Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/507

Rh which were based necessarily on the success of secession could not be managed so as to avoid the depreciation of the currency. The expenses had increased, the public debt was becoming enormous, and the Confederacy was already moving on without the &quot; sinews of war. &quot; There was a vast excess of paper money and yet there seemed no other way to sustain the government. Some financiers proposed the discontinuance instantly of any further issue. Taxation and loans were urged as the only means of reaching a safe financial footing. The issue of bonds with interest payable in coin, the interest to be assured by a lien on a specific part of the revenue, was suggested, and it was also insisted that all outstanding treasury notes and other government securities should be heavily taxed. The secretary of the treasury found it a difficult task to provide a sufficiency of money for the extraordinary demands of the government, and saw with chagrin the Confederate notes depreciate until they became nearly unavailable for the purchase of food and clothing for the army.

In the extremity many expedients were tried. Among them an act was passed during the early part of 1863 by which the government was authorized to seize or to impress produce necessary for the army. The act provided for payment at a price fixed by State commissioners and the impressment officials were forbidden to take supplies which were necessary for family use or on the way to market for immediate sale. But the enforcement of the impressment created excitement and produced discontent. Producers accustomed to sell their products at the market price were not satisfied with the rate fixed by government, and while the majority obeyed the law there were evasions which greatly embarrassed the officers in charge of its execution. Delays and waste, with occasional abuses, hindered the operation of this plan to regulate prices and to sustain the Confederate currency.

The strain of two years on the machinery of railroads