Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/438

400 Another bill provided that persons indebted to creditors in the Northern States may pay the claim into the Confederate treasury and were prohibited from making payment otherwise pending the existing war. The tariff bill was passed; but the blockade, although it was as yet ineffective, began to diminish foreign commerce to such extent that little revenue was obtained from that source. Mr. Stephens proposed at Montgomery to make substantial use of the &quot; cotton power &quot; of the Confederacy by a purchase on its part of the entire annual crops as they should become prepared for market and to pay the planters in eight per cent bonds running not over thirty years. The plan included the use of this cotton as security for government loans. The estimate was that four million bales would come into the possession of the Government before the close of the year 1861, and upon this basis the Confederate finances would be safe.

The sessions of Congress were usually held in secret in order to discuss fully the important practical war measures necessary for the defense of the Confederacy, among which was the question of removing the seat of government to Richmond. This necessary step having been taken on the 226. of May, a committee composed of Mr. Rives, Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Memminger was appointed to transfer the military department, and when all other arrangements for the change were made Congress adjourned. The reasons for this transfer of the Confederate capital to Richmond are given in a patriotic speech made by Mr. Howell Cobb, president of the convention, at Atlanta, Georgia, May 22nd: "I will tell you,&quot; said he, &quot; why we did this. The Old Dominion has at last shaken off the bonds of Lincoln and joined her noble Southern States. Her soil is to be the battle ground and her streams are to be dyed with Southern blood. We felt that her cause was our cause, and that if she fell we wanted to die by her. We have sent our soldiers on to the posts of danger and we wanted to be there to aid and