Volume 1 — 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.

275The 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 276counties. 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

277In 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 278government 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 279into 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 280were 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 281paid 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 282impressment 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.)

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