“Be he miser or patriot”

NY Herald maps Richmond, November 1861

Here’s an example of an individual state trying to deal with the Confederacy’s rapid increase in the money supply. The Virginia Legislature was working on a scheme that would allow the national government to slow the printing of money by relying instead on loans and taxation. The loans would be from individual states and capitalists of the Confederacy. Each state would have a quota. The editors question whether the capitalists would go along with the plan, but argue that the rich should loan the money either out of self-interest or patriotism.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch October 12, 1863:

Confederate currency and credit.

The depreciation of the Confederate currency, and the train of evils which flow from it, have occasioned very deep concern. The Legislature of Virginia directed its attention to the subject immediately it assembled. The finance committee of that body has had it under consideration and has consulted the financial officers of the Government, the presidents of the banks, and experienced commercial men, as to the best means to remedy those evils, already so grievous, and which threaten still greater inconvenience and distress.

We learn upon good authority that this committee has taken into favor a scheme framed by a prominent bank officer of the city (we may say Mr. Macfarland) which has for its object the diminution of the Confederate paper circulation, the stop page of the manufacture of paper money by the Government, and the resort after a time exclusively to taxation and the sale of bonds to meet the Government expenses. A scheme that will achieve those important ends will be hailed with satisfaction by the whole country, and must confer the greatest benefits upon the people and the Government. It is simple enough, but needs the concurrence of capitalists and the public to be carried into operation. It is a proposed loan of $200,000,000 to the Confederacy by the people and the States. For instance, the quota of Virginia, some $40,000,000, is to be made up of $25,000,000 by capitalists, and $15,000,000 by the State. –The State’s part to be raised by sale of bonds. It is assumed that such a loan to the Government will enable it to stop its manufacture of notes, and to gradually curtail its circulation:–its large revenue from taxation, and its liberal receipts from the tax in kind, keeping it,–favored as it will be by a very great reduction in the cost of everything from a reduction of the amount of its circulation — so nearly supplied with means for the war that it can readily sell its bonds to meet the deficit.

Whether or not the scheme will achieve this much cannot be known with certainty until it is tried. But it meets with the approval of some of the wisest financiers and bankers in the State, as well as some of the soundest political economists; and there should be no hesitation to try it. It cannot fail to improve greatly, and most opportunely, the circulating medium, and consequently to diminish most advantageously to the people and the Southern cause the cost of living. If it should not do all that is expected of it, it will, beyond all question, do this, and therefore it would amply reward the country.

Will Southern capitalists invest? (bond authorized by CSA Congress in February 1863)

The question is, will capitalists agree to invest a part of their immense gains during this war in Confederate bonds? If they will do so the States will promptly do the part allotted to them in assisting the Government out of its difficulty. Every argument of self-interest, as well as patriotism, appeals to them to rally at once to the support of the Government. If the public credit is maintained they secure their large profits against the day of peace. If it is not, they will lose them irretrievably in the gulf of repudiation. We have not room to elaborate the arguments — such as the enhancement of the value of the credits they hold, so that they, in fact, part with nothing in lending to the Government; the reducing of the prices of all necessaries; the restoration of confidence; the encouragement of industry, and the establishment of cheerfulness and contentment in lieu of discontent and distrust in the public mind — We are enlisted in a cause dearer to us than life; for we peril our lives in it. –Does the man of means prize his money more than he does the blood of his children and relatives? Then let him make good his riches by helping to sustain the credit of the Government and purify the currency. If he thinks more of his country — If he considers the life streams of his own offspring dearer than the savings from his industry or his speculations — he will freely give these last to his country to help it in the prosecution of the war, that it may be terminated at the earliest day and with the greatest economy of the precious blood and the treasure of the nation. Every man who has a dollar to spare should give it heartily with some of these motives. Be he miser or patriot — a devotee of mammon or a true Christian and loyal citizen — he should not hesitate.

The proposition, we anticipate, will be laid before the Legislature at an early day. It is one that demands the promptest and most serious consideration. To be of service it must be speedily put in force. The evils it is proposed to remedy are growing with fearful rapidity. The circulation must be diminished — the system of meeting public expenses by manufacturing money must be checked or terminated, or affairs will arrive sooner than we imagine at a dead lock. The war cannot stop, indeed; but ruin will come upon the country in its financial matters, and distress will fall heavily upon all classes. What will become of the speculator? He cannot escape the storm. He must lose all as well as other people. Reduce the circulation — make one dollar worth as much as seven are now — reduce by consequence the cost of living — and you have also, by consequence, increased supplies, which will be better diffused — improved industry — better spirits amongst the people — added energy in the public defence, and renewed vigor and determination everywhere. The crisis demands an effort to accomplish all this. No man is true to his country — no man is true to his own interests and his own honor, who with holds his influence and his efforts from these objects at a time like this.