Today in History:

507 Series I Volume XV- Serial 21 - Baton Rouge-Natchez

Page 507 Chapter XXVII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.

their government and establishing a new one with the unanimity which has characterized the people of the Confederate States. Not even the men of '76, those forefathers whom we are accustomed to think of as battling with undivided hearts for a severance from the Crown and the independence of their nation, approached so near to perfect unity as ourselves, in this struggle against a foe more malignant and vindictive than the one confronted by them. In the revolt of the Colonies whole districts were inhabited by tories, who strove to throttle the infarct liberties of their countries and bind her by fetters to the throne. In our struggle they are ready to be met, but though very few in number they exist and with a hate of our Government not exceeded by the hate of their predecessors to the Government of George Washington. They can be tolerated no longer. If they did not wish to live under the Confederate Government they were warned by its President a year ago that they were at liberty to depart. They have made their option. They cannot live here and disregard our laws. They can neither hold property nor enjoy liberty if they disown the Government which protects the one and insures the other. This would be true even in ordinary circumstances, but when the foe who aims at our subjugation is pressing our soil short must be the shrift of those who stand ready to welcome him.

All possible vigilance must therefore be exercised for the detection of these spies and salaried informers and for their apprehension. All citizens should report to the nearest authorities the names and the proof or the grounds of suspicion. Nor must less rigor be enforced in the cases of those persons who have not obeyed the President's warning. Strangers must give a satisfactory account of themselves; the doubtful must be closely watched; the disloyal must be imprisoned, and when found guilty of treason must be held liable to the penalty due to that capital crime.

CONFEDERATE NOTES THE CURRENCY OF OUR COUNTRY.

Manifold are the inducements presented by the enemy to begin trading with him. As temptations to you to thus violate your sacred duty as citizens of the Confederate States he offers high prices for your products, which he promises to pay in gold and silver. With equal assiduity he is engaged in efforts to depreciate the currency of your country. He forgets that every Confederate bond is a record and a certificate of a sum that has been contributed by generous and confiding citizens to secure the independence of their country; that every Confederate note is the evidence that thus much of the wealth of the people has been loaned to the Government to help it in its struggle; that all the resources of a republic of ten millions of people, occupying a vast territory of unsurpassed productiveness, are pledged for their redemption; that they constitute a currency that measures the value of all your property, and that custom and loyalty recognize them as a legal tender. They are received and paid as such by all patriots. He who refuses to receive them in the payment of a debt or in exchange for what he offers for sale does a direct injury to our sacred cause, fans and latent sparks of treason, and gives indirect aid an comfort to the ruthless enemy who invades our soil, ravages our coasts, insults our mothers, wives, and daughters, and tyrannizes over our conquered cities. The refusal to take Confederate money, if general, would at once paralyze our Government and put the Confederacy in imminent peril. Such refusal affords a presumption of disloyalty, and the plea of ignorance is but a slight palliation of the grave offense.


Page 507 Chapter XXVII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.