factions, under such restrictions was eventually constrained, in October, 1857, to apply for extraordinary powers. These were granted, Nov. 4th, 1857, and, on the 1st of December, he was proclaimed constitutional president. Troubles were, however, multiplying around him. The army, with the exception of a single brigade, had been alienated from him; and on the 17th of December this brigade declared against the new constitution, but named him as chief of a new Government. On the 11th of January, 1858, however, they discarded him altogether, and a bloody insurrection broke out that day in the capital, which lasted for ten days. Gen. Comonfort appointed Juarez, then president of the Supreme Court, provisional president, and attempted, by taking the field in person, to retrieve his fortunes, but in vain. On the 21st of January, his capital was in the hands of the insurgents, and he fled with Juarez to Guanajuato, where the latter convened a Congress to take measures to reinstate Comonfort. Meantime, the insurgents and church party had appointed Gen. Zuloaga provisional president, and Comonfort, finding that he could do nothing more for his country, escaped from Mexico, in Feb. 1858, and sailed for the United States, and thence repaired to France. Soon after the success of his friend Juarez, who, in 1859, triumphed over Miramon and the church party, and upon the first movement of the French for the invasion of his country, Comonfort returned thither, and offered his services to Juarez, who at once appointed him chief commander of the troops. In this position, his skill, bravery, and loyalty won him the respect of the French forces, as well as of his own troops. He was murdered by a gang of bandits while on his way to San Luis Potosi.

*

OFFICERS OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT.

EXECUTIVE:-Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, President; A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President.

Aids to President-Col. Wm. M. Browne, of Georgia; Col. James Chestnut, of South Carolina; Col. Wm. P. John ston, of Kentucky: Col. Joseph C. Ives, of Mississippi; Col. G. W. C. Lee, of Virginia; Col. John T. Wood.

Private Secretary to President-Burton N. Harrison, of Mississippi. DEPARTMENT OF STATE:-J. P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, Secretary of State; L. Q. Washington, Chief Clerk. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE:-George Davis, of North Carolina, Attorney-General; Wade Keyes, of Alabama, Assist ant Attorney-General; Rufus R. Rhodes, of Mississippi, Commissioner of Patents; G. E. Nelson, of Georgia, Superintendent of Public Printing; R. M. Smith, of Virginia, Public Printer.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT:-C. G. Memminger, of South Carolina, Secretary of Treasury; Robert Tyler, Register; E. C. Elmore, Treasurer; J. M. Strother, of Virginia, Chief Clerk; Lewis Cruger, of South Carolina, Comptroller; B. Baker, of Florida, First Auditor; W. H. S. Taylor, of Louisiana, Second Auditor.

WAR DEPARTMENT:-James A. Seddon, of Virginia, Secretary of War; Judge J. A. Campbell, of Alabama, Assistant Secretary of War; R. G. H. Kean, Chief Bureau of War; Gen. S. Cooper, Adjutant and Inspector-General; Lient. Col. J. Withers, Lieut-Col. H. L. Clay, Major E. A. Palfrey, Major Charles H. Lee, Major S. W. Melton, Captain Reilly, Assistant Adjutants and Inspector-Generals; Brig.-Gen. A. R. Lawton, of Georgia, Quartermaster-General; Col. L. B. Northrop, of South Carolina, Commissary. General; Col. J. Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance; S. P. Moore,

of which have not happened to any such people in modern days. With a currency which had become nearly worthless, a Government that seized upon supplies for the army with a ruthless hand, a railway system so worn as to be incapable of transporting troops and supplies of food for the army and people promptly, its most fertile regions desolated and a scarcity in the entire crops, a blockade so stringent as to cut off the outer world, a conscription that took every man between eighteen and fortyfive into the army, a formidable power claiming their allegiance, invading their towns and States, offering liberty to their slaves, enrolling them in its armies, and defying their retaliation; their strongholds captured, their territory divided, their armies defeated in the field with thousands slain, and the prisoners captured-being large in numbers-held without exchange, the territory growing less and less, themselves unrecognized among nations; any other people than those reared under American institutions would have succumbed--would have proposed terms of peace.

The currency of the Confederate States has, during the year, exerted a most unfavorable influence on their internal affairs, and very seriously diminished their hopes of ultimate success in the war.

At the commencement of hostilities, the impression was universal that the war would be short. The most distinguished politicians, the wisest commercial men and capitalists of all classes, indeed every household, acted upon this view. Hence, every one was soon embarrassed for the want of hundreds of small articles, which might have been procured at cheap rates if the parties had been able to look only a few months into the future. This same short-sightedness controlled the financial affairs of the Confederacy. Its loans were to be in bonds, and its currency was to be paper. The capital invested in the bonds was drawn principally from banks, from merchants who had been driven out of business, and from trust estates and charitable institutions. Such sources were soon exhausted, and it became impossible to make further progress in bonding by appeals to the patriotism of the people, in consequence of their peculiar habits. There were no great money capitalists in the community. The capital of the people consisted mainly in lands and negroes, and the habits of the wealthy for generations had kept them in one channel-that of producing cotton, tobacco, and

M. D., Surgeon-General; C. H. Smith, M. D., Assistant Surgeon-General.

NAVY DEPARTMENT:-S. B. Mallory, of Florida, Secretary of the Navy; E. M. Tidball, Chief Clerk; Com. John M. Brooke, Chief of Ordnance; Com. A. B. Fairfax, Inspector of Ordnance; Com. J. K. Mitchell, in charge of Orders and Detail; Surgeon W. A. W. Spotswood, Chief of Medicine and Surgery; Paymaster J. DeBree, Chief of Clothing and Provisions.

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT:-J. H. Reagan, of Texas, Postmaster-General: H. St. George Offutt, of Virginia, Chief of Conreyance Bureau; B. N. Clements, Chief of Appoint ment Bureau; John L. Harrell, of Alabama, Chief of Fi nance Bureau; B. Fuller, of North Carolina, Chief Clerk.

caused much discussion among the public men as to the cause and the remedies. Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, in a published letter, presented the following views:

The first great error was in attempting to carry on a great and expensive war solely on credit-without taxation. This is the first attempt of the kind ever made by a civilized people. The result of the experiment will hardly invite its repetition. During the first year of its existence, the present Congress neither levied nor collected a single cent of taxes, and postponed the collection of those levied for the second year to a period fatally too late to support our currency.

The second error naturally resulted from the first, and consummated the destruction of public credit. This error was the use of the public credit almost exclusively in the form of currency. The natural result of this policy was plain, inevitable, overwhelming. It is a well-settled and sound principle in currency that a nation which has a sufficient quantity of circulating medium properly to answer the wants of its trade and commerce, cannot add to the value of that currency by any further addition to its quantity. In the ordinary state of trade, any excess of the proper quantity exhibits itself in the form of the exportation of bullion-any deficiency, in importation. When, from any cause whatever, the operation of this law is prevented, any redundancy of currency must necessarily depreciate the whole mass, and this depreciation will exhibit itself in the rise in price of all commodities which it circulates. It is also true that if this redundant currency exists in the form of paper money not convertible into coin at the will of the holder, the measure of this depreciation is the difference between the standard or mint price of bullion and the market price when paid in this currency.

Tested by these plain and sound principles, the solution of the causes of our present financial troubles is easy. When this revolution commenced, our currency was in excess of the wants of society. The proof is that nearly all of the banks within the Confederate States had suspended cash payments, and their notes were depreciated; therefore, the first Treasury note which was put into circulation added its nominal value to this excess; each succeeding issue enlarged it, and increased the depreciation of the whole mass. This depreciation soon began to manifest itself in the rise of commodities; yet the Government has unwisely continued daily by a forced circulation to add to this excess, increase the depreciation, and enhance the price of all the commodities which it is compelled to purchase, and is thus exhausting the national resources in the ratio of geometrical progression.

This ruinous policy would have long since run its course but for the fact that law, intimidation, and, above all, the ardent, sincere, honest but mistaken patriotism of the people have been invoked to uphold it. But the principle being radically wrong, no human power could uphold it long, and in spite of all these powerful proofs, our national currency is depreciated more than one thousand per cent. below gold and silver, four hundred per cent. below suspended bank notes, and prices and payments are rapidly adjusting themselves to the inexorable facts.

Others denounced the Government for the existing state of affairs, but all agreed that the evil consisted in the excess of paper money. The problem to be solved was to sustain the operations of the Government, and at the same time reduce the volume of the currency. Mr. Toombs suggested the following measures:

This depreciation of currency having been shown to have resulted chiefly from the excessive issue of Treasury notes, we can only correct this evil by stopping instantly any further issue under any pretence whatever, and by reducing as rapidly as possible our present outstanding issues. It requires large, compre

hensive, and efficient measures for their continual deduction, until they shall rise in value, and approximate ard value of gold and silver. as nearly as our circumstances will allow to the stand

Taxation and loans are the only means of attaining this result-taxation, comprehensive, simple, rigid, and equal. The present tax law does not possess these qualities-it is partial, unequal, and complex; it fosters vulgar prejudices, and will gather an abundant harvest of frauds and perjuries. The tax in kind and principle is subject to many grave objections. This mode of taxation should never be resorted to when the currency is redundant, but with all its faults may be a necessary evil whenever there is a great deficiency in the circulating medium. The execution of such a law is necessarily difficult, irritating, wasteful, and productive of much fraud.

But certainly, in our present condition, the war cannot be carried on and the currency sustained by taxation alone; we must resort to loans. I am not in the least discouraged by the ill success of the Government lately in funding its Treasury notes. Treasury notes are in great excess; the holders are anxiously hunting for a safe and profitable investment for them. The Government is perfectly able to supply that want; We must issue new heretofore it has not done so. bonds with principal and interest payable in gold and silver, or their equivalent, and adopt measures to make such payment certain. This can be done by mortgaging a specific portion of the revenue to the new bondholders, adequate to the payment of both principal and interest as each may respectively fall due, coupled with clear provisions that their taxes shall be irrepealable until the mortgages are paid, and that these taxes shall only be paid in gold or the coupons of the bonds for which they are pledged.

By making the provision for our bonds ample at the beginning, so that no future legislation shall be necessary to preserve the public faith, we give the public creditor the best possible security for his money

which we are able to offer. The overthrow of Government will be his only danger; that cannot be provided against.

Mr. Oldham, of Texas, later in the year, proposed a plan in Congress, the main feature of which was the levy of such a tax as would extinguish a large portion of the debt. The feature of it was a tax on all outstanding Treasury notes and other securities of the Government. This is similar to the plan suggested in his message to Congress by Mr. Davis. (See PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.)

Another scheme proposed was the following: First, a continued money tax should be levied to pay the interest of our debt; and second, the levy of a tax or forced loan of twenty-five per cent., or as much more as may be needed, upon the property of the country, the taxpayers to receive either seven or eight per cent. bonds for such forced loan. I would suggest that the bonds bear not a less rate of interest than seven per cent., this being less than the average rate of interest in the different States. This tax should be distributed equally upon the wealth of every individual in the Confederacy, to be collected in sums sufficient first to absorb the present currency, and next to provide for millions. the future wants of Government up to fifteen hundred

I believe there are few men of property who could not raise the money to pay this tax, having bonds to hypothecate. But it would not be necessary to require cash from individuals. A tax note would be taken. This tax note, having a prior lien over all other debts, and in addition having the bonds collaterals attached, would command money anywhere, and be at a premium, until our currency became equal to gold and silver. They would be negotiable here and in every other country. Such an assumption of our national debt by the wealth of our country would silence the

now undercurrent hints at final repudiation, and raise our bonds to the highest standard in all European markets.

If this tax or forced loan be levied equally on all the wealth of our country, its necessity, justice, and propriety will commend it to everybody, for all would see that it is better to give up even half of our estates than to become a conquered people and lose all.

The following is another view that was presented:

When the first excitement of war stirred the patriotism of the people, it was believed that every man able to bear arms would volunteer, and it was equally believed that every dollar of property would be willingly held subject to the call of the Government. But disappointment has attended both expectations; and as the conscription act was necessary for the army, so a property conscription act has become equally necessary for the Treasury. Funding and volunteering both "played out" about the same time, and as the Government found it necessary to abandon volunteering, and to resort to compulsory conscription, to make all men bear their proper part of the burdens of the army, so now it has become necessary for the money arm of the Government to abandon voluntary funding, and to resort to compulsory loans upon the property of the people.

Two expedients only remain to the Governmentthe forced loan and the public sale of Confederate bonds for what they will bring, both to be accompanied with a cessation of the issue of Confederate Treasury notes.

The most serious consequence which resulted from the depreciation of the currency, was the refusal of the agriculturists to sell their produce for the Government notes, or to sell only at the highest price. This determination, if adhered to, would result in the destruction of the army from a lack of supplies, and the starvation of the people who were engaged in other industrial pursuits in towns and cities. In an ticipation of this danger, an act was passed by Congress in the beginning of the year, which authorized the Government to seize or impress all the produce necessary for the army. It provided that a board of commissioners should be appointed in each State, who should determine, every sixty days, the prices which the Government should pay for each article of produce impressed within the State. A central board of commissioners was also appointed for all the States. The act authorized the agents of the Government to seize all the produce of the farmer, except so much as was necessary to maintain himself and family. For this duce the agent paid at the rate fixed by the State commissioners. The operation of the act created an unparalleled excitement among the people. A farmer in Louisa county, Virginia, thus wrote, on October 23d, to the papers at Richmond:

pro

You speak of the tardiness with which the farmers are sending forward their crop of wheat. I do not know how it may be in other counties, but so far as Louisa is concerned, there is none to send, as the Government has taken the entire crop. As far as I have heard from, it has all been sent to Richmond on Government account, at the fixed price of five dollars per bushel, barely leaving sufficient for seed and family use. All the hay and oats have long since been hauled off to our army in Orange and Culpepper.

Another farmer, on James river, at the same time, wrote as follows:

I see that you and other papers state that there is no wheat in the city mills, and none arriving; and you blame the farmers. You write in ignorance of the facts. The farmers are not blamable. The Government agents have impressed all the wheat, and flour and beef in this region, which was destined for Richmond. I suppose the same is the case all over the State. This will explain to you why no wheat arrives-the farmers have none to send-it has been seized by Government agents. Look to them. JAMES RIVER.

Soon after the act authorizing impressment took effect, instructions were issued from the War Department regulating this proceeding. The details upon which difficulty arose became the subject of further instructions. The following explains some of these details, and shows the severity with which the law might be enforced:

General Orders, No. 19.

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
RICHMOND, VA., March 19th, 1863.

In consequence of numerous applications made by various persons to the War Department, it is obvious that some misconception in regard to the instructions of the Secretary of War, in relation to the impressment of supplies, must exist on the part of the people, or that the agents of the Government have violated their instructions. Now, therefore, for the purpose of removing such misconception, and to prevent any violation of these instructions, it is hereby ordered:

I. That no officer of the Government shall, under any circumstances whatever, impress the supplies which a party has for his own consumption, or that of his family, employés, or slaves.

II. That no officer shall at any time, unless specially ordered so to do by a general commanding, in a case of exigency, impress supplies which are on their way to market for sale on arrival.

III. These orders were included in the instructions

originally issued in relation to impressment by the Secretary of War; and the officers exercising such authority are again notified that "any one acting without or beyond" the authority given in those instructions, will be held strictly responsible.

In conformity with the foregoing, to prevent any inconsiderate action on the part of officers or agents charged with the duty of impressment, they are enjoined, until further orders (which will not be given unless under imperative exigencies for the supply of the army), not to impress any necessaries of subsistence to man, owned by producers, in transitu to market, or after arriving at market, unless retained an unreasonable time from sale to consumers. By order,

(Signed)

S. COOPER, Adj't and Insp.-Gen.

At a meeting of the board of commissioners for impressment in the Confederate States, held at Augusta, Georgia, near the close of the year, the following regulations, among others, were adopted:

That the practice of the Confederate Government's agents in making contracts for the purchase of manufactures and other articles for the army, at higher prices than those adopted by the several boards of commissioners in the different States, is highly reprehensible, injurious to the Government, and should be stopped at once by the Secretary of War.

Resolved, That the habit which prevails in many sections of the Confederacy, with the quartermasters and commissaries and their agents, in impressing articles for private consumption in families, is contrary to the acts of Congress regulating impressments, and should be prohibited by the War Department

Resolved, That in impressing articles of food and forage for the army, the agents of the Government should exercise a discretion, and impress in those sections of the different States where food and forage are most abundant.

Resolved, That in those parts of the country where the provision crop is short, and will not more than supply the wants of the country, the tithes due the Government should be commuted for in money, and left for the supply of soldiers' families and other destitute persons at Government prices.

Resolved, That upon the true construction of the act of Congress regulating the matter, the price of no article manufactured for the use of the Government under the said act can be more than seventy-five per cent. on the cost of production, excluding the cost of the raw material, which should only be reimbursed without a profit thereon.

The effect of these measures was to create a difficulty in procuring food for both army and people. Both suffered. Innumerable methods were resorted to for the purpose of saving property from impressment. Hundreds of producers were driven to sell clandestinely or openly their stores to non-producers out of the army, who were willing and anxious to pay fifty or a hundred per cent. more than the Government paid. The effect upon the spirit of the people was shown in the declarations of the press, the speeches of public men, and those made in the House of Congress.

"These arbitrary impressments of Government," said the press, "touch the people's pride and sense of justice; and they effect a great and natural change in their sentiments toward the cause. Men who, in a romantic and pious enthusiasm for their country, have cheerfully given up their sons to the battle, and have assisted with a sort of mournful pride in the burial of their offspring slain on the field, have had their feelings and temper toward the Government suddenly changed by the rude and rapacious action of the Government pressgangs. They make this natural reflection, whether a good cause, administered in wrong and rapacity, can succeed; and these impressments have done more to shake the confidence of the country in the capacity of its public men in civil office for administering affairs than any other cause and all causes combined."

While numerous commissioners, post quartermasters, and other Government agents practised gross abuses, oppressed the people, and caused starvation to threaten whole villages and towns, and thus brought odium upon the Government, the Government itself was guilty of many abuses. The impressment law was enforced at the same time that the tithe or produce tax was in process of collection. The tithes were often waiting for the tithe gatherer, and even rotting for lack of his approach. Great delay often occurred in collecting or transporting Government supplies after they had been purchased, and waste and destruction were the consequence.

The following remarks by ex-Senator Toombs, of Georgia, in the Hall of the Assembly of that State, on November 13th, present a very complete view of the operation of the impressment:

"I have heard it frequently stated, and it has

been maintained in some of the newspapers in Richmond, that we should not sacrifice liberty to independence; but I tell you, my countrymen, the two are inseparable. If we lose our liberty we shall also lose our independence; and when our Congress determined to support our armies by impressment, gathering supplies wherever they found them most convenient, and forcing them from those from whom their agents might choose to take them, in violation of the fundamental principles of our Constitution, which requires all burdens to be uniform and just, and paying for them such prices as they choose, they made a fatal blunder, which cannot be persisted in without endangering our cause, and probably working ruin to our Government. The moment they departed from the plain rule laid down in the Constitution-that impressment of private property should only be made in cases where absolute necessity required them-they laid the foundation for discontent among the people, they discouraged labor, and incorporat ed a principle which is not only in violation of the Constitution, but fatal to the rights of property. The Constitution cannot be dispensed with in time of war any more than in time of peace. If it is overthrown we are already conquered. Liberty is lost when a man holds his life, liberty, and property, not under the law, but at the mere pleasure of another. Stand, therefore, by the Constitution of your country, which you have sworn to support, and which all the public officers have sworn to support, from the President down to the lowest officer in the country. There is duty, safety, and honor in that course. I hope to stand by it, in peace or in war, through evil as well as through good report.

"Then when you come to levy burdens, it matters not how heavy they be, if they are necessary, so they be just. If five per cent. of the wealth of the country will answer, take only that; but if ten, or twenty, or fifty per cent. are necessary, if the last dollar of the country, and the last drop of blood are necessary, take that; for I would rather see this whole country the cemetery of freemen than the inhabitation of slaves. Therefore it is not a question how much shall be levied for the support of our Government, but only that your levies be just and uniform. The citizens of this country demand that they shall be permitted to bear their just proportion of the burdens that may be necessary in the achievement of our independence. They demand that if provisions are necessary for the support of our armies in the field; if horses are necessary; if clothing, if property of any kind is needed-they demand that the burden of supplying it shall not fall on a few individuals, but on society at large, and in just and uniform proportion on all. It is the right, the privilege, as well as the duty of all, to bear a just and equal portion of the demands of the Govern