| From the Chronicle & Sentinel (Augusta,
Ga.) |
| |
| April 12, 1865 |
| |
| A Letter From the Chief Commissary |
| Office Chief Commissary |
| Augusta, Ga., April 3, 1865 |
| |
| Editors Constitutionalist, |
| I having been applied to for
permits to allow shipments of family supplies on railroads leading to
this point, these permits I have refused for the simple reason that I
have no power to permit a thing over which I have no particle of
authority, to grant the permit would imply a right to prohibit. I know
of no law which gives to the Chief Commissary or any of his subordinate
officers any right to control the railroad transportation unless private
freight is being carried in preference to Government freight, and then
it is a question to be settled with railroad officers, and not with
private citizens. The only right which I have not common to every
citizen is to impress when I cannot purchase at market rates the
supplies necessary for the army, and from this power "family supplies"
are expressly excepted. |
| ***** |
| Respectfully, |
| R. J. Moses, Major |
| Chief Commissary State of Georgia |
|