[498] The various proclamations, orders, regulations, and laws affecting commercial intercourse between the United States and the Confederate States will be found in a compilation of the United States Treasury Department entitled “Acts of Congress and Rules and Regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuance thereto, with the approval of the President, concerning Commercial Intercourse with and in States and parts of States declared in insurrection, Captured, Abandoned, and Confiscable Property, the care of freedmen, and the purchase of products of insurrectionary districts on government account.” The proclamations of the President will be found in the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. See also Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 56, 40th Cong., 2d Sess., and No. 23, 43d Cong., 3d Sess., p. 58; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. , 45th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 36; Ho. Mis. Doc., No. 190, 44th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 39. A fuller account of the trade regulations is in the South Atlantic Quarterly, July, 1905.
[499] Act, April 19, 1862, Pub. Laws, C.S.A., 1st Cong., 1st Sess.
[500] Act, Feb. 6, 1864, Pub. Laws, C.S.A., 1st Cong., 4th Sess.
[501] The state officials in 1862-1863 planned to exchange cotton from Mississippi and Alabama with the cotton speculators in Tennessee for bacon. Davis opposed (Pollard, p. 481), but, nevertheless, the change was made. Along the Tennessee River there was much trading with the enemy. In order to conform with the United States regulations forbidding the payment of coin for Confederate staples, the northern speculator bought Confederate and state money, often at a high price ($100 gold for $225 in Confederate currency or $120 to $125 in Alabama, Georgia, or South Carolina bank-notes), with which to carry on the cotton trade. O. R., Ser. IV, Vol. II, p. 10.
[502] Shorter, who was opposed to contraband trade, complained in July, 1862, that the cotton speculators in Mobile had an understanding with Butler and Farragut by which salt was allowed to come in and cotton, in unlimited quantities, allowed to go out. O. R., Ser. IV, Vol. II, p. 21.
[503] Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 16, 38th Cong., 2d Sess.
[504] Ho. Rept., No. 24, 38th Cong., 2d Sess.
[505] Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 16, 38th Cong., 2d Sess.
[506] O. R., Ser. IV, Vol. III, pp. 1180, 1181. Davis probably made his last official indorsement on this report, Apr. 10, 1865. He forwarded it to the Adjutant and Inspector-General with instructions to look into the matter.
[507] Somers, “The Southern States since the War,” p. 134. General Grant, July 21, 1863, stated that this trade through west Tennessee was injurious to the United States forces. “Restriction, if lived up to,” he said, “makes trade unprofitable and hence none but dishonest men go into it. I will venture to say, that no honest man has made money in west Tennessee in the last year, while many fortunes have been made there during the time.” So vexed was General Grant with the speculators that, early in 1865, he suspended all permits, but within a month he had to remove the suspensions. Scharf, pp. 443, 446, 447.