Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Poetry and Incidents., Volume 2.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[40] state of the country, shows that the power of the Government is to be exerted wherever the least murmur or discontent shall arise at the highwayman's command of “Stand and deliver:”

“ The heavy demand for the services of our citizens as soldiers, and on the capital and credit of the States, and of individuals, have necessarily operated on the regular order of business. Trade is greatly depressed, and all kinds of business transactions are embarrassed. These are some of the necessary inconveniences of the war waged upon us by the Federal Government. It will require economy and hard struggling to keep up the business of the country, so far as shall be absolutely necessary to supply the actual wants and necessities of the people. In times like these the ‘strong should bear with the weak,’ and all should be content during the continuance of the war, with the making of enough to meet expenses. Any man who shall be found capable of taking advantages of the necessities of his country and of speculating on the ‘miseries of his neighbors,’ to gratify his sordid soul, is a detested wretch. We hope none such may be found among us. So far as we are informed by expressions from the people everywhere, especially in the interior, the feeling and the sentiments seem to be universal in favor of a suspension of forced collections, and the sacrifice of property and the pecuniary ruin of individuals in the present pressure of the times. Public sentiment is strongly in favor of a ‘suspension of all legal process,’ till this war is ended, and these sentiments may be so strong as to need no legislative interference upon this subject. If, however, it shall be found that the public opinion is not strong enough to stay the love of gain, then it will, in our opinion, become the duty of the Legislature, by its act, to suspend all civil process till the causes which render such a relief measure absolutely necessary, shall cease to exist in force as they now do.

It is the duty and the interest of every man now to sustain and defend his country. More than two hundred thousand of our fellow-citizens, ‘ as good by nature and better by practice’ than we who stay at home, have already left their business and the endearments of their homes and gone at the peril of their lives to defend their country and to defend us. Many of these have already sacrificed their lives, and many more will yet be victimized on the altar of their country. Our safety, our property, and our lives at home depend on the success of our soldiers in the war and on the battlefields. When our soldiers shall have repelled the invaders and conquered for us an honorable and a glorious peace, then business will revive and prosperity will come to relieve us of the embarrassments of the present and reward us in the future. Till we gain our independence and peace for our country, it is the paramount duty of every man to relieve, to the extent of his ability, the necessities and to aid in the defence of his country.

Accustomed, as we have been all our lives, to peace and the largest liberty, we come slowly to realize the stern demands which a state of war imposes on us. We must all learn the hard lesson which war imposes. Conduct censurable but allowable in a state of peace becomes sufferable in a state of war. Any man or any corporation who, Shylock-like, will demand the ‘pound of flesh’ in these times, must be restrained, if not by public sentiment, by legal enactment.

On the other hand, men who have the means ought to pay, and help their country and their neighbors freely. If they be true men they will do so. Men who have money now, and lock it up, either from a mean fear of losing it or for the purpose of speculation, are almost or altogether as bad as traitors, and deserve the execration of the community.

”

--Montgomery (Ala.) Mail, June 19.