The End Approaching by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 23, 1864

The End Approaching.

By Uriah Smith

It seems that God is beginning to permit the South to eat the bitter fruits of their own doings. Their efforts to perpetuate the dire abomination of slavery, seem to be resulting only in their own destruction. The following extracts from Southern papers graphically set forth the extremities to which they are already reduced, and the gloomy prospect before them. It is not pleasant to contemplate scenes of suffering in any quarter; but yet the language of every heart must be, Let justice have its full work, whatever may be its dealings with slave tyrants and rebels. We are perhaps not to infer the immediate end of the war from these things; but yet we may hope that events are fast tending to the complete destruction of the slave power.

U. S.

That the bogus Confederacy is daily becoming more and more incompetent to maintain its own existence—that the war inaugurated by the south for the preservation of slavery, has only been its death-blow—that the rebel States have proven themselves incompetent to sustain or govern their own territory, no candid mind can doubt after reading the following articles from rebel sources. The first is an extract from an article which appeared in the Review, one of the most ably conducted papers of the south, edited by Mr. DeBow—for the publication of which article, entitled "Cotton no longer King," the editor was imprisoned and the Review suspended. The second from the Richmond Whip will be found an excellent study for Copperheads. They are getting to be almost as loyal over in Dixie as we could wish. A few more Chattanooga lessons will convert the whole rebellious population of the south.

After giving in a tabular statement the proportionate increase in the North and decrease in the South of agricultural products, butter, cheese, &c., Mr. DeBow says:

"We see in the above our road to progress; cotton has failed or will fail us; the negro has failed or will fail us; it is idle to hope longer to enjoy peacefully the proceeds of his labor when at this moment eighty thousand of his color are organized and hold arms in their hands to free their fellows. The longer the war is protracted the more violently will slavery be destroyed. For two years and a half we have waged war, and lost more than half the territory over which we asserted jurisdiction; the supply of cattle no longer comes from Texas, nor does cotton escape longer from the frontier to furnish us supplies. The Mississippi bears a hundred gun-boats, half of them iron-clad, that effectually prevent our occupation of any point along its entire course, or even the passage of it, except under cover of darkness and by stealth.

"The fruitful valleys of Kentucky and Tennessee have been desolated by war, and are held by the enemy. Arkansas, a large part of Louisiana, of Mississippi, of North Carolina and Virginia, have been held or are now held by the enemy, and have been exhausted by the supplies drawn by the contending armies. Nor can we regard Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina or Texas exempt from the march of heavy armies now organizing for the purposes of invasion.

"We will say to Congress and to President Davis that a careful study of the last Census Report of the United States will correct or destroy many perturbations in their minds as well as our own. Let them legislate so as to increase the number of cows and think no more of the negro. The land, then, instead of being desolated by war, and the inhabitants gaunt with privations and misery, will flow literally with milk and honey, as in times of yore.

"A census taken now, as recommended by His Excellency, Mr. Davis, in the same manner as that of 1860, over the districts where it might be effected, would show plainly the waste of war. How many men between the ages of eighteen and fifty would be found wanting? How many peaceful, industrious inhabitants would be found absent, having, through a thousand channels, found their way into the free States, actually filling up the houses in every part of that land, so that none are untenanted? How many of the houses in the region passed over by the contending armies would now be found occupied? How many negroes would be found absent, ready to return with muskets in their hands? How many horses, cattle, sheep and hogs would be found remaining? What has been the produce of our fields last year in cotton, sugar, corn, flour, peas, potatoes, cattle and bacon, and what amount remains unconsumed?

"But above all, what progress have we made? Is the slave power more secure than before we seceded? Are we in such a condition as to promise ourselves even with repudiation of all debts, both at home and abroad, exemption from duties and high taxation? What have we to hope for, both as regards slavery or the prospects of the Southern Confederacy?"

From the Richmond Whip, Jan. 16.

The cry is for great armies. Everybody is to be put into the ranks, except such as are detailed.

Very good, if by so doing we can end the war next year and be done with it.—But let us look at a few facts.

An army correspondent, writing from Longstreet's Corps, says there are 3,000 barefooted men in that corps alone. From Johnston's (late Bragg's) army comes a piteous appeal for blankets and clothing. Lee's army is also in need of blankets, and not a week ago a paper, reputed to be a Government organ in this city, called upon the ladies to devote their energies to knitting socks for Lee's soldiers. For some weeks past the Young Men's Christian Association has been furnishing cotton yarn to be knit into socks for these same soldiers. Woolen yarn was not to be had. Day by day the clothes made for the soldiers exhibit less wool and more cotton.

What is the prospect for clothing next year? The blockade at Wilmington is now so rigidly enforced that supplies from abroad cannot be counted upon. An intercepted letter from Nassau, printed in the Yankee papers which came by the last flag of truce, states that "nothing has entered Wilmington for a month." We must then depend on the home markets for clothing materials. What do we find? Any one who buys beef has discovered that the quarters and sides are rapidly diminishing in size. Younger cattle are being slaughtered every year. It is now thought we will have to fall back upon milch cows. As cattle diminish, mutton must be substituted, and hence the sources both of leather and wool may be expected to decrease every month. Thus the prospect at home does not encourage the belief that we are able to clothe armies larger than those which are now shivering in nakedness.

An army must be fed as well as clothed. The facts just stated in regard to the supply of beef, apply with even more force to the question of subsistence than to that of clothing. Very little bacon is left, beef is going, and mutton will hardly feed great armies, even if the supply were double what it is. It is said that Gen. Lee, during his late visit to this city, exclaimed that the citizens had no right to indulge themselves while the soldiers were living on a quarter of a pound of meat per day. The hue and cry against the starvation of Yankee prisoners has scarcely subsided, and the excuse that three of our largest hospitals were forced to do without meat for a day or two at a time has not been forgotten. East Tennessee, on which we relied mainly for supplies has fallen into the hands of the enemy. The clamor about impressments and the stoppage of supplies on their way to market, still

rings in the ears of the Government. The standing crops in entire counties have been impressed at one fell swoop, under the plea that in no other manner could a sufficient supply for the army be certainly secured. Under this system, and because of a real scarcity as well, flour of a low grade is selling this day in the Confederate capital at $120 a barrel. It appears, therefore, that the prospect of feeding the army already in the field, much less one once or twice its size is not encouraging.

Without labor there can be no production. Our labor is that of the African slave, who requires the supervision of a white man at all times, and never more than when an unusual quantity of work is demanded of him. Women, lads, sexagenarians, cannot make the negro do his duty fully and faithfully, a man in the prime and vigor of life is needed. Already the fears of insurrection, occasioned by the absence of the greater portion of the arms-bearing white population, has produced a leniency and indulgence among the farmers, which has encouraged the natural laziness of the slave, and resulted in a rapidly and yearly increasing diminution of the crop. Take away all, or nearly all the vigorous whites, and leave the negro to the feeble control of women, children and old men, and the danger is that famine will be superadded to insurrection.

If the negroes remaining within our lines were made to work as hard as the white hirelings of the North and of Europe, they could scarcely produce more than enough to supply the wants of the army, as it now stands, at prices not ruinous to the credit of the government.—Conscript the entire white population within the ages of 18 and 50, constitute a reserved corps of the lads between 15 and 18, and the men between 40 and 60, abolish all details for teamsters, orderlies, ambulance drivers, hospital assistants, and fill the vacancy created with negroes and mulattoes, (ample allowance to be made for places that could be filled by disabled soldiers,) and it is easy to see what the consequence will be upon agricultural production.

The sum is not finished yet. Horses must be fed as well as men, and an army without horses is a man without limbs.—With very great difficulty horses barely sufficient to serve the purpose of the existing army are obtained. Last Spring large impressments of horses were made in this city and throughout Virginia. It was a matter of doubt whether the hack, carriage, dray, cart, and, indeed, all the horses in the city not independently necessary to the business of the Government should not be seized. The question of horse feed was serious indeed. With one hand the Confederate officials seized the horses of the citizens and with the other seized forage of all sorts from the people in the country to feed them with.

Farmers ceased to send hay, oats and corn to town. To send was to insure impressment. During the winter, Stuart's cavalry had been scattered over the State to procure food and to recruit. The absence of Hampton's Legion and the worn down condition of the remainder of Stuart's horse, enabled the enemy to penetrate with impunity within the defenses of the capital. And even now, when the harvests have been gathered but a few weeks, the Quartermasters of the army of Northern Virginia can tell a strange story of the distance which their forage has to traverse before it reaches them. Yet it is proposed to double the army, and of course to increase the trains proportionately.

Still another addition to the sum must be made. An army must have, besides wagons and trains, muskets, cannon and ammunition. Pemberton's enormous losses of the two former at Baker's Creek and Vicksburg, added to Bragg's at Chattanooga and Lee's losses of muskets at Gettysburg and in the retreat must have left a bare sufficiency of both to supply present needs and to make good the annual wear and tear. With regard to ammunition, we know what Lee suffered at Gettysburg for want of it. We know further, that whenever a battle begins, ordnance officers are sure to telegraph for more ammunition. We have never had a supersabundance, and since the port of Charleston has been closed, Wilmington almost hermetically sealed, and the nitre beds of Tennessee have been wrested from us, it is not likely that we ever will have more than a full supply for the army on its present footing.

It may be said that we have a whole winter before us in which to make guns, cannon and powder ad libitum. So we had last winter, with comparatively open ports through which to draw supplies from abroad. Yet Lee fell short in Pennsylvania, and Richmond was so bare that cartridges had to be taken from the boxes of a portion of the city troops to fill his own with. Yet next spring we are to have twice, perhaps thrice as many men in the field as we had last spring, with thrice as many muskets, thrice the number of cannon, and thrice the need of ammunition!

Thus, in the last analysis, we find we have an army poorly clad, scantily fed, indifferently equipped, badly mounted, with insufficient trains, and with barely enough ammunition. To remedy the evil, we are going to double, and if possible quadruple the number of men and horses, taking away every efficient master from the agricultural districts, and leave the laborers on whom both men and horses depend for existence a prey to natural idleness, and with every inducement to revolt. If this be not judicial madness, the history of desperate measures adopted by feeble and affrighted councils do not present an example.