April 14, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
Most serious amidst all the perils our young Confederacy has now to encounter, is the irregularity of supply in the provision market. There is not, nor has there been, any real scarcity of food in these Southern States; the difficulty is owing solely to the lack of systematic energy and enterprise in the distribution of the abundance of particular districts, amongst the communities of less favored localities. Doubtless the work of distribution has been seriously embarrassed by the want of adequate railroad facilities; yet we cannot but believe that with such as we have, economically and prudently managed; the more pressing wants of the country might easily be met.
In a matter so vitally important to our cause the people ought to come forward and assist the Government, as they have already done in the clothing of the army and the care of our sick. The men who, in a crisis like this, hold back grain or provisions from the market, in the hope of hereafter reaping larger money profits, are inflicting upon their imperiled country a blow more deadly than any the traitor’s hand could give. While the government is exerting all its energies in the great emergency, the people should see to it that the whole existing resources of the land are brought out. The planters ought strictly to limit their cotton production to the quantity required for seed, and bestow all their attention upon the raising of corn and provisions; and, with organization and combined action, we have no fears for the result.