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458 The sale of goods for the Southern market, and the active or surreptitious encouragement of blockade-running, were, however, very venial offences compared with some others that were committed by people at the North, who professed to be eager for the subjugation of the South. Now that the war is over, a good many who made money by supplying the South with contraband articles, other than munitions of war, can afford to laugh at the perils they then ran, and to tell, without fear, of the kind of business they were engaged in. As the reader, however, will discover, there was an immense amount of evil and rascality going on, and some of the most trusted officers of the government were engaged in transactions concerning which there could not possibly be two opinions. With some of these transactions I had considerable to do, and I was cognizant of undiluted villany that unveiled depths of human depravity such as I never would have believed to be possible, had I not been brought in such close contact with it.

It may be thought by some who read this part of my narrative that I was as much in fault as those with whom I consented to associate for the purpose of accomplishing the object I had in view. I do not despair, however, of finding readers, even in the Northern States, who will be able to take a liberal and charitable view of my course, and to consider that I was acting as best I knew how to promote the success of a cause which I felt to be a just one, and that I considered myself as justified in doing the Federals all the injury I could, and in promoting the interest of the Confederacy by every means in my power. I am willing, therefore, to brave the censure of some, and the only partial approval of others, for the sake of making my narrative complete, and of putting upon record some very curious features of the great contest between the North and the South.

These things have, many of them, never been told before, although dark hints with regard to them have been dropped from time to time. They, however, are far from being unimportant, as they exerted an influence, more or less potent, on the progress of the war, and no history of the great contest will be complete unless they are understood and a proper consideration given them.