Chapter I: Front Matter

VOL. I NO. 5
THE
MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
WITH
NOTES AND QUERIES
MAY 1905

WILLIAM ABBATT

281 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

Published Monthly $5.00 a Year 50 Cents a Number

THE MAGAZINE OF
HISTORY
WITH NOTES AND QUERIES
VOL. I MAY, 1905 NO. 5

CONTENTS

PAGE THE _BON HOMME RICHARD_ AND THE _SERAPIS_ _Frontispiece_ PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER (Second Paper) WARREN UPHAM 255 (Sec’y Minn. Historical Society) THE RECORD OF REDDING CHARLES BURR TODD 266 CIVIL WAR SKETCHES (Second Paper) Confederate Finance in Alabama WALTER L. FLEMING 274 (Prof. of History, West Va. University) THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS (First Paper) REV. LIVINGSTON ROWE SCHUYLER 283 UNPUBLISHED POEM—_The Autograph_ THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH 288 THE THIRTIETH OF MAY (_Poem_) MRS. E. M. ADAMS 289 ANTIQUITIES OF THE SOUTHWEST AND THEIR PRESERVATION PROF. EDGAR L. HEWETT 291 (Of the National Museum, Washington) JOHN PAUL JONES’ FELLOW OFFICERS EDGAR STANTON MACLAY 301 THE MOONLIGHT BATTLE—Note by the Editor. 304 BURLEIGH—AND JOHNSON’S ISLAND FREDERICK J. SHEPARD 306 (Of the Buffalo Public Library) ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS Letter of Robert Stuart to Secretary of War Spencer 316 Letter of Edgar Allan Poe to William Poe 317 Letter of Abraham Lincoln about a Deserter 320 Letter of Washington about a Deserter 320 Letter of Col. Barnard Beekman, C. S. A. 321 HISTORICAL SOCIETIES 322 COMMUNICATIONS 323 MINOR TOPICS 323 BOOK NOTICES 324

_Copyright, 1905, by William Abbatt_
Entered as second-class matter, March 1, 1905, at the Post Office at
New York, N. Y., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.

_From the original painting by Birch_

THE MOONLIGHT BATTLE

THE “_BON HOMME RICHARD_” AND THE “_SERAPIS_” SEPT. 23, 1779
]

THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

WITH NOTES AND QUERIES

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VOL. I MAY, 1905. NO. 5
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THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

II THE ROUTES OF PINEDA, NARVAEZ, AND DE SOTO AND MOSCOSO

In 1519 Alonso Alvarez de Pineda (or Pinedo) was sent as commander of an expedition of three or four sailing vessels to explore the coast of Florida and the northern half of the Gulf of Mexico, under a commission from Garay, the governor of the Spanish settlements in Jamaica. The resulting map, transmitted by Garay to Spain, gives a somewhat correctly proportioned outline of the entire gulf, with Florida, Cuba, and Yucatan inclosing it on the east; and the Mississippi is named Rio del Espiritu Santo (River of the Holy Spirit). In Harrisse’s _Discovery of North America_ (1892, p. 168), a translation from the contemporary Spanish account of this expedition says, concerning the Mississippi, that the ships “entered a river which was found to be very large and very deep, at the mouth of which they say they found an extensive town, where they remained forty days and careened their vessels. The natives treated our men in a friendly manner, trading with them, and giving what they possessed. The Spaniards ascended a distance of six leagues up the river, and saw on its banks, right and left, forty villages.”

Pineda’s map shows the Mississippi as if it had a wide mouth, growing wider like a bay in going inland, and it has no representation of the delta; but this river and the several others tributary to the gulf are all mapped only at their mouths. What he meant for the Mississippi is more clearly indicated by the map sent to Spain by Cortes and published there in 1524, which shows the Rio del Espiritu Santo flowing through two lakes close to its mouth, evidently intended to represent Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne. The same delineation of the Lower Mississippi is given also by the Turin map, of about the year 1523. Both these maps, doubtless based on information supplied by Pineda, display the course of the Mississippi above Lake Pontchartrain to a distance of apparently at least a hundred miles, where it is represented as formed by three confluent streams. Through questioning the Indians, he probably learned of the Red river, and of its northern tributary, the Black, which would be the two inflowing streams at nearly the distance mentioned from Pontchartrain.

The little ships of Pineda’s expedition therefore must be supposed, according to these maps, to have entered the Mississippi by one of its numerous outflowing navigable bayous, which, before the construction of levees, discharged a considerable part of the waters of the great river through Lakes Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and Borgne. The Indian town noted at the mouth of the river may have been at the mouth of the bayou, that is, on or near Lake Maurepas; or it may have been near the chief place of outflow from the main river, which was most probably then, as in recent times, at Bayou Manchac, 117 miles above the site of New Orleans by the course of the river, and 14 miles below Baton Rouge. There is no reason to distrust the statement that within six leagues thence up the Mississippi the Spaniards observed forty groups of temporary or permanent Indian dwellings. If the ships only entered the mouth of the bayou (or of the Amite river, through which the several bayous send their waters to the lake), being there careened and repaired, it is easy to infer that some of the Spaniards ascended the Amite and Bayou Manchac in small boats to the Mississippi, noted the width of that mighty stream, sounded its great depth, and reported its Indian villages. The delta, jutting out as a long cape, was neglected by Pineda in his mapping, which was accepted generally by cartographers. The chart of Vespucci’s first voyage, more truthful as to this river’s embouchure, had been lost and forgotten.

Harrisse, from a thorough study of records of Pineda’s cruise, concludes that he came to the Mississippi in April or May, 1519, remained at the Indian town forty days, as stated, and went onward, exploring the coast of Louisiana and Texas, in June and July. He coasted beyond the Panuco river, but turned back when he reached the neighborhood of Vera Cruz, already occupied by Cortes. The next year Pineda again voyaged to the Panuco, with many men and horses, to establish a colony, in which endeavor he and most of his company were killed by the Indians.

The next expedition noting the Mississippi river was under the command of Pamphilo (or Panfilo) de Narvaez, for exploration and colonization of the country north of the Gulf of Mexico, from Florida westward nearly to the Panuco river, over which he had been given the title of governor. Grandly but ignorantly planned, this expedition was most utterly disastrous. Out of the three hundred men who began it, only Cabeza de Vaca, the historian of their shipwrecks and wanderings, with three others, survived to reach Spanish settlements.

In April, 1528, after a stormy voyage from Cuba, Narvaez landed on the west coast of Florida, probably at Tampa Bay. Amid great hardships, the expedition, mostly afoot, but having forty horses, marched through woods and swamps, crossed rivers, found an Indian town called Apalachen, and, finally turning back, came again to the sea, probably at the site of St. Mark’s, about fifty miles east of the Appalachicola River. Not finding his ships, on which he expected to re-embark, Narvaez consulted his followers, and they decided, although destitute of tools, to construct boats and voyage westward along the coast. More than forty had died of disease and hunger, and ten had been killed within sight of their camp and boat-building, by arrows of Indian foes, before they embarked, late in September, reduced to the number of two hundred and forty-seven, in five frail vessels, to be propelled by oars, but also provided with sails. They had no adequate means to carry water, and consequently suffered terribly from thirst, as well as hunger. On the sea they were in great peril during storms; and on landing they were assailed by the Indians with stones and arrows.

About the end of October the wretched flotilla reached the Mississippi, of which Cabeza de Vaca wrote in his Relation, as translated by Buckingham Smith:

“My boat, which was first, discovered a point made by the land, and,
against a cape opposite, passed a broad river. I cast anchor near a
little island forming the point, to await the arrival of the other
boats. The Governor did not choose to come up, and entered a bay
near by in which were a great many islets. We came together there,
and took fresh water from the sea, the stream entering it in
freshet. To parch some of the maize we brought with us, since we had
eaten it raw for two days, we went on an island; but finding no wood
we agreed to go to the river beyond the point, one league off. By no
effort could we get there, so violent was the current on the way,
which drove us out, while we contended and strove to gain the land.

The north wind, which came from the shore, began to blow so strongly
that it forced us to sea without our being able to overcome it. We
sounded half a league out, and found with thirty fathoms we could
not get bottom; but we were unable to satisfy ourselves that the
current was not the cause of failure.”

During the next week the boats, being rowed and drifted westward, were separated by storms; that of Narvaez may have foundered; others were driven ashore and wrecked. Those of the men who escaped from the sea mostly perished by hunger and cold, while some were enslaved by the Indians. Cabeza de Vaca was held in servitude on and near the island where he was wrecked, probably the island of Galveston, during about six years. Thence escaping, with two Spaniards and a negro of their company, he wandered across Texas, Chihuahua, and Sonora, securing the friendly aid of the Indians all the way, and coming to Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast, near the mouth of the Gulf of California, at the end of March, 1536. The next year he returned to Spain, where his Relation was published in 1542. A map of his wanderings was made in Mexico for the viceroy, but it has not been preserved. No addition to the knowledge of the Mississippi was derived from this expedition.

Grander, equally foolhardy, and scarcely less direful in its experiences, was the expedition of Hernando (Ferdinand) de Soto, similarly planned for discoveries, conquest, and the establishment of a colonial government. He attained to a possession of the country granted to him, but only by burial in its great river.

By a strange infatuation, Cabeza de Vaca, arriving in Spain, and being questioned by his kinsfolk, gave them the impression that Florida, then including a large region northwest of the peninsula, was “the richest country in the world.” This was near the truth, if understood with reference to capabilities for agriculture; but the Spaniards pictured such wealth of gold and silver as had been recently plundered from Peru and Mexico. A soldier of fortune, De Soto, who was of noble lineage, formerly poor, but who had become suddenly rich with Pizarro from the spoils of Peru, was eager for greater wealth and power. Returning to Spain he secured appointment as governor of Cuba, with a commission to extend Spanish dominion over Florida and the country north of the Gulf of Mexico, where he was to be the feudal lord and governor. It was the same commission as that which had lured Narvaez to his death; but it was thought to be a sure passport to great wealth.

Many young gentlemen of the noblest families in Spain, and some from Elvas in Portugal, flocked to De Soto’s standard. One of the Portuguese, whose name is unknown, wrote the narrative, published in 1557, which is our chief source of information concerning the route and history of the expedition. An English translation of this Relation of “A Gentleman of Elvas,” made by Richard Hakluyt, was published in 1611, and was reprinted for the Hakluyt Society in 1851. Another translation, by Buckingham Smith, from which ensuing quotations are taken, was published in New York by the Bradford Club in 1866.

There were more volunteers than could be accepted; and after an exultant voyage to Cuba and thence to Florida, De Soto landed, with about 600 men and 213 horses, at Tampa Bay, May 30 (old style), 1539.

Almost two years were spent in marches through inhospitable forests and swamps, fording rivers, and fighting with many tribes of Indians, but finding nothing worth plundering. After much suffering in the winter camps, in the spring of 1541 the weary and wellnigh despairing expedition came to the Mississippi River, probably at the Lower Chickasaw Bluff (in Memphis, Tennessee, and extending ten miles down the east bank of the river), near the northwest corner of the present state of Mississippi, at the distance of about four hundred miles north of the Gulf, but twice as far by the tortuous watercourse. Armed Indians in two hundred canoes, coming from up the river, saluted the Spaniards, and the chief said to De Soto “that he had come to visit, serve, and obey him; for he had heard that he was the greatest of lords, the most powerful on all the earth.” The Indians were doubtless treacherous; but here, as usual, the Spaniards were the first aggressors. When the canoes drew off from the shore, “the crossbow-men, who were in readiness,” according to the Portuguese Relation, “with loud cries shot at the Indians, and struck down five or six of them.”

Delay for thirty days was required in making four large boats to transfer the cavalry and foot soldiers across the river. Beginning one morning three hours before daybreak, by many trips to and fro, they had all crossed before the sun was two hours high, effecting this important movement without molestation by their vigilant Indian enemies. Wherever they marched, the poor native people were robbed, some of them were treacherously killed, and others, taken captive, were compelled to carry burdens, or otherwise to aid the invaders. The Relation says of this river, which it calls the Rio Grande: “The distance [to cross it] was near half a league: a man standing on the shore could not be told, whether he were a man or something else, from the other side. The stream was swift, and very deep; the water, always flowing turbidly, brought along from above many trees and much timber, driven onward by its force.”

Nearly another year was spent in marches, exploration, and campaigning against the Indians, west of the Mississippi, and on April 17, 1542, De Soto came again to the Mississippi, at the Indian town of Guachoya, close below the mouth of the Arkansas river. There he sank into a deep despondency, worn out by the long series of disappointments and losses which had attended the whole course of his expedition; he became sick with malarial fever; and on May 21 he died, after appointing Luis de Moscoso as his successor in command. To conceal his death from the Indians, the body, wrapped in blankets and heavily weighted with sand, was sunk in the middle part of the Mississippi. The new governor and leader, Moscoso, then told the chief of the Guachoya Indians that De Soto “had ascended into the skies, as he had done on many other occasions; but as he would have to be detained there some time, he had left him in his stead.”

Moscoso, after consulting the other officers, decided to march southwestward, hoping to reach Mexico; and half a year was lost in going far southwest, repenting, and returning to the Mississippi at an Indian settlement called Aminoya, where the Spaniards found a large quantity of maize, indispensable for their sustenance. This place was a short distance above Guachoya, and apparently above the mouths of the Arkansas and White rivers, on the same (west) side of the great river. Seven brigantines were there built, on which, July 2, 1543, the Spaniards, reduced to three hundred and twenty-two, embarked to go down the Mississippi, taking with them about a hundred Indian slaves to be sold if they should reach Spanish settlements. Two weeks were occupied in descending the river, by rowing and the aid of the strong current, covering a distance which was estimated as about 250 Portuguese or Spanish leagues. (From the mouth of the Arkansas to the Bayou Manchac, by the course of the Mississippi, is a distance of 446 miles, and to the present mouths of the delta, 672 miles.) The debouchure of the Mississippi was described as follows:

“When near the sea, it becomes divided into two arms, each of which
may be a league and a half broad.... Half a league before coming to
the sea, the Christians cast anchor, in order to take rest for a
time, as they were weary from rowing.... [Here Indians came, in
several canoes, for an attack.]... There also came some by land,
through thicket and bog, with staves, having very sharp heads of
fish-bone, who fought valiantly those of us who went out to meet
them.... After remaining two days, the Christians went to where that
branch of the river enters the sea; and having sounded there, they
found forty fathoms depth of water. Pausing then, the Governor
required that each should give his opinion respecting the voyage,
whether they should sail to New Spain direct, by the high sea, or go
thither keeping along from shore to shore.... It was decided to go
along from one to another shore....

“On the eighteenth day of July the vessels got under weigh, with
fair weather, and wind favorable for the voyage.... With a favorable
wind they sailed all that day in fresh water, the next night, and
the day following until vespers, at which they were greatly amazed;
for they were very distant from the shore, and so great was the
strength of the current of the river, the coast so shallow and
gentle, that the fresh water entered far into the sea.”

Luis Hernandez de Biedma, a factor or agent for King Charles V, was a member of De Soto’s expedition, of which, after returning to Spain, he submitted a report in 1544. From the translation of that report, given by Buckingham Smith in the same volume with this narrative of “The Gentleman of Elvas,” we have the following considerably different description of what was thought to be the junction of the Mississippi with the gulf:

“We came out by the mouth of the river, and entering into a very large
bay made by it, which was so extensive that we passed along it three
days and three nights, with fair weather, in all the time not seeing
land, so that it appeared to us we were at sea, although we found the
water still so fresh that it could well be drunk, like that of the
river. Some small islets were seen westward, to which we went:
thenceforward we kept close along the coast, where we took shell-fish,
and looked for other things to eat, until we entered the River of
Panuco, where we came and were well received by the Christians.”

By comparing Biedma’s report with the Portuguese Relation, I am convinced that the brigantines did not pass down the Mississippi to its delta, but went out to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Bayou Manchac, Lakes Maurepas, Pontchartrain and Borgne, and Mississippi Sound. In other words, Moscoso, with his squadron, took the same passage that Pineda had taken, in 1519, for his entering the Mississippi. Several points in the two narratives need now to be explained in detail, as to their harmony with this conclusion.

First, the Indians had villages near the Bayou Manchac; but probably there were no inhabitants near the true mouth of the river, at the end of the delta. Second, under this view, we must regard the Portuguese statement of a division of the river, into two arms or branches, as referring to the large outflow, at a time of flood, to the Atchafalaya River. Instead of receiving an inflow at the junction of the Red River, the flooded Mississippi there sent out a portion of its current, by the mouth of the Red, to the Atchafalaya; which also, when the Red is at a higher stage than the Mississippi, takes a part of the current of the former, carrying it south by a much shorter course to the Gulf. Third, another statement of the Relation, noting the great depth of forty fathoms where their branch of the river “enters the sea,” must be then interpreted as found in the bend of the Mississippi from which the Bayou Manchac flows away.

In its condition of a high flood, the river there opens toward a vast expanse of water, called, by the narrator, “the sea,” reaching east over Lake Maurepas and onward to the Gulf. It seems indeed not unlikely that the Mississippi at that place may have then had even so great a depth; for in a sharp curve at New Orleans it was once found by the Mississippi River Commission to have a sounding of 208 feet. On the large scale maps recently published by the Commission, the maximum depth of the river close to the departure of the Bayou Manchac is noted as 145 feet; and in the sharp bend in the east part of New Orleans, 188 feet.

Sailing on the wide Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne, with the very low lands inclosing the latter probably then submerged, Moscoso and his men would regard all that expanse of fresh water, reaching from the Bayou Manchac nearly a hundred miles east to the Mississippi Sound, as “a very large bay” of the sea. They would consequently be surprised at the very long distance to which the Mississippi sent its waters without their becoming salt; whereas even the greatest floods could not freshen the sea very far out from the mouths of the delta. The Portuguese Relation says that the Mississippi, before the departure from Aminoya, had risen, in such a high flood, to the ground at the town, where the brigantines were built, floating them; and we may infer, with good assurance, that the same flood continued, at nearly its full height, through the next two weeks, till July 16, when they came to Bayou Manchac and the vast fresh water expanse stretching thence far to the east.

Fifty-two days were spent in slow coasting, with frequent landings, and long delays for storms and to provide shell-fish for food, between the Mississippi and the Panuco River, which was entered September 10, 1543; and there the Spanish town of Panuco welcomed the surviving three hundred and eleven of De Soto’s men.

Looking back over the history of this expedition and its results, we see that little was gained for geographic knowledge, and nothing for the honor of Spain or the extension of her colonies. With the clearer light which now enables all civilized nations to recognize the great truth of the brotherhood of all mankind, we are pained to read, throughout this narrative, of the wanton cruelties, murderous warfare, dishonesty and shameless perfidy, with which the Indians were treated by De Soto and his men from the beginning to the end of their expedition. These men were the finished product of medieval chivalry; they had mostly an inordinate self-esteem; and they called themselves Christians, and De Soto died with Christian serenity, in penitence and faith; but in their conduct toward the savages every Christian or humane sentiment was sacrificed to the love of gold and self-advancement. The first white men to voyage far on the Mississippi, and to deal largely with its native people, deemed them outside the pale of human sympathy or mercy.

No geographer, nor expert draftsman for mapping, appears to have been enlisted by De Soto in his grand company of followers. But soon after the expedition was disbanded in Mexico, testimony of those who came back to Europe was taken by some unknown compiler as the basis for a revised map of the “Gulf and Coast of New Spain.” This map, preserved at Madrid in the Archives of the Indies, was lately ascribed to the year 1521, in the exhibition sent by Spain to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. It is reproduced by Harrisse in his great work, _The Discovery of North America_, and is proved by him to belong to the end of 1543 or some later date. It shows the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, from Georgia to the Panuco river, and extends inland as far as the country was known, however vaguely, from the explorations of De Soto and Moscoso. The ultimate sources of the Mississippi river, called by Biedma and on this map the Espiritu Santo, are placed on the northwestern flank of the Appalachian mountain belt, due north of Tampa Bay. Thence two streams, meant for the Tennessee and Cumberland (or perhaps Ohio) rivers, of which De Soto had accounts from the Indians, flow west and unite to form the Espiritu Santo, near whose west bank, close below the confluence of a large tributary from the northwest, is Guachoya, the place of De Soto’s death. Many other names are also noted, mostly of towns or districts of Indian tribes, derived from his expedition. No indication of the Ohio (probably) nor the Missouri, nor of the Red river as a tributary of the Mississippi, is given by this map. Its northern boundary, beyond which it has only blank space, is at the supposed Cumberland river, and at the mountains adjoining the sources of the northwestern tributary, that is, the Arkansas river. The Mississippi empties into the Vaya (Bay) del Espiritu Santo, which is also called Mar Pequeña (Little Sea), taking the place of the lakes north of New Orleans, and thus confirming my conclusions as to Moscoso’s passage into the Gulf. Excepting the long tributaries from the northeast, no greater prominence is given to the Mississippi than to several others of the many rivers pouring into the Atlantic and the Gulf along all this coast.

Here cartography rested during a hundred and thirty years. The next contribution from exploration of the Mississippi was by Marquette’s map in 1673.

These studies, indicating that Pineda and Moscoso came and went through the large lakes north of New Orleans, answer the question asked by Dr. Walter B. Scaife in 1892, doubting that Pineda entered the Mississippi, and considering instead that the Rio del Espiritu Santo on the maps sent to Spain by Garay and Cortes represents Mobile River and Bay. This view is elaborately stated by Scaife in the Johns Hopkins University _Studies in Historical and Political Science_, Vol. XIII (Supplement, pages 139–176). Among other historians who have adopted this view are Peter J. Hamilton (in _Colonial Mobile_, 1897), and Prof. Alcée Fortier, president of the Louisiana Historical Society (in _A History of Louisiana_, 1904). But their difficulties and objections against identifying the Mississippi as the great river where Pineda careened and repaired his vessels are removed by his coming through Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas.

Not until a hundred and eighty years later, in 1699, have we any historic records of entry or departure through the delta mouths of the Mississippi. Then, on the second day of March, Iberville and Bienville, brothers destined to become illustrious by founding the French colony of Louisiana, entered the eastern mouth of the delta with rowing boats; and in September a small English frigate entered one of the mouths and ascended the river to “English Turn,” a great bend ten miles below the site of New Orleans.

WARREN UPHAM.

ST. PAUL, MINN.

(_To be continued._)

THE RECORD OF REDDING

Mr. Grumman has produced a wholly novel and unique work[1] of a character never before attempted so far as we are aware. It is a record of the services and sufferings of the Revolutionary patriots of a Connecticut town, which through its sons made history and influenced public opinion in a much greater degree than its position and importance would have promised. It is a record also of the loyalists of the town, who suffered even more for their King and Cause than did the patriots, since defeat and banishment with confiscation of their estates was their final portion.

Redding (formerly written Reading) is one of the “hill towns,” of Connecticut, seven miles from Danbury and thirteen from Bridgeport, the two “shire towns,” of Fairfield County. Its people have always been noted for brain force and intelligence. The number of its sons who have won high places in the professions, in art, literature, diplomacy, the army and navy is something remarkable. At the outbreak of the Revolution it was the seat of a polite and learned society far superior to that of the average country town of the day.

Mr. Grumman divides his book into two parts—“Military History,” (a terse and simple account of the campaigns in which Redding soldiers figured, with incidents) and “Revolutionary Soldiers and Patriots of Redding,” a series of biographies which is the larger and more valuable portion of the work. In Part I he first sketches in sharp outline the two opposing forces which the troubles with England created in Redding as elsewhere—the patriots and tories. The former organized their “American Association,” the latter—very numerous and respectable in Redding—formed their “Redding Loyalist Association,” (perhaps the first of the kind in America), in February, 1775.

“In the present critical situation of publick affairs,” to quote its preamble this Association adopted a set of “Resolves” which were published in James Rivington’s _Gazette_ for Feb. 23, 1775, as follows:—

_First._ _Resolved_, That while we enjoy the privileges and immunities
of the British Constitution we will render all due obedience to his
most Gracious Majesty King George the Third, and that a firm
dependence on the Mother Country is essential to our political safety
and happiness.

_Second._ _Resolved_, That the privileges and immunities of this
Constitution are yet (in a good degree) continued to all his Majesty’s
American subjects, except those who, we conceive, have justly
forfeited their right thereto.

_Third._ _Resolved_, That we supposed the Continental Congress was
constituted for the purpose of restoring harmony between Great Britain
and her colonies and removing the displeasure of his Majesty toward
his American subjects, whereas on the contrary some of their
resolutions appear to us immediately calculated to widen the present
unhappy breach, counteract the first principles of civil society, and
in a great degree abridge the privileges of their constituents.

_Fourth._ _Resolved_, That notwithstanding we will in all
circumstances conduct with prudence and moderation we consider it an
indispensable duty we owe to our King and Constitution, our Country
and posterity, to defend, maintain and preserve at the risk of our
lives and properties the prerogatives of the Crown, and the privileges
of the subject from all attacks by any rebellious body of men, any
Committees of Inspection, Correspondence, &c.

(“Signed by one hundred and forty one Inhabitants whose names are to
be seen at the Printer’s.”—adds Rivington.)

The effect of this document on the patriots of Redding was like that of a red rag on a bull. They at once set to work to discover its signers and presently made public in a circular the entire list so far as they belonged in Redding. It was given out by the Committee of Observation under this preamble.

“WHEREAS, There was a certain number of resolves published—and whereas
said Resolves are injurious to the rights of this Colony and breathe a
spirit of enmity and opposition to the rights and liberties of all
America and are in direct opposition to the Association of the
Continental Congress: and notwithstanding said resolutions were come
into with a (seeming) view to secure the said signers some
extraordinary privileges and immunities, yet either through negligence
in the printer or upon design of the subscribers, said signed names
are not made publick—and now if there be any advantage in adopting
those principles we are willing they should be entitled there to; and
for which end and for the more effectual carrying into execution said
Association we have taken some pains and by the assistance of him who
carried said resolves to said Printer we have obtained the whole of
said names. But as we mean not to publish the names of any except
those who belong to said Reading, their names are as follows.”

Some seventy-four names follow, and then this note:

“There are only forty two Freeholders in the above number; there are
several minors, &c., to make the above number of seventy four that
belong to said Reading, and we hereby hold them up to the publick as
opposers to the Association of said Congress.

Signed by order of the Committee of Observation for said Town of
Reading.

EBENEZER COUCH,
_Chairman_.”

The Loyalist Association met this challenge by boldly publishing in Rivington’s _Gazette_ the entire list of signers, and the battle began. The course of events very soon brought many of the loyalist signers into hearty accord with the patriots, as Mr. Grumman shows, but those who persisted were treated with such severity that they fled to the forests and caves, where they were concealed until they could escape to the British lines.

Free Masons will be interested in Mr. Grumman’s account of the making of American Union Lodge, among the officers of the Continental Line while the right wing of the Continental Army lay in winter quarters in Redding, 1778–9. “During the siege of Boston,” he says, “the meetings of the Grand Lodge ... were suspended and a commission was granted by John Rowe (the successor of Gen. Joseph Warren as Grand Master), to Col. Joel Clark of the Connecticut troops to establish a lodge within the army, which was to hold its meetings whenever convenient as the army moved from place to place.” This lodge was to be designated “The American Union Lodge.” It was accordingly organized, but the change of base to New York and the stirring events which followed seem to have prevented further meetings. Its Master, Col. Clark, died after the Long Island campaign and the Lodge appears to have lapsed until the encampment at Redding brought the Connecticut officers together with leisure to renew their fraternal relations. For this purpose the Lodge was convened early in February, in conformity to the following notice:

“On the application of a number of gentlemen, brethren of the Ancient
and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons, to the members of
American Union Lodge held by authority under the Right Worshipful John
Rowe Esq. Grand Master of all Masons in North America, where no Grand
Master is appointed, requesting that the said American Union Lodge
meet for the purpose of re-establishing the Ancient Craft in the same.
Agreeable to which a summons was issued desiring the members of the
American Union Lodge to meet at Widow Sanford’s, near Reading Olde
Meeting House, on Monday the 15th of inst. February at 4 o’clock post
m. and an invitation sent to the others, the brethren of the Ancient
and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons to attend at 5
o’clock Post m.

JONATHAN HEART,
_Secretary_.”

At this first meeting Gen. Samuel H. Parsons was elected Master in place of Col. Clark, deceased.

Several meetings of the Lodge were held while the Army lay at Redding, two of which were attended by Washington (though Mr. Grumman does not note the fact). On March 22 it held a dinner at Esq. Hawley’s, “the Rev. Dr. Evans and a number of gentlemen and ladies being present,” and a “Grand Banquet” on April 7th, four days before orders came for the Army to prepare to leave. A very full account of this is given by Mr. Grumman in a quotation from the Lodge records:

It having been voted to dine at three o’clock, at half past one the procession began as follows:

1. Br. Whitney, Outside Tyler.

2. The Wardens with white rods.

3. The youngest Brother with the Bag.

4. The Brethren by Juniority.

5. The W. Master with his Rod.

The Treasurer on his right hand supporting the Sword of Justice: the Secretary on his left supporting the Bible, Square, and Compasses.

6. Br. Peck, the Inside Tyler. Music advanced playing the Entered Apprentice March.

The W. Master and Brethren having seated themselves together with a number of respectable Inhabitants, gentlemen and ladies, the Rev. Doct. Evans delivered a discourse suitable to the occasion.

After dinner the W. Master called on Bro. Munson and others for songs and sentiments when the company were favored with the following, each song and toast being enlivened with appropriate music.

Song by Bro. MUNSON _Watery Gods_
Toast _Health of Congress_
Music _Grenadier’s March_
Song by Bro. MUNSON _Elegy on Gen. Wolfe_
Toast _Arts and Sciences_
Music _Dead March_
Mason’s Song by Bro. REDFIELD
Toast _The Good and Just_
Music _Prince Eugene_
Song by Bro. MUNSON _Colin and Phebe_
Toast _The Ladies of America_
Music _Country Jig_
Song on Masonry by Bro. MARSHALL Music _Splendor of the Morning_
Song by Bros. MUNSON and MARSHALL _The Tempest_
_With Jack the Seaman to conclude._

At six o’clock the procession returned to the Lodge room and the Lodge being opened it was,

“Voted, That the thanks of the lodge be presented in writing to the
Rev. Doct. Evans for his polite address and sentiments delivered this
day, and that Bro. Waldo wait on him with the same; also that Bro.
Waldo present our thanks to the Rev. Mr. Bartlett and to the other
gentlemen and ladies who favored the lodge with their company at
dinner.”

Todd, in his History of Redding gives one of the songs sung on this occasion.

But it is in his biographical record of the patriots and loyalists of Redding that Mr. Grumman’s book is most original and valuable. There are one hundred pages of these, compiled with an accuracy and fullness surprising to one who realizes the paucity of material of this sort now extant and the difficulty of securing it.

Joel Barlow, poet, statesman, and earlier, Chaplain in the Army was one of the most distinguished of these. Mr. Grumman has a very interesting extract from the diary of the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, dated Sept. 14, 1773, regarding young Joel’s matriculation at Moor’s preparatory school in Hanover, N. H., not given by any of the poet’s biographers so far as we are aware.

“Mr. Samuel Barlow of Reading, Mass, (Ct.?) brings his son Joel to
school. The said son is to officiate as waiter on table at meal time
and also to be at the beck of Miss Elizabeth: only in play time and
vacations to perform such errands and incidental service as she shall
have occasion for in her business, and in consideration of her
services and his to have his board, viz: eating, drinking, washing,
firewood, candles, study room and tuition.”

This Miss Elizabeth Burr was of Fairfield, Conn., near Reading, and came to have charge of Joel, and to “superintend the cooking in commons and manage the prudentials of it.” She was probably a relative and did this to aid the boy in getting an education, his father having a family of ten to provide for.

A typical Reading patriot was the Rev. Nathaniel Bartlett who served the Congregational Church there as pastor for fifty-seven years, and who when hostilities broke out brought his sword, freshly ground, to his son Daniel, and bade him go and defend his country. Another was Lemuel Sanford, who represented Redding at twenty-two sessions of the General Assembly, covering a period of twenty years, served on numerous committees and died a Judge of the County Court.

The greatest patriot of all, and one of the greatest of the historic struggle, William Heron, Mr. Grumman places among the loyalists. This man was an Irishman, born in Cork in 1742, of good family and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was the intimate personal friend of Lord Howe, and the friend and trusted adviser of Washington and Putnam. Howe’s well known leniency toward the Americans was perhaps due to him, and the minute knowledge the patriot chiefs had of the British forces, and the plans of their leaders came largely from him. He was a shrewd, tactful, forceful, brilliant man with all an Irishman’s power of blarney, and hating the British as a loyal Irishman should, he yet hoodwinked Sir Henry Clinton, and his Adjutant General, Major Oliver DeLancey, into the belief that he was secretly an adherent of the British cause, and could give them valuable information. For years—with the full knowledge of Washington and Putnam—he maintained a correspondence with them, was allowed to come into the city of New York, was dined and wined by them, went freely about the city, and obtained information of the greatest value to the patriot leaders. What information he gave the British in return was either of no great importance, or would have come to them by some other channel. In Clinton’s “Record of Private Intelligence,” discovered in London in 1882, and purchased by Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet,[2] there are several letters from this man, some of them implicating Major General Samuel H. Parsons, of Connecticut, in treasonable intercourse with the British, but this was only a part of the plot. The career of Heron during the eight years of the war would furnish material for a dozen historical romances. Mr. Grumman prints a letter from Parsons to Washington, dated Apr. 6, 1782 in which he says of him:

“He is a native of Ireland, a man of very large knowledge, and a great
share of natural sagacity united with a sound judgment, but of as
unmeaning a countenance as any person in my acquaintance. With this
appearance he is as little suspected as any man can be. An officer in
the department of the Adjutant General is a countryman and very
intimate acquaintance of Mr. Heron, through which channel he has been
able frequently to obtain important and very interesting information.”

Parsons adds that he knows him to be a consistent National Whig, always in the field in every alarm and in every trial proving himself a man of bravery. Corroborative proof of this view is found in the fact that after the war, instead of being run off to Nova Scotia with the other loyalists, Heron represented Redding in seventeen sessions of the General Assembly, and was given other offices of importance by his townsmen.

A typical loyalist of Redding was John Lyon, a farmer and business man, who owned one hundred acres of land in the town with two houses thereon, beside a half interest in a schooner and much merchandise. This man not only signed the “Reading Resolves,” but carried them to Rivington, the King’s Printer in New York, who printed them. For this act in March, 1775, he was seized by a mob, ill treated and robbed, and his merchandise at Mill River (now Southport) to the value of five hundred pounds was also seized. The persecution continued until he was obliged to fly to the British lines, where he entered the King’s service, aided in raising the “King’s Rangers,” a loyalist regiment, and acted as guide during the war. At the close of the war he fled to Nova Scotia with his wife and two sons and settled at Kingston.

In his memorial to the King from which the above facts are taken, he estimates his losses at £1,790, and was allowed £290 in satisfaction (?) thereof.

CHARLES BURR TODD.

BETHEL, CONN.

CIVIL WAR SKETCHES.

II.
CONFEDERATE FINANCE IN ALABAMA

SPECIAL APPROPRIATIONS AND SALARIES.

Besides the regular appropriations for the usual expenses of the government, there were many extraordinary appropriations. These, of course, were the war expenses and were far greater than the ordinary expenses. The chief item of these extraordinary appropriations was for the support of the indigent families of soldiers, and for this purpose about $11,000,000 was provided. For the military defense of the State several million dollars were appropriated, much of this being spent for arms and clothing for the Alabama troops, both in the Confederate and the State service. Money was granted to the University of Alabama and other military schools on condition that they furnish drill masters for the State troops without charge. Hospitals were furnished in Virginia and in Alabama for the Alabama soldiers. The gunboat _Florida_ was bought for the defense of Mobile, and $150,000 was appropriated for an ironclad ram for the same purpose. Loans were made to commanders of regiments to buy clothing for their soldiers, and the State began to furnish clothing, $50,000 being appropriated at one time for clothing for the Alabama soldiers in Northern prisons. By March 12, 1862, Alabama had contributed $317,600 to the support of the army of Northern Virginia.[3] Much was expended in the manufacture of salt in Alabama and in Virginia, which was sold at cost or given away to the poor; in the purchase of salt from Louisiana to be sold at a low price, and in bounties paid to salt-makers in the State who sold salt at reasonable prices. The State also paid for medical attendance for the indigent families of soldiers. When the records and rolls of the Alabama troops in the Confederate service were lost, money was appropriated to have new ones made. Frequent grants were made to the various benevolent societies of the State whose object was to care for the maimed and sick soldiers, and the widows and orphans. Cotton and wool cards and agricultural implements were purchased and distributed among the poor. Slaves and supplies were taken for the public service and the owners compensated.

The appropriations for the usual expenses of the government were light, seldom more than twice the appropriations in times of peace, notwithstanding the depreciated currency. The public officers who received stated salaries ranged from $1,500 to $4,000 a year in State money. In 1862, the salaries of the professors in the State University were doubled on account of the depreciated currency, the president receiving $5,000 and each professor $4,000.[4] The members of the General Assembly were more fortunate. In 1864, they received $15 a day for the time in session, and the clerks of the Legislature, who were disabled soldiers or exempt from service, or were women, were paid the same amount. The salt commissioners drew salaries of $3,000 a year in 1864 and 1865, though this amount was not sufficient to pay their board for more than six months. Salaries were never increased in proportion to expenses. The compensation, in December, 1864, for capturing a runaway slave was $25, worth probably 50 cents in coin. For the inaugural expenses of Governor Watts in 1863, $500 in paper was appropriated.[5] Many laws were passed regulating and changing the fees and salaries of public officials. In October, 1864, for example, the salaries of the State officials, tax assessors and collectors, and judges were increased 50%. Besides the general depreciation of the currency, the variations of values in the different sections of the State rendered such changes necessary. In the central part, which was safe for a long time from Union raids, the currency was to the last worth more, and the prices of the necessaries of life were lower, than in the more exposed regions. This fact was taken into consideration by the Legislature when fixing the fees of the State and county officers in the various sections.

TAXATION.

As a result of the policy adopted at the outset of meeting the extraordinary expenses by bond issues,[6] the people continued to pay the light taxes levied before the war, and paid them in paper money. Though falling heavily on the salaried and wage-earning classes, it was never a burden upon the agricultural classes, except in the poorest white counties. The poll tax brought in little revenue. Soldiers were exempt from its payment and from taxation on property to the amount of $500. The widows and orphans of soldiers had similar privileges. A special tax of 25% on the former rate was imposed on all taxable property in November, 1861, and a year later, by acts of December 9, 1862, a far-reaching scheme of taxation was introduced. Under this poll taxes were levied as follows:

White men, 21 to 60 years $0 75
Free negro men, 21 to 50 years 5 00
Free negro women, 21 to 45 years 3 00
Slaves (children to laborers in prime) $0 50 to 2 00
More valuable slaves $2 00 and up

And other taxes as follows:

Crop liens 33⅓%
Hoarded money 1%
Jewelry, plate, furniture ½%
Goods sold at auction 10%
Imports 2%
Insurance premiums (companies not chartered by State) 2%
Playing cards, pack $1 00
Gold watches, each 1 00
Gold chains, silver watches, clocks 50
Articles raffled off 10%
Legacies, profits and sales, incomes 5%
Profits of Confederate Contractors 10%
Wages of Confederate officials 10%
Race tracks 10%
Billiard tables, each $150 00
Bagatelle 20 00
Ten-pin alleys, each 40 00
Readings and Lectures, each 4 00
Peddler 100 00
“Spirit rapper,” per day 500 00
Saloon Keeper $40 to 150 00
Daguerreotypist 10 to 100 00
Slave trader, for each slave offered for sale 20 00

In 1863 a tax of 37½% was laid on Confederate and State bonds not in the hands of the original purchasers;[7] 7½% was levied on profits of banking, railroad companies, and on evidence of debt; 5% on other profits not included in the act of the year before. The tax on gold and silver was to be paid in gold and silver; on bank notes, in notes; on bonds, in coupons.[8] In December 1864, the taxes levied by the laws of 1862 and 1863 were increased by 33⅓%. Taxes on gold and silver were to be paid in kind or in currency at its market value.[9] This was the last tax levied by the State under Confederate rule. From these taxes the State government was largely supplied.

A number of special laws were passed to enable the county authorities to levy taxes-in-kind or to levy a certain amount in addition to the State tax, for the use of the county. The taxes levied by the State did not bear heavily upon the majority of the people, as nearly all, except the well-to-do and especially the slave owners, were exempt. The constant depreciation of the currency acted, of course, as a tax on the wage earners and salaried classes and on those whose income was derived from government securities.

While the State taxes were felt chiefly by the wealthier agricultural classes and the slave owners, this was not the case with the Confederate taxes. The loans and gifts from the State, the war tax of August 19, 1861, the $15,000,000 loan, the Produce Loan, and the proceeds of sequestration—all had not availed to secure sufficient supplies. The Produce Loan of 1862 was subscribed to largely in Alabama, the secretary of the Treasury issuing stocks and bonds in return for supplies,[10] and $1,500,000 of the $15,000,000 loan was raised in the State. Still the Confederate government was in desperate need. The farmers would not willingly sell their produce for currency which was constantly decreasing in value, and, when selling at all, they were forced to charge exorbitant prices because of the high prices charged them for everything by the speculators.[11] The speculator also ran up the prices of supplies beyond the reach of the government purchasing agents, who had to buy according to the list of prices issued by impressment commissioners. So in the spring of 1863, all other expedients were cast aside and the Confederate government levied the most drastic sort of a tax. No more loans of paper money from the State, no more assumption of war taxes by the State because the people were opposed to any form of direct taxation, no more holding back of supplies by producers and speculators who refused to sell to the Confederate government except for coin—the new law stopped all that.[12]

First there was a tax of 8% on all agricultural products in hand on July 1, 1863, on salt, wine and liquors, and 1% on all money and credits. Second, an occupation tax ranging from $50 to $200 and from 2½% to 20% of their gross sales was levied on bankers, auctioneers, brokers, druggists, butchers, “fakirs,” liquor dealers, merchants, pawn-brokers, lawyers, physicians, photographers, brewers, and distillers; hotels paid from $30 to $500 and theatres, $500. Third, there was an income tax of 1% on salaries from $1,000 to $1,500 and 2% on all over $1,500. Fourth, 10% on all trade in flour, bacon, corn, oats, and dry goods during 1863. Fifth, a tax-in-kind, by which each farmer after reserving 50 bushels of sweet and 50 bushels of Irish potatoes, 20 bushels of peas or beans, 100 bushels of corn or 50 bushels of wheat out of his crop of 1863, had to deliver (at a dépôt within eight miles,) out of the remainder of his produce for that year, 10% of all wheat, corn, oats, rye, buckwheat, rice, sweet and Irish potatoes, hay, fodder, sugar, molasses, cotton, wool, tobacco, peas, beans, and peanuts; 10% of all meat killed between April 24, 1863 and March 1, 1864; and 1% of the horses, mules and cattle held on November 1, 1863.[13]

By this act $9,500,000 in currency was raised in Alabama. Alabama, with Georgia and North Carolina, furnished two-thirds of the tax-in-kind. Though at first there was some objection to this tax because it bore entirely on the agricultural classes, yet it was a just tax so far as the larger planters were concerned, since the depreciated money had acted as a tax on the wage-earners and salaried classes, who had also some State tax to pay. The tax-in-kind fell heavily upon the families of small farmers in the white counties, who had no negro labor, and who produced no more than the barest necessaries of life. To collect the tax required an army of tithe-gatherers, and afforded fine opportunities of escape from military service. The State was divided into districts for the collection of all Confederate taxes, with a State collector at the head. The collection districts were usually counties, following the State division into taxing districts. In 1864, the tobacco tithe was collected by Treasury agents and not by the quartermaster’s department, which had formerly collected it.[14] The tax of April 24, 1863, was renewed on February 17, 1864, and some additional taxes laid as follows:

Real estate and personal property 5%
Gold and silverware and jewelry 10%
Coin 5%
Credits 5%
Profits on liquors, produce, groceries and dry goods 10%

On June 10, 1864, an additional tax of 20% of the tax for 1864 was laid, payable only in Confederate Treasury notes of the new issue. Four days later an additional tax[15] was levied as follows:

Real estate and personal property and coin 5%
Gold and silver ware 10%
Profits on liquors, produce, groceries & dry goods 30%
Treasury notes of old issue (after January, 1865) 100%

The taxes during the war, State and Confederate, were in all five to ten times those levied before the war. Never were taxes paid more willingly by most of the people,[16] though at first there was opposition to them. It is probable that the authorities did not in 1861 and 1862 give sufficient consideration to the fact that conditions were much changed, and that in view of the war the people would willingly have paid taxes that they would have rebelled against in times of peace.

Of the tax-in-kind for 1863, $100,000 was collected in Pickens county alone, one of the poorest in the State. The produce was sent in too freely to be taken care of by the government quartermasters, and, as there was enough on hand for a year or two, much of it was ruined for lack of storage room.[17] An English traveller in East Alabama in 1864 reported that there was abundance; that the tax-in-kind was working well, and that enough provisions had already been collected for the Western armies of the Confederacy to last until the harvest of 1865.[18] There were few railroads in the State and the rolling stock on these was scarce and soon worn out. So the supplies gathered by the tax-in-kind law could not be moved. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef and bacon, and bushels of corn were piled up in the government warehouses and at the dépôts, while starvation threatened the armies and the people also in districts remote from the railroads or rivers. At the supply centers of Alabama and along the railroads in the Black Belt there were immense stores of provisions. When the war ended, notwithstanding the destruction by raids, great quantities of corn and bacon were seized or destroyed by the Northern troops.[19]

IMPRESSMENT.

The State quite early began to secure supplies by impressment. Salt was probably the first article to which it laid claim. Later the officials were authorized to impress and pay for supplies necessary for the public service. In 1862, the Governor was authorized to impress shoes and leather, and other shoemakers’ materials for the use of the army. The Legislature appropriated $250,000 to pay for impressments under this law.[20] In case of a refusal to comply with an order of impressment, the sheriff was authorized to summon a _posse comitatus_ of not less than twenty men and seize double the quantity first impressed. In such cases no compensation was given.[21] The people resisted the impressment of their property. By a law of October 31, 1862, the Governor was impowered to impress slaves, and tools and teams for them to work with, in the public service against the enemy, and $1,000,000 was appropriated to pay the owners.[22] Slaves were regularly impressed by the Confederate officials acting in co-operation with the State authorities, for work on fortifications and for other public service. Several thousand were at work at Mobile at various times. They were secured usually by requisition on the State government, which then impressed them. In December, 1864, Alabama was asked for 2,500 negroes for the Confederate service.[23] The people were morbidly sensitive about their slave property and there was much discontent at the impressment of slaves even though they were paid for. As the war drew to a close, the people were less and less willing to have their servants impressed.

In the spring of 1863, the Confederate Congress authorized the impressment of private property for public use.[24] The Confederate President and the Governor each appointed an agent, and these together fixed the prices to be paid for the property taken.[25] Every two months they published schedules of prices, which were always below the market prices.[26] Evidently impressment had been going on for some time, for, in November, 1862, Judge Dargan, member of Congress from Alabama, wrote to the President that the people from the country were afraid to bring produce to Mobile for fear of seizure by the government. In November, 1863, the Secretary of War issued an order that no supplies should be impressed when held by a person for his own consumption or that of his employees or slaves, or while being carried to market for sale, except in urgent cases and by order of a commanding general. Consequently the land was filled with agents buying a year’s supply for railroad companies, individuals, manufactories, and corporations, relief associations, towns, and counties—all these to be protected from impressment. Most speculators always had their goods “on the way to market for sale.” The great demand caused prices to rise suddenly, and the government, which had to buy by scheduled prices, could not compete with private purchasers; yet it could not legally impress. There was much abuse of the impressment law, especially by unauthorized persons. It was the source of much lawless conduct on the part of many who claimed to be Confederate officials, with authority to impress.[27] The Legislature frequently protested against the manner of execution of the law. In 1863, a State law was passed which indicates that the people had been suffering from the depredations of thieves who pretended to be Confederate officials in order to get supplies. It was made a penal offense in 1862 and again in 1863, with from one to five years’ imprisonment and $500 to $5,000 fine, to falsely represent oneself as a Confederate agent, contractor or official.[28] The merchants of Mobile protested against the impressment of sugar and molasses; it would cause prices to double, they said.[29] There was much complaint from sufferers who were never paid by the Confederate authorities for the supplies impressed. Army quartermasters would sometimes seize the necessary supplies and would leave with the army before settling accounts with the citizens, the latter often being left without any proof of their claim. In North Alabama, especially, where the armies never tarried long at a place, the complaint was greatest. To do away with this abuse resulting from carelessness, the Secretary of War appointed agents in each Congressional district to receive proof of claims for forage and supplies impressed.[30] The State wanted a Confederate law passed to authorize receipts for supplies to be given as part of the tax-in-kind.[31] The unequal operation of the impressment system may be seen in the case of Clarke and Monroe counties. In the former, from sixteen persons, property amounting to $1,700 was impressed. In Monroe, from thirty-seven persons, $60,000 worth was taken. The delay in payment was so long that it was practically worthless when received.[32]

(_Concluded next month._)

THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS
IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, WITH PARTICULAR
REFERENCE TO CONDITIONS IN THE ROYAL COLONY OF NEW YORK.