered soldier by exhibiting 
 their fashionable clothes in contrast with his dirty rags. 
 
 Of those who have furnished substitutes it is said they have a con- 
 tract with the Government, and that they cannot again be called into 
 service without a breach of good faith. Let us examine this plea. 
 What is a contract ? Without going into technicalities, I may say that 
 in all binding contracts there must be some consideration passing, 
 otherwise it is what the law denominates nudem pactum,. What was 
 the consideration passing from the man who offered a substitute to the 
 Government? Nothing ; emphatically nothing, lie owed service to 
 his country, and his country, in a spirit of generosity, allowed him 
 to discharge that service by a substitute. And now taking advantage 
 of his country's liberality, he claims that what was meant as a matter 
 of grace shall be regarded as a matter of contract, and he sets up 
 the high pretention that though his substitute may have deserted, or 
 been called on to perform duty for himself, still his Government is 
 bound by the contract. 
 
 As between the Government and the man who offered a substitute 
 there was no consideration passing. He may have paid fabulous 
 amounts to his substitute. The more he paid the'greater his shame. 
 But his country had nothing to do with that. He owed service, and 
 his country simply allowed him to discharge it by a substitute. Now 
 
 P62889 
 
the exigencies are such, that the country is compelled to call on the 
 substitute to render service for himself. All I claim is, that by no 
 contract between the parties themselves can the country be deprived 
 of the services of either. A owed service in 1S62, and the Govern- 
 ment allowed him to discharge it by his substitute B. In 1863, the 
 Government calls on B to perform duty for himself. It is manifest 
 B cannot perform duty for both A and himself. When B takes his 
 own place in the ranks, A i3 left without a substitute, and it tollows 
 that he must respond for himself. 
 
 I hope the Senate has not forgotten with what earnestness I opposed 
 the passage ef these exemption and substitute laws. I opposed them 
 with zeal, if not with ability. Experience has proven that I was right, 
 and I now demand their repeal. Strike them from the statute-book 
 and the effect will be not only magical but majestic. It will sweap 
 the streets, empty the theatres, clear out the hotels, swell the ranks 
 of the armv, and carry joy to the hearts of our brave defenders in 
 the field. 
 
 I have said these laws were fruitful sources of mischief. If the 
 twenty thousand men in the army of Virginia who had furnished sub- 
 stitutes had been at Gettysburg, Philadelphia would have been ours 
 in a week, and if the grand army of exempts and substitutes had been 
 with Bragg at Chickamauga, Rosecrans and his Yankee thieves would, 
 like the swine in which the devils took refuge, have run violently into 
 the waters of the Tennessee and been drowned. I am clear for wiping 
 out these laws. 
 
 But, Mr. President, I have yet another proposition to increase the 
 army, it is my 
 
 Third. " To authorize the President to issue his proclamation 
 requiring all male persons residing in the Confederate Statesy and 
 claiming and receiving foreign protection, to make their election, 
 within sixty days, to take up arms or quit the country." 
 
 A friend at my elbow says that's radical, I mean it to be so. The 
 conduct of foreigners residing among us is objectionable in the 
 extreme, and as self-preservation is the first law of nature, I am for 
 protecting ourselves by forcing them at short notice to take up arms 
 in defence of this country, or to seek homes s:>me where else. These 
 people eat out our substance, depreciate our currency, destroy our 
 credit, and betray us to our enemies. I insist there is no rite of hos- 
 pitality that requires us longer to submit to such outrageous wrongs. 
 There is not a crowned head in all Europe that would tolerate the 
 presence of our men in their midst in time of war, if their whole 
 business was to consume without producing, to depreciate the cur- 
 rency, destroy the public credit, and hold constant unlawful inter- 
 course with their enemies. I will not insult the intelligence of the 
 Senate by undertaking to prove that I charge these gentry correctly. 
 As well might I undertake to prove that the sun shines at noonday. 
 One has only to take an hour's ramble through the shops of this city 
 to have occular demonstration that I am right. I am told that the 
 course I propose will give offence to foreign powers. I hope not. 
 There is no reason why foreign powers should expect us to submit 
 
quietly to imposture. I should regret exceedingly to offend any one. 
 But if I had a haughty neighbor who refused to recognize me as his 
 equal, but insisted that it was my duty to entertain his servants, I 
 would so far vindicate my own self-respect as to kick his servants 
 out of door 8. 
 
 It can hardly be necessary for me to say that I make no allusion in 
 these remarks to any one of foreign birth, who has jione, is doing, or 
 intends to do his duty to this Confederacy. But I do mean to include 
 all that vast multitude of foreigners who are simply treating our 
 country as a goose, to be plucked for the purpose of feathering their 
 own nests. I say to all snch, if you love this country, Jight for it ; 
 if you do not, leave it. 
 
 t come, sir, to consider my concluding proposition for strengthen- 
 ing the army : 
 
 Fourth. "To make provision for feeding and clothing the destitute 
 families of soldiers in the field." 
 
 This is a work, which, I admit, may be better done by States, 
 counties, corporations, and private individuals, than by the Confede- 
 rate Government. But we know that in many cases it is not done, 
 and it is a burning shame that it is not. Talk not to me of a want of 
 power to do this thing. We had the power to take the husband and 
 father from his home and force him into the army ; and where you 
 found the power to do that, right there I find the power to feed and 
 clothe his dependent wife and children. It is not in human nature, 
 Mr President, for any soldier's heart to glow and swell with the fires 
 c*f genuine patriotism, if he knows that his wife is shivering in the 
 cold and his childr-en are crying for bread. An inflexible will may 
 keep him at his post, but he must be more or less than a man, if in his 
 secret heart, he does not reproach the country that tore him from his 
 home, and then left the sacred pledges of his affections to languish 
 and die. 
 
 We have heard a great deal from men, who, in this war, were going 
 to shed their last drop of blood, and have not yet shed the first drop ; 
 who were going to spend their last dollar, and have not yet spent the 
 first one. It is time these" patriots had a chance. They have had 
 their exemption on the plea that they would stay at home and serve 
 the country better by making food and clothing for the army and the 
 people. The army has stood between them and danger. As wave 
 after wave of Yankee power has rolled up and trembling above their 
 heads has threatened to engulph them in the mighty vortex that has 
 swollowed up so many of our countrymen, the army has stood firm — 
 the waves have been rolled back and these patriotic exempts have been 
 left to pursue, undismayed and undisturbed, their peaceful, private 
 occupations. Now, what do we find ? Do these men press forward 
 eager to redeem their promises to their country and discharge a debt 
 of gratitude to their defenders ? No, Mr. President, no. We find 
 them everywhere engaged in the oJfe> scramble for money. Forget- 
 ful of all decency and oblivious to ^faine, they wallow in luxury and 
 extort fabulous prices from soldiers' families for the necessaries of 
 life. Eleven dollars for a bushel of corn — think of that. One of 
 
8 
 
 these exempts luxuriating at home — knowing nothing of war, except 
 from hearsay, protected by our soldiers in his home, that he may 
 make bread for the army and the country, coolly demanding, extort- 
 ing, from a soldier's •wife, a whole month's wages of her husband, for 
 a bushel of corn meal. What ought'to be done with such a fellow ? 
 He ought to be rammed head foremost into one of our bigest guns 
 and shot across the Yankee lines. 
 
 Is there no remedy for conduct like this ? There is. Put upon 
 the men, who are thus heartlessly amassing fortunes out of their 
 country's miseries, the strong arm of the law, and thunder in their 
 ears, disgorge. Extortion is a great crime, and they who practice it, 
 deserve and will assuredly receive the execration of mankind. But 
 what will be said of us, if, in the midst of a teeming abundance, we 
 allow the wives and children of our brave defenders to starve. There 
 is plenty of provisions in the country to supply all our wants. It i? 
 our business to see that it comes forth on demand. 
 
 It is said if we force the sale of provisions at less than extortionate 
 prices, no surplus will be produced the next year. I will consider 
 that along with my proposition 
 
 Fifth. "To detail from those in the military service 6uch only as 
 are absolutely needed in civil pursuits, having reference in making 
 such details to competency alone." 
 
 I never supposed it possible, Mr. President, for the entire male 
 population of a country to go into the army at once. But I have 
 thought, and still think, the wisest, safest, and most equitable 
 way of raising an army such as we need and must have, is to declare 
 all who are capable of bearing arms to be in the service, and then 
 detail from time to time such only as are absolutely required in other 
 pursuits. I object to exempting whole classes of people, such as 
 doctors, preachers, schoolmasters, and so on, first, because it is wrong 
 in principle, and secondly, because it works bad in practice. No man 
 can give a good reason why doctors, preachers, and teachers should 
 be exempt that will not apply with equal or greater force to lawyers, 
 mechanics, and farmers. In practice, we all know that the purpose 
 of making exemptions has not been carried out. The exempts have 
 not in good faith followed their occupations and been content with 
 the reasonable profits authorized by law. Many have taken to other 
 pursuits, and all, or nearly all, have become heartless and unblushing 
 extortioners. Such would have been the result of granting exemptions 
 at all ; but the evil has been greatly exaggerated by exempting whole 
 classes of people. I propose to correct our error, and instead of exempt- 
 ing men altogether and then leaving them to do as they please, I pro- 
 pose to declare then? all, without reference to age or occupation, call- 
 ing or profession, to be in the military service, and enrol them, if they 
 be capable of bearing arms. I know that corn must be raised and 
 clothing made, munitions of war must be supplied and the i^echanic 
 arts kept alive. But while I know all this, I also know that, under 
 pretence of doing these things, very many and very great abuses are 
 practiced. I would abandon exemptions altogether, and adopt a well 
 digested plan of details. Details will, if wisely made, and with an 
 
9 
 
 eye single to the public good, insure fidelity and responsibility, and 
 crush down the spirit of extortion by keeping constantly before the 
 man's mind that he is liable, at any moment, on a well grounded 
 complaint, to be ordered back to the army. The man who is exempt 
 under an act of. Congress feels secure, and does as he pleases. If he 
 is detailed for a special duty and is made to know that his security 
 depends on his fidelity and competency, he will generally discharge 
 his duty to the best of his ability. # 
 
 It is said ? I know^iat such a law as I propose is liable to greatabuse ; 
 that those who are Barged with its execution will detail their friends 
 and favorites. I grant that such may, to some extent, be the case. 
 But it is no sufficient reason for not passing laws, wise in themselves, 
 and which are called for by the exigencies of the country, to say they 
 will be abused in their execution. All that we can do is to pass such 
 laws as in our wisdom are demanded by the best interests of the 
 country and leave their execution to men equally interested with our- 
 selves. If they fail in their duty, the consequences will be upon 
 their own heads. When the day of trial comes, '"the galled jade may 
 wince, our withers will be unwrung." 
 
 I am asked, Mr. President, if I mean to declare all men of all ages, 
 •occupations and professions in the militarj^service ? I do, sir. That 
 is just what I do mean. I would ^exempt only such as, from physical 
 disability, are incapable of bearing arms. No man should be out of 
 the service unless he could show disability, and those liable to duty 
 should remain in the army unless they were specially detailed to dis- 
 charge some duty for which they were proven. to be competent. In 
 this sweeping conscription, I mean to include Senators and Represen- 
 tatives, the Governors of States, and all other Confederate and State 
 oflicers, of every grade. I am told that in calling State officers into 
 the field, I should violate a fundamental principle of State rights. 
 This is a war for the maintainance of State sovereignty. The vandal 
 foe is upon the soil. Towns, villages and cities are in flames ; Legis- 
 latures fly at their approach ; Judges are imprisoned, and every right 
 of the citizen, moral, social, religious and political, is rudely trampled 
 under foot, and yet I am told that I must not seize this weapon or 
 that, that I must not use all the means which God and men have pat 
 within my reach, lest I violate the rights of the States. As well 
 might you tell me if my neighbor's house was on fire that I dare not 
 attempt to extinguish the flames, lest I soil his carpets. 
 
 My calculation, Mr. President, is, that those who will be found 
 incompetent to discharge service as soldiei'3, will go very far towards 
 supplying what I admit to be a desideratum in the corn fields, the 
 work shops, and other places to which the army and the country must 
 look for support. The deficiency, the absolute need beyond this, I 
 propose to supply by details from the army having reference, in 
 making such details, to competency alone. 
 
 The times in which we live call for the exercise of all our faculties, 
 and the unreserved use of all our res purees. We must liberalize our 
 views — act upon more enlarged principles, and cultivate a more com- 
 prehensive patriotism. It is quite the fashion for those who are doing 
 
10 
 
 • 
 
 least to talk the mo.?:, and it is of every day occurrence to hear men 
 who have '-never set a squadron in the field, nor do the divisions of 
 a battle know, more than spinsters/' talk learnedly of war, criticise 
 the conduct of Generals, and tell what valorous deeds and wonderoua 
 strategy they would have displayed, if the President had not been so 
 dull as to have overlooked their great military skill. There must be 
 an end of all this. It is a weak device to conceal delinquency to tire 
 cause. The man who is really in earnest will serve in any capacity, 
 be it ever so humble, and trust to his acts for ^higher place. The 
 faithful will do their duty without compulsion^* persuasion. The 
 obligation is upon us to see that the laggards do theirs. It will be a 
 Bad commentary on our wisdom to have it written in history that the 
 country fell while we were discussing the difference " between twedle 
 dum and twedle dee." 
 
 I think, in all sincerity, .that the plan I have proposed for strength- 
 ening the army is the best; but I am not so weded to it as to reject 
 all others. I like it better than the scheme reported from the Military 
 Committee ; but if I can get nothing better I will take that scheme. 
 My great desire is to see the army strengthened, and I will embrace 
 any plan that will effect that object and do it speedily 
 
 I come now, Mr. President, to consider the subject next in import- 
 ance to the one I have been debating — the currency. How is it to 
 be improved ? With no claims to skill in matters of finance, I have 
 yet some common sensed views on the subject of Confederate cur- 
 rency, which, with the indulgence of the Senate, I will express. One 
 of these is, that the best way to restore confidence in the currency, 
 and thus improve its value, is to diminish the quantity of notes in 
 circulation by calling them in and destroying them. «I do not believe 
 that Mr. Memming^te plan of converting non-interest paying notes 
 into interest-bearinjpbonds will answer. The scheme is too transpa- 
 rent. There is not a financial quack in all the country who will not 
 understand that the indebtedness of the country has not beea 
 diminished by converting treasury notes into treasury bonds. While 
 common sensed people .will be very apt to think that the sixty millions 
 of dollars, which is -to be paid annually to keep down the interest 
 alone will diminish the ability of the country to pay anything else. 
 It seems to my untutored mind that if a man's credit is suffering 
 because he has too many notes in circulation, the best way to restore 
 his credit is to pay the notes, and especially is this so, if he has the 
 money. That is exactly our condition. The debt which the country 
 owes is the people's debt. It was all contracted on their account. 
 The notes are their notes ; they have depreciated because the people 
 do not pay. The way to increase their value is to commence redeem- 
 ing them, and there never will be a better time to begin than right 
 now. I have, so thinking, proposed — 
 
 Sixth. " To levy a direct tax of per cent, on every kind of 
 
 property, according to its value in Confederate notes, including the 
 notes themselves." 
 
 The plan has the merit of being plain and easily comprehended. 
 There is no hocus pocus about it. It simply proposes that as it is the 
 
11 
 
 people's debt the people shall commence paving it, not by exchanging 
 a promisory note for a bond under seal; not by taking up a note 
 that bears no interest, and giving in its place a bond that does bear 
 interest; but by an honest extinguishment of the debt. When we 
 commence work in that way our credit will instantly revive, for it will 
 give assurance that we mean to be honest, keep ourselves out of the 
 hands of bankers and brokers, and pay our debt3 by fair, legitimate 
 taxation. 
 
 If the notes in circulation were distributed among the people 
 according to each one's liability, or what I think is the same thing, 
 according to each one's taxable property, then each one could surren- 
 der his part and the debt would be paid. But as that is not the case, 
 and is not likely to be, the only thing to be done is to require each 
 one, according to his liability as a tax -payer, to obtain his part of the 
 notes and pay them in. This can be more easily done now than at any 
 other time, for there never was a period when property of all kinds 
 sold for such enormous prices. It is no extravagance to say that it is 
 easier to pay ten dollars now than it would have been to pay one at 
 the beginning of the war. True, many who have been driven from 
 their homes have unproductive property. That is exactly my condi- 
 tion. The tax may bear heavily on us; but that is our misfortune. I do 
 not, and I hope others will not, ask that the wheels of Government be 
 reversed, averted or stopped to suit our condition. The salvation of 
 the country is at stake, and I implore Congress to do its duty. 
 
 It will be seen that I propose to tax the notes themselves. No 
 good reason occurs to my mind why this should not be done. They 
 are property, and constitute the measure of value as to other prop- 
 erty. If it be agreed that they ought to be taxed, the way of doing 
 it seems to me to be simple enough. I would require the present tax 
 gatherers, and such others as may be hereafter appointed, to notify all 
 persons holding Confederate treasury notes to present them between cer- 
 tain days stated. When so presented, I would require the tax-gatherer 
 to deduct the amount of taxes, and stamp the residue of the notes. 
 vVfter the time had expired, I would declare, by law, all notes not 
 thus stamped to be no longer receivable for public dues. They would 
 then, of course, cease to circulate as currency. This would insure 
 their presentation to the tax-gatherer. What amount of taxes should 
 be levied on the notes I do not now undertake to say. My mind has 
 rested on twenty-five per cent. If this sum be agreed on, a given 
 case would stand thus : A has four thousand dollars of these notes, 
 he takes them forward, the tax-gatherer deducts one thousands dollars, 
 and stamps the other three thousand ; these will continue to circulate 
 as money. B has four thousand dollars, and to avoid the tax he re- 
 fuses to produce them ; these will be out-lawed. 
 
 I do not say, Mr. President, that I am altogether and entirely op- 
 posed to funding, but I am opposed to it on the great scale suggested by 
 the Secretary of the Treasury. I see in that nothing but perpetual bank- 
 ruptcy to the people, and the most princely fortunes ever made to the 
 hankers, brokers and other money dealers, into whose hands the bonds 
 would certainly fall. I prefer as a first, best, and greatest means of 
 
12 
 
 improving the currency a direct tax. As far as it goes, it will ex- 
 tinguish the debt, and not like funding, leave it a perpetual burthen on 
 posterity. If the debt is ever to be paid — and to doubt it is treason — 
 the time to begin is now. 
 
 My next proposition is — 
 
 Seventh. " To make Confederate notes a legal tender in payment of 
 debts." 
 
 Shall I be met again by constitutional objections. Again, I say, if 
 this thing be necessary to sustain the currency, and thereby make the 
 war a success, it is constitutional. The Government has already 
 made these notes a legal tender in all its transactions. It pays its 
 employees in treasury notes, and discharges all its obligations in the 
 same currency. If the soldiers who fight our battles, and the farmers 
 who supply them with bread, are paid in these notes ; if all who serve 
 the Government, or furnish it supplies of every kind ; if the Govern- 
 ernment can say, as it does say, to all contractors, you must take 
 these notes or take nothing, there can be no reason why individuals 
 should not be compelled to do the same thing. If the Government has 
 the power to force a citizen to fight, and to give up his horses, cattle, 
 provisions, and other property, and take his pay in Confederate notes, 
 it certainly has the power to force other citizens to receive the same 
 notes in payment of their debts. The Constitution nowhere says 
 that the Confederate Government shall not make paper money a legal 
 tender. It nowhere says that it shall make nothing else than gold 
 and silver a legal tender. The prohibition is against the States. 
 " No States," says the Constitution, " shall make anything but gold 
 and silver coin a tender in payment of debts." Art. I, Sec. X. The 
 prohibition is direct and pointed as regards the States; but as to the 
 Confederate Government it is only inferential. I admit that it i3 a 
 doubtful power, and I would not consent to its exercise in times of 
 peace. Yet it may have been a wise forecast in the framers of the 
 Constitution, speaking as they did in the name of the States, to impose 
 the prohibition on the States individually, and not impose it on the 
 Confederate States. It is important at all times, but most so in 
 times of war, to have a uniform currency. And it may have been the 
 wise purpose of those who ushered this Government into being to 
 leave it untrammelled as to its currency. It is empowered " to coin 
 money and regulate the value thereof." And that is the mode of cre- 
 ating a currency which I prefer to all others. But when that is im- 
 practicable, something else must be done. We have chosen to issue 
 treasury notes, or I might better say we have been compelled to issue 
 them ; and now if it be necessary to sustain the credit of these notes 
 by compelling people to take them in discharge of debts due, not only 
 from the Governmeet, but from one another, it is our right and our 
 duty to do so. That is my opinion. 
 
 The Government says to its own dehtors, take this paper, it is my 
 promise to pay in coin. When I have the coin, come, and I will pay 
 you. It can only make this a fair and just transaction by going still 
 further, and saying to its debtor, offer this paper in payment of your 
 debts, and' I will see that your creditor takes it; and to the creditor, I 
 
IS 
 
 (jour Government) have now become your debtor, I promise to pay you 
 in coin. When the, coin can be had, call, and I will pay you. It 
 will never do to have a currency that is good for the Government and 
 not good for the people. Whatever is a sound currency between the 
 Government and its citizens, must be good as between the citizens 
 themselves. Otherwise you seperate the citizens from the Govern- 
 raent in their most essential relations; and in that case the Govern- 
 ment must fall. 
 
 Apart from the constitutional question, there is another which ad- 
 dresses itself to our consideration. It is the question of expediency. 
 Is is expedient to make treasury notes a tender in payment of ail debts ? 
 In other words, will it increase their value. I think it will. The cry 
 we hear on all sides is, "We do not want these notes, because with 
 them we cannot pay our debts." Make them a legal tender, and the 
 cry will cease. The debtor part of the community will seek them: at 
 once, because with them they can discharge their indebtedness. The 
 creditor part of the community will have no season to complain, since 
 they will be called only to look to the Government for payment, in- 
 stead of looking to individuals. 
 
 I need hardly make an argument to show that a note that is good 
 in the discharge of indebtedness of all kinds, is better than a note which 
 can only be used in the discharge of a particular class of debts. The 
 measure, in both its aspects, as constitutional and expedient, com- 
 mends itself to my own judgment, and I therefore present it to the 
 Senate. I must move on, as I promised to be brief. Proposition 
 
 Eighth. "To prohibit the buying and selling of gold and silver 
 coin, or the notes of banks in the United States or United Statfc treas- 
 ury notes, during the war under heavy penalties, or in lieu thereof, 
 to prohibit * running the blockade ' by individuals under pain or for- 
 forfeiture of the goods brought in, and imprisonment during the 
 war." 
 
 Shall I be at pains, Mr. President, to point out the evil consequences 
 of trafficing in coinf or pause to establish the pernicious relation ex- 
 isting between this traffic and " blockade running." To this is owing 
 the great depreciation of our paper. Gold and silver is not of right, 
 and ought not in practice, to be the standard of value with us. We 
 have no legitimate intercourse with the outside world. Nobody re- 
 cognizes us. Our ports are closely blockaded. All of our transac- 
 tions are among ourselves, or, at least, they ought to be. And as 
 Confederate notes constitute our medium of exchange, and pass cur- 
 rently in all our domestic transactions, it would seem that we had lit- 
 tle or no use for gold or silver. Yet, we see by the public newspa- 
 pers that coin is being bought in our markets at ten, fifteen, and, I 
 am told, as high as twenty dollars in Confederate notes for one dollar 
 in gold or silver ; and worse still, the notes of our enemies, which do 
 not circulate as money among our people, are at a premium in Rich- 
 mond of from seven hundred to a thousand per cent, over our own 
 currency. The reason for this state of things is obvious. The 
 ■" blockade runners" buy gold and silver and Yankee money, because 
 with these, and these alone, they can traffic with the enemy. I am 
 
14 
 
 for putting a stop to these transactions. To the uninitiated, it would 
 appear strange that, with a vastly larger debt and with a much less 
 ability to pay than we have, the notes of the Yankees should be at a 
 large premium over our notes. "But a peep into any shop in the Confed- 
 erate States reveals the secret. The unblushing admission stares us in 
 the face, that persons, claiming to be loyal, are in the habit, in direct 
 violation of our laws, of trading with the enemy, and as the enemy has 
 found the means of effectually preventing the circulation of our notes 
 in their midst, it follows that Yankee notes or gold and silver constitute 
 the medium through which this illicit trade is carried on. The result 
 is the humiliating exhibition that our notes are at a discount, such as 
 I have discribed, right here under the very shadow of the capitol. Is 
 there no remedy for evils like this ? The answer is plain. Let Con- 
 gress do its duty. Take these men from their shops, and put them in 
 the army. Make it a penal offence to buy or sell gold or silver coin. 
 •Open the doors of your prisons for those who trade in Yankee money, 
 and close up the dens of thieves and traitors, so that honest men can- 
 not be ensnared into them. Say to them one and all, as the Savior said 
 to the money changers in the temple, " for this, my house was a house, 
 of prayer, and ye have made it a den of thieves." 
 
 We must correct our errors. Bad men must be treated according 
 to their crimes. There can be none more atrocious than the crime of 
 depreciating currency at a time like this. It is treason in its most 
 hideous form. Talk -of Arnold's treachery, or the monstrous wicked- 
 ness of Judas. These men were paragons of excellence compared with 
 the villians of our day. Arnold retired from the sight of rr en, and was 
 glad to die in obscurity. Judas betrayed the Savior; but Judas had 
 tae decency to hang himself. These men make a merit of their de- 
 pravity, flaunt their ill-gotten gains in the face of honest patriots, and 
 actually scoff at the country while it is undergoing financial cruci- 
 fixion. Congress stands amazed, almost stupified, at the wonderful 
 audacity of these w r retches, and seems to think that the very sublim- 
 ity of their crimes had secured them immunity ^gainst punishment. 
 This will never do. The law is a terror to evil doers. Let the law 
 perform its office. Where there is a will there is a way. The Yan- 
 kee's have found the way, and we shall find ic if we, diligently search 
 for it. Let us resolve to punish roguery, and protect the rights of 
 honest men, and the way will open to us. Honest men are never ap- 
 palled by the severity of laws. Where there is no offence there will 
 be no punishment. It is the wicked alone who flee from righteous 
 judgments. 
 
 It is my deliberate judgment, Mr. President, that the measures I 
 have suggested are necessary, one and all, to secure this country from 
 ruin. They may look severe to those who have never felt the heavy 
 tramp of the invader. Go with me to Mississippi and look at 
 cities sacked, plantations desolated, homes laid .waste, and thousands 
 of women and children driven as wanderers to strange lands. See 
 the haughty tyrant with his heel upon the neck of bleeding innocence^, 
 and then tell me if these measures are not mild as Christian mercies, 
 compared with treatment like this. One year ago Mississippi was 
 
15 
 
 as secure as you think yourselves to-day. If wise councils, then 
 had been followed by bold actions, she might have rolled back the 
 tide that swept over her, and have continued to stand in all the plen- 
 titude of strength and beauty. Let us take council of our fears and 
 fail to act because somebody may be offended ; and you may read the 
 doom of Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinaa, in what has been the 
 fate of Mississippi. 
 
 But I have another and last proposition. It may be more startling 
 than the rest. I have heard it said that the courts will overthrow 
 our legislation by decisions against these laws. This may be so, and 
 Is propose to guard against it by my 
 
 Ninth proposition: " To declare all these laws war measures, and 
 make those who violate them amenable to the military courts alone." 
 
 We are in the midst of the most fearful conflict that the civilized 
 world has ever winessed. It is not alone an issue of life, liberty, and 
 property. But it is a question as to whether our slaves shall become 
 our masters. I refuse to contemplate the horrid picture which ima- 
 gination paints in the future. Its outlines are distinctly drawn on the 
 broad canvas which Yankee despotism has unfolded before our eyes. 
 Why "stand we idle ? Why hesitate to perform our duty. Is applause 
 so swee'. or popularity a gem of su:h priceless value that we would 
 obtain them at the sacrifice of all that is staked on this issue.. Re- 
 member, Senators, that those who have been followed by the huzzas 
 of a multitude one day, have been visited by its bitterest execrations 
 the next Are these laws that I have proposed necessary to insure 
 success ? Then adopt them. Can their force be impaired by the 
 decisions of weak or disloyal judges 1 Then take the decisions out of 
 the mouths of such judges. No man has more respect for indivi- 
 dual rights than I have. No man clings with more tenacity than I 
 do to chat great safeguard of human liberty, the habeas corpus. But 
 sacred as these things are, I am rea ly to lay them aside for the time 
 being, it this be necessary to secure the liberty and indepenuence of 
 my country in the end. The duty of providing for the common 
 defence is upon us. The obligation to repel invasion is devolved upon 
 us by the Constitution, and we shall not have acquitted ourselves of 
 this duty or this obligation until we have exhausted all the means 
 within our reach. It will not do to say '-the country has resources, 
 but we cannot command them." So long as there is a pound of mate- 
 rial left, it is our duty to seize it and hurl it at the enemy. Talk of 
 indhidual rights and the safeguards to liberty, with a million of armed 
 Yankees thundering at your doors. What has become of personal 
 liberty, the habeas corpus, and the written Constitution in Tennessee, 
 Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and wherever else the foe 
 has obtained a footing ? Gone, sir ; buried deep in the graves that 
 contain the bodies of our slaughtered countrymen ; and yet we have 
 exhortations to save these sacred gifts at the peril of losing all that 
 remains to us of our once happy and still beloved country. Sir, 
 excuse mc. If I cannot save everything, I will save that which is the 
 most valuable. If we lose the country, personal liberty ? the haheas 
 corpus, and the Constitution must go with it. We can never wrefct 
 
16 
 
 i tilings from Yankee hands if once oar country is conquered. 
 We can, at our own will, take them from the hands of our own chosen 
 rulers. If our jewels are threatened will we allow the enemy to seize 
 them while we are debating whether it is safe to entrust them to the 
 hands of our agents. 
 
 Mr. President, the blood of our brothers cri03 to us from tn$ 
 -round. Their disembodied spirits watch over us to-day. They seem 
 to draw nearer and nearer, as we hesitate in the discharge of our 
 duty. Anon they will gather like a cloud over and around this capi- 
 tal "and as the- sun of liberty is setting, perchance for the last timo, 
 they will demand, in tones that shall awaken us all from lethargy : 
 "Who is the author of all this mischief? Is it for this we shed our 
 • • yod l Is it for this we left our homes^ and through toil, and death, 
 V I carnage, drove back the foe ? Degenerate men, why have you 
 surrendered the cause for which we toiled, and ble-1 and died ? 
 At* that trying moment may my conscience be at ease, and may I bo 
 able to say without fear and. without remorse, whatever may have 
 a the faults of others, "Thou canst not say I did it/' 
 
Hollinger Corp. 
 P H8.5