| Bureau of Subsistence |
| Richmond, July 21, 1864 |
| |
| Hon. James A. Seddon |
| Secretary of War |
| |
| Sir, |
| I have the honor to ask your
attention to the following considerations: |
| The railroads now have no
difficulty in bringing on whatever is offered; such is the report of
the Quartermaster's Department. The purchasing commissaries at the
south for one or two months past have been unable to collect
subsistence. Funds insufficiently furnished do not suffice to
furnish outstanding engagements. The people have seen the
commissioners of appraisement fixing prices in relation to their
view of the depreciation of the currency, thereby aggravated, and
producers look for further advance without limit, and only part with
their commodities when money is needed for payment of taxes and
current-expenditure, preferring an appreciating article to a
depreciating currency. |
| Commissaries, therefore,
cannot buy even if supplied with funds, and without them cannot
impress. The law requires payment after all the preliminary
difficulties have been surmounted, but the people South do not pay
much regard to notices of impressment, oppose the process, and make
other dispositions of their goods, refusing information thereon,
while the civil law gives no remedy to unpopular proceedings
instituted by officers in these cases. In addition to these
difficulties the late schedule of Virginia for July and August will
have a reflex action on the other States, and the poor, as usually
happens, will be victims, including soldiers' families. |
| It is not to be expected
that the first of a new crop (after that crop has been surely made)
should outsell the grain when consumption has exhausted partially
the surplus secured. |
| The estimated fund required
by this Bureau to last till the next session of Congress was based
on the cost of $2 per ration; its actual cost now is over $6. The
means appropriated to meet the requisitions per month are not by
one-third of what was the estimated expenditure per month authorized
by the last law of Congress making appropriations for this Bureau.
The requisitions made and unpaid are over $20,000,000 for this
Bureau. Furthermore, the law respecting hospital commutations has
created an expenditure needless and enormous, and the purchase of
wheat and corn at $30 and $24, respectively, by the Virginia
schedule and the reflex action on the other States referred to above
calls for an expenditure which astounds and defies calculation. |
| The producers themselves who
have not become blind by avarice see bankruptcy impending and attach
no value to money so recklessly spent. The poor cannot buy at all,
and the Treasury will be hopelessly wrecked. |
| As an illustration, in one
of the counties I understand the court has appointed a committee to
fix the market value of wheat, and they have placed it at $50 per
bushel under the stimulus of the commissioners of appraisements,
whose decrees have hitherto been below market prices, though in the
present schedule they have aimed at reaching them by consulting men
competent to deal in such matters, and, I understand, by adding near
50 per cent. to the point concluded on. |
| This action should be at
once revised. The amount of currency in circulation warrants no such
prices. The scarcity here has been simply the measure of the
difficulty of transportation hither of corn from the South. There
has been always enough of breadstuff in the land to feed all the
people and the Army. Furthermore, this appraisement in its
consequent effects simply gives all the bonded agriculturists
exemptions free. |
| Under present circumstances
the Army cannot be subsisted, and immediate action is necessary and
obvious. |
| Respectfully, your obedient
servant, |
| L. B. Northrop |
| Commissary-General |
| |
|
Indorsement |
| July 31, 1864 |
| It is more easy to see the
mischief here than provide the remedy. The only true corrective is
in a sounder and more acceptable currency. |
| J. A. S. |
| Secretary |
|