June 29, 1863, Savannah Republican (Georgia)
Charleston, S. C., May 28.
Mr. Editor:–The mania for speculation is perfectly frightful. People are rushing madly about Broad street and East Bay, with eager and excited looks, talking of nothing but “Calypso stock,” “Ella and Annie stock,” and others equally fancy. New companies are forming, millions are subscribed in cash for new steamers, and the vendue masters are on the very pinnacle of fame. Visit the steamers, you see able-bodied men standing around the decks and saloons, and you ask yourself, how is it? I am standing guard on the dock, at $11 per month, and young men, “to the manner born,” are sporting fine clothing, jewelry, &c., as pursers, super-cargoes, &c. Men we have never seen before pass current as captains of steamships. Passengers arrive and depart without examination, and thousands of bales of cotton are going forward monthly, some to Europe, much of it to the abolitionists. I recollect very well that when public opinion in Charleston caused a brig, loaded with cotton, to be unloaded, so strong was the feeling against cotton shipments, the cry was raised, “How shall we pay for arms, &c., except with cotton?” Quere–How much of ordnance stores, clothing, &c., have been received through the blockade in the last sixty days? and if so received, has it not passed into the hands of speculators, who modestly ask the government twelve times the first cost? To the proof: I know of a lot of grey plains, such as Naylor, Smith & Co. sold always before the war at 40 to 45 cents per yard, going into a government storehouse at $6 per yard. This is a sample of what they call “bringing goods for the government!”
How long are the tax payers, who, by the way, are, to a great extent, the army itself, to stand this wholesale plunder? How long are our neatly dressed, well mounted enrolling officers to stand idle, while enough men for a company can be found to-day on board blockade running steamers, whose proper place is with a musket on their shoulder?
Everybody is being carried along irresistibly by this strong current of money making. Steamers arrive daily, with everything that can possibly bring a fancy price, and depart with cotton cargoes, perhaps for our enemies. The precious summer months are gliding by, and when the wants of our noble army can no longer be unnoticed, the country will be startled with another expose from “P.W.A.,” which will cause us to strip our wardrobes to keep our gallant kinsmen and friends from being frost bitten on the borders.
Is the government torpid or public opinion dead to the vital interests of the army and the cause?
A Carolina Soldier.