roim/ 
 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 Commercial enfr 
 Conf Pam 12mo #721 
 
c/45 CJf^oAT Va/y7><€/rt€^ crlonUmcMiL. OocajU,^ C?a^ 
 
 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 WITH 
 
 ORIGINAL AKTICLE.S 0:>f A NEW .SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND 
 MEASUKi:S, AND NEW COINS FOR THE CON- 
 
 FEDERATE STATES. 
 
 BY A VIRGINIAS. 
 
 RICHMOND: 
 WEST & JOHNSTON, 
 
 145 MAIN STREET. 
 
 1862. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 Dul<e University Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/commercialenfranOOcook 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 The publishers of these suggestions upon subjects now so 
 freely discussed throughout the Confederate States, arc induced 
 to do so by the demand for the periodical in whicli the article 
 upon Commercial Enfranchisements of the Confederate States 
 originally appeared, viz : De Bow's Review for October and 
 November, 1860, every copy of the edition being exhausted, 
 we have obtained the corrections and notes to the original 
 article, as well as the articles from the same pen in the Mes- 
 senger, tlio Examiner, and the Wlug, which will furnish the 
 reader witli the only correct and complete edition of all the 
 articles. 
 
Commercial Enfranchisements of the Confederated States. 
 
 SUBMITTEO TO THE MACOX CONVENTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 TOBACCO, COTTON, EMBARGO, &c. 
 
 The Commerce of the Confederate States, constituting the 
 subject which has called us together, must occupy much of our 
 reflections. We are -without Foreign Commerce altogether — 
 only a few cargoes of our products escape the blockading 
 squadron of the United States in going out from our ports, or 
 an occasional vessel may succeed in entering some harbor along- 
 our extended coast ; but, prior to the period of our separation 
 from our former associates, the contemptible position of the 
 commerce of the Southern States had been a subject of most 
 anxious solicitude upon the part of our best citizens, — the 
 incubus which paralyzed every energ}' — that palsied every 
 heart — that chilled tlie zeal of the most devoted patriots, has 
 been thrown from our commerce by the action of the people of 
 the States composing the Confederacy, and we arc now assem- 
 bled where the discussion as to our future policy must be left to 
 ourselves, for until all hands arc chilled by death, no renewal 
 of the accursed connection Avith the United States will be 
 tolerated. 
 
 Our sagacity must find tlic road of safety — it is useless to 
 rely upon anything beyond the interests of nations or States 
 respecting their commerce; and since the chief of the causes 
 of our separation must be found in questions affecting our sell- 
 ing tlic products of the soil and the purchase of our supplies 
 from others, we are invited to inquire into the value and the 
 uses of the articles we produce, and the necessities which may 
 exist for them to other nations. We are the custodians of a 
 yearly yield of four millions of bales of cotton — that being the 
 
6 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENTS 
 
 average annual product of the Confederate States of America 
 at tins time. Cotton is an article necessary to the commerce of 
 almost every nation on the globe. We produce annually rice, 
 pitch, tar and turpentine, to a very large amount, besides corn 
 and 'wheat and live stock. As an article of great value to the 
 foreign consumer ^ve mention tobacco, and shall state some facts 
 deeply interesting to the States of North Carolina, Tennessee, 
 Missouri and Virginia (we omit Kentucky, Maryland and Dela- 
 Avare, because, although their future is plainly indicated by our 
 wishes and th-eir interests, yet they have not identified them- 
 selves with the Confederate States), and, therefore, we shall 
 discuss these subjects without reference to them, except so far 
 as the facts adduced shall implicate them. 
 
 The annual revenue from tobacco in England is about twen- 
 ty-five millions of dollars; the consumption being for 1858, 
 83,739,133 lbs. ; in 1859, 34,459,864 lbs.; and in 1860, 35,306,- 
 846 lbs. In the year 1858, our exports to England and her 
 colonies was twenty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety- 
 four hogsheads, four thousand two hundred and seventy-three 
 boxes, and one thousand four hundred and fifty-seven bales — 
 their whole value in dollars, as declared at the Custom Houses 
 of the United States, was four millions three hundred and 
 ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and sixty.one dollars. In 
 1859, the ofiicial returns make our exports 37,906 hogsheads, 
 2,068 boxes, 3,891 bales— valked at ,«f6,000,234; in other 
 words, the value of this article shipped to England by us, when 
 grown and placed on shipboard, is, on an average, five millions, 
 and allowing the consumpjtion of Great Britain to be four-fifths 
 of American tobacco, the crop of our tobacco yields to her cx- 
 cliequer four times as much as it does to our planters, without 
 any charge for that which she exports, or for that which goes to 
 her colonies direct; the duty is three shillings sterling on each 
 pound of leaf tobacco, and five per cent, on the manufactured, 
 about nine shillings and sixpence — say seventy five cents on leaf 
 and two dollars and twenty-five cents on the manufactured, per 
 pound."'-' 
 
 ■~ Tli« cuhivalioii of Tobacco is; prohibited in Great Britain. 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 7 
 
 In Franco, in the yeai* 1701, the Regie and Farmers' 'General 
 were abolished, and a duty of twenty francs on one hundred 
 p/junds, imported hy foreign vessels, and throe-fourths of that 
 .sura if on French vessels, was suhstituted ; and, in 1799, it was 
 increased to sixty-six francs on that in foreign vessels, and on 
 that in French vessels to forty-four francs, with an excise 
 tax of forty centimes (about eight cents) on the kilogramme 
 (2 20-100 lbs.,) was imposed on the manufactured, and twenty- 
 four centimes (about five cents) the kilogramme on leaf or 
 smoking tobacco ; under this system the revenue amounted to 
 only 1,129,708 franco. In 1804, the Avhole subject was en- 
 trusted to the general administration of the customs, the fullest 
 rigor was exercised, and domiciliary visits were made to both 
 sellers and manufacturers; the revenue Avas brought up to 
 12,600,000 francs; the duties were doubled in 1808; and again, 
 in 180G, with all possible appliances of the most rigid surveil- 
 lance, the revenue only reached, in 1811, 10,000,000 francs ; 
 from this period the sale and manufacture became a Govern- 
 ment monopoly ; by this system the revenue was brought up to 
 25,000,000 francs in 1820; the sales that year by Govern- 
 ment were 12,645,277 kilogrammes, producing 64,027,137 
 francs — deducting expenses of cost of tobacco and of the mann- 
 facture, the net revenue was 42,219,003 francs. In 1830, 
 the sales were 11,169,554 kilogrammes ; proceeds, 81,3G6,'947 
 francs; the costs of tobacco and manufacture, 22,838,035 francs; 
 net revenue, 59,028,912 francs. In 1838, tobacco, purdiased 
 chiefly in America, Avas 6,520,509 kilogrammes, valued at 
 14,497,309 francs. The co.isumption of all tobacco in France, 
 in 1858, was 21,981,090 kilogrammes; in 1859, 24,099,837 
 kilogrammes; in 1820, the declared value of American and all 
 other tobacco, per pound, avrs about nineteen cents per pound, 
 or (to use the French terras,) two francs thirty centimes for the 
 kilogramme. In 18.59, 1 4.5-100 francs per kilogramme, or 
 about twelve cents per pound, Avas the declared value of the 
 tobacco, as received at the ports of France. Of the receipts, 
 American tobacco constituted 10,840,198 kilogrammes — say 
 48,001,035 pounds, about thirty thousand hogsheads in all; th« 
 revenue for 1860, was the enormous sum of $36,000,000 — say 
 
8 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 180,000,000 francs, and thirty thousand persons were employed 
 in the culture, manufacture and sale of tobacco. 
 
 The productions of the European nations as reported by a com- 
 mittee on tobacco to the French Assembly, year 1835, were : 
 
 Russia and her provinces ?, 683,000 
 
 Deninark 100,000 
 
 Hoi land 2,575,250 
 
 Germany 9,976,174 
 
 Switzerland 135,000 
 
 Wallachia 600,000 
 
 Italy 1,208,000 
 
 Aiir^tiia 21.000.000 
 
 Polnnd l,500J0OO 
 
 France 10,000,000 
 
 Kiloirrammes 56,778,421 
 
 Abe«t ninety thousand hogsheads. 
 
 On this subject, a letter addressed to the French Govern- 
 ment througli the Count do Vergenncs, by Mr. Jefferson, dated 
 at Paris, August 15th, 1785, is full of argument, and we may at 
 once recognize that it had produced its impression, for six years 
 afterward the ports were thrown open to tobacco at very low 
 duties comparatively. On the 22d June, 1848, M. Thouret laid 
 a proposition before the French Assembly, "that the sale of 
 tobacco and snuff should no longer be exclusively in the hands 
 of the Government ; the proposition did not receive ttveyity-five 
 votes of an assembly of more than six hundred members, and 
 thus fell to the ground — that number of assenting votes being 
 required before any proposition can come before the Chambers 
 even for consideration. This vote would seem to show that 
 public opinion in France was in favor of the monopoly, when 
 we consider that the members have been so recently chosen by 
 universal suffrage throughout all parts of France." These 
 extracts are from Mr. Rush's late work, page 481. This is the 
 care which the late Government bestowed on our commercial 
 interests. Mr. Jefferson not only wrote down Lis conversations 
 on the subject, but he submitted facts and considerations worthy 
 of the great interest at stake ; the indifferent memorandum by 
 Mr. Rush was enough for him and the interests he represented 
 in France. The article of tobacco, is a monopoly in Sardinia, 
 and all Italy, and in Austria, and also in Spain. A very valu- 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 9 
 
 able note in the Lost Principle, page 179, taken from Jefferson's 
 report in 1791, and a report on commercial relations of the 
 United States, Thirty-Fourth Congress, First Session, Avill be 
 used by those who would wish to investigate the subject farther. 
 We have sufficiently demonstrated the value of this article to 
 all foreign Governments with whom we have had much inter- 
 course commercially. The institution of slavery in all the 
 border States depends chiefly upon the culture of tobacco, and 
 whilst they may not have indicated an}'- restlessness under evi- 
 dences of inattention to their interests heretofore, yet tJiei/ mat/, 
 in self-defence, levy State taxes uj)on the sales of all the jyroduc- 
 tions of such countries as discriininatc against the article upon 
 lohich their labor and their institutions must depend, and thus 
 bi'ing up unpleasant complications ; the border slave States 
 have a right to expect that this article should receive special 
 attention from the Government of the Confederate States in 
 their intercourse with all foreign powers ; if not, rather than 
 part with their slaves, they ought to protect themselves through 
 their License Laws; but, as the giavest, and certainly the first 
 question for our consideration, must be how the present block- 
 ade can be removed so as to leave the ocean clear before us, we 
 have introdttccd the facts above respecting tobacco, and find 
 that we ma}'' affirm that upon the export of two hundred mil- 
 lions of pounds of manufactured and leaf tobacco, which is 
 below the average exports annually, the foreign Governments of 
 the world collect, at the least, seventy-five to one hundred mil- 
 lions of dollars of revenue. 
 
 The enormous power we thus have in our own hands, acting 
 upon the simple fulcrum of the interest of other nations, cannot 
 and ought not to escape observation in the enquiry now so full 
 of interest to our agricultural and commercial interests : how 
 can the ports of the country be thrown open ? 
 
 In 1764 and '65 there was a nonimportation league ainongsl 
 American merchants. In ^Ir. Jefferson's administration we 
 had an embargo upon the exports of the United States ; whilst 
 wc suffered inconveniences ourselves from these causes, yet the}' 
 were trivial when compared to those inflicted upon Great Britain 
 for respecting the effect on the trading classes of England — the 
 
10 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 painful words arc used by her own historians: "England 
 labored under the most painful anxiety she ever felt" in 1765, 
 and that her whole interests were seriously prejudiced by the 
 embargo of Mr. Jefferson, is confirmed by all authorities. The 
 course of the United States Government in blockading our 
 ports, although it affects us less, from our peculiar situation, 
 than it would a nation more dependent on commerce, yet we 
 are certainly aware of the fact, too patent to be denied, that the 
 war Avould be of very little moment to us in a financial aspect 
 but for tlic blockade of our ports. We are sure, however, that 
 the United States suffers more from this cause than we do ; her 
 manufacturers now pay twenty-two cents the pound for cotton — 
 double its price in New Orleans and five cents above the price 
 in Liverpool ; but it is none of our duty to reason the folly of 
 the blockade to Northern minds; it is sufficient for our pur- 
 poses, and, indeed, it is our duty to enquire Avhat our course of 
 action, as a nation, should be, seeing the whole interests which 
 demand our consideration and care. The course of the Crotern- 
 ment of the United States tvill justify us in laying an embargo 
 on all exports during the continuance of the war ; eertoinly so 
 long as the fleets of that Government practice any interruptions 
 to our commerce. Since that Government has thrown in our 
 way the fulcrum, let us apply the lever with which we can move 
 the whole commercial world. This done and persevered in for 
 a short time, would carry famine and want to the homes and 
 firesides of millions of human beings in all the manufacturing 
 and commercial nations of the world. 'Vhe great criminal in 
 this transaction would be that Billy tyrant, the Government of 
 the United States ; for its continuance Avould depend on their 
 action, not on ours, as we should stand ready to repeal the em- 
 bargo when the United States blockading squadron was with- 
 drawn, or permanent peace established with us. This policy 
 would beget us friends where they are most needed, viz : amongst 
 the commercial and manufticturing nations of Europe. In the 
 negotiation which would spring up with them, ojyen jjorts a^nd 
 diminished duties for American tobacco should become an object 
 of paramount importance. Let the scuffle for our markets take 
 place between all foreign nations, for until we can secure a navy 
 
OF TIIR CONFEDERATE STATES. M. 
 
 our products and tlio markets we offer for foreign commodities 
 must huy for us and our interests protection. The exports of 
 the Confederate States in former j-cars have been -worth two 
 hundred and fifty millions of dollars, in round numbers ; our 
 consumption of goods derived from the .Northern States and for- 
 eign nations has been as much more, say together five hundred 
 millions of dollars — no inconsiderable portion of the commerce 
 of the world. The letters of marque and reprisal have driven 
 many Yankee ships from the ocean, but rather than lose our 
 crops, England and France will turn loose a fleet upon the 
 United States Navy which will convey these meddlesome 
 obtruders into other seas and inlets than those on the Southern 
 coast. , We now allow a few cargoes to depart from our ports ; 
 they are worthless to us in any view, when compared to the vast 
 crops Avhieh must remain in our barns and store-houses. These 
 cargoes, however, are just so much turned against us, so long as 
 the war lasts, and goes to aid our enemies. This course, on our 
 part, invites the rapacity of merchants to enterprises calculated 
 to entangle us with other nations, and must beget vexatious 
 quarrels between ourselves and our customers. Such a policy is 
 unworthy of a great and honorable people, and ought not to be 
 practiced by us. It was the opinion of Mr. Jefferson in 1785, 
 as expressed in his letter to Hogcndorf, that the United States 
 should practice neither commerce nor navigation ; and that 
 whenever, indeed, their numbers shoiild so increase as that 
 their produce would overstock the markets of the nations who 
 should come to seek it, the farmers must either employ the 
 surplus of their time in manufactures or in navigation. Until 
 our ports are opened, we must occupy our thoughts as to some 
 new field of labor, notwithstanding there is an increasing taste 
 with our people for commerce and navigation. 
 
 The Convention on this subject reached tlie following conclusion : 
 Resolved, That in order to encourage the: importation of articles necessary 
 to the ]>reseni exigences of the country, return cargoes ought lo be furnished 
 to all vessels introducing commodities within the Confederate States from 
 Enrojican nation?, the ni-furniiliition of stocks in the seaports and large 
 interior cities being at the same time regarcled impolitic. 
 
12 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EXCHEftUER-TAX ON BAITK NOTES. 
 
 The war must go on, however, and one of its sinews is money^ 
 and with this comes up the whole question of finance, and to 
 that subject we now proceed. The last official returns from the 
 banks of the Confederate States disclose their circulation in 
 July, 1860, to be sixty-eight to seventy-millions of dollars, their 
 deposits some fifty to fifty-one millions, their specie some thirty- 
 one to thirty-two millions ; it may be allowed that the deposits 
 should be added to the circulation to represent fairly the moneys 
 available for commercial and agricultural purposes. We may 
 safely state then, that one hundred and twenty-five millions was 
 the whole circulation which these institutions represented. This 
 sum should be augmented by such amount as may be in the 
 hands of the people in gold or silver, and applying the general 
 multiple of thirty in property to one of money, the property of 
 the Confederate States amounts to about four thousand millions 
 of dollars. The necessities of the Confederate States have in- 
 creased the volume of paper credits vastly. A suspension of 
 specie payments has been made general, and the entire transac- 
 tions of the business of the country and the maintenance of the 
 conflict with the United States must be carried on by govern- 
 mental and bank credits, paper money, unless all the different 
 elements can be united in some system of measures mutually 
 advantageous. 
 
 The very fact that we must collect the direct tax now imposed 
 by the unanimous voice of our Congress, upon the property of 
 the people of the Confederate States, in Government paper and 
 use bank notes, disposes of the question as to whether the Gov- 
 ernment should ally itself with the business of the banks or the 
 commerce of the country. The question which arises is, what 
 action ought the Government to take to render the taxes 
 uniform? An exchequer, with an office of discount and deposit 
 attached, embracing the general features of the Bank of Eng- 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. jfS^ 
 
 land, recommends itself; the Government has made laws 
 regulating the conduct of its officers in the collection and 
 disbursement of its revenues — tlicy borrow and collect, and 
 then pay away what they borrow or collect ; the Treasury of 
 the Government is that thing which keeps these means from 
 their receipt till their disbursement ; and an exchequer, with a 
 capital of fifty millions to be raised by a subscription of forty 
 millions in Confederate eight per cent, stock by the Government 
 or individuals, and ten millions in coin, is recommended with the 
 following restrictions and limitations : The issue department to 
 be separate and distinct from the banking department, and the 
 deposit of four dollars in Confederate debt and one dollar in 
 coin to be left with the Governor and Commissioners of the 
 issue department by the banking department, upon which the 
 Commissioners shall deliver to the banking department or the 
 offices of discount and deposit notes for the like amounts, bearing 
 the caption: "The Governor and Managers of the Exchequer of 
 
 the Confederate States of America, will pay to 
 
 or bearer at ." No note to be ever used a 
 
 second time when once returned to the issue department. The 
 offices to be located where the Government may indicate ; the 
 revenues of the Government to be always deposited in the insti- 
 tution, and transferred by it from any one office to any other 
 where required, free of charge, by the banking department ; all 
 transfers of mone3"s for the Government as well as individuals 
 to take place without any checks. The capital to be awarded 
 to each State in proportion to its population and property. 
 The Commissioners for the issue department, to reside at their 
 several branches, to be three in number, who shall issue the 
 notes as specified, and to be appointed by the President and 
 Senate of the Confederate States; the general management of 
 the banking department at each office to be conducted by a 
 governor and managers, say seven in number, three appointed 
 by the Governor of the State and three elected by the local 
 shareholders, and these to name a chairman — accounts to be 
 kept with private individuals and States as may be prescribed 
 by the managers, the issues of notes for circulation, after the 
 issue of fifty millions, to take place upon the deposit of two 
 
14 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 dolLars in Confederate debt and one in c.in, up to say eighty 
 millions — beyond tliat sum to be only issued upon one dollar in 
 coin as a deposit for each dollar of note. The power to issue 
 notes for circulation to be limited to the period of the extinction 
 of the Confederate debt. No transaction to take place in any 
 description of bills or notes maturing beyond the State in which 
 the office was located. The debts due to the institution never 
 to exceed twice its capital at any of its offices. The issue of 
 post notes, at periods not beyond thirty days, upon the deposit 
 of money with the banking department, and payable to the 
 order of the depositors, to be obligatory, provided the amount 
 
 named docs not fall below dollars. 
 
 It cannot escape the least observant, that the restrictions 
 against the dealings in exchange, as it is generally termed, are 
 positive; and as this subject should be disposed of satisfactorily 
 by the Congress of the Confederate States, it is in our judg- 
 ment rio-ht and proper to declare invalid all evidences of debt 
 due, or to become due at any point in any State adhering to 
 the Government of the United States. This Avould upturn and 
 destroy the stupendous operations in exchange bills, in which 
 the State banks of the South have participated to the prejudice 
 of our commerce and agriculture. The credit given in the sale 
 and movement of the crops of the South has left us with a large 
 amount of bank issues, totally inconvertible into coin. The 
 purchaser of our crops, say of cotton, instead of sending his 
 means direct to us, has been in the habit of directing the pur- 
 chases to be made and a bill drawn on his agent in New York 
 
 at date, and this agent would sell his sterling exchange 
 
 on the purchaser in, say Manchester, England, retire the draft 
 from New Orleans, Mobile or Charleston, as the case might be, 
 the cotton going forward, and not unfrequently reaching Man- 
 chester, and being converted into goods and sold before the 
 maturity of the bill. The credit given in these transactions 
 inures to the manufacturer in Manchester, and is furnished by 
 the banks of the South, and works out the simple result of leav- 
 ing the coin, which ought to take the place of our cotton Avhen 
 it is shipped in our own country, in the hands of the English 
 manufacturer. If the purchaser reside in New England it is the 
 
OF TUE CONFEDERATE STATES. 15 
 
 same. The banks of England, France, or of New York, leave 
 thh whole business to merchants ; and their sagacvtj need but 
 be commended, since suspensions of specie payments arc not 
 practiced by them upon every flaw of adversity as is the case 
 with us. The tendency of the banking system is to expansion. 
 Our effort to unite circulation and discount must fail. The 
 principles arc antagonistical and as irreconcilable as the asperi- 
 ties between paper money and coin. The transfer of the crops 
 of the South, if confined to ready money, will bring buyers to 
 our doors prepared to pay down for their supplies. Certainly, 
 we are not able to sell our enormous crops on credit, and this 
 being too obvious, the action of our Congress can remedy the 
 evils by furnishing a convertible currency, and taxing all other 
 bank issues upon each note, say ten cents the first year, 
 advancing five cents for each year, for tAvcnty years, the 
 revenue thus derived will be $750,000 the first year, increasing 
 annually with the tax, taking all the notes issued by the banks 
 at 375,000,000, and the denominations to average ten dollars 
 each. The term of twenty years would bring us into a condition 
 of affiiirs in which none but large bank notes would exist; and 
 if Ave paid off our national debt, a metallic currency for all the 
 small transactions of the country would prevail. 
 
 The tax on bank issues is one of the very lightest which 
 eould be imposed on the country, as the annual interest on the 
 very smallest note would, for years, be more than the tax 
 imposed by the Government. Wc need coin in all the smaller 
 transactions. Bank paper is its foe; we must remove that 
 before the other will come in its place. This digression Irom 
 advocating an exchequer has been unavoidable, since the whole 
 subject of the currency of the country is in review. One of the 
 objects which we think may be accomplished by an exchequer is 
 to furnish upon a basis of ten millions in coin, credits available 
 to the Government and the borrowers of money to the extent of 
 one hundred millions of dollars. It is established as a fact, that 
 any issue of bank paper, justly in circulation, must leave a debt 
 behind it which it is valuable to pay. "When to this we add the 
 other quality, that it will be credited and received by the largest 
 money dealer in the country, the Government, no doubt can 
 
16 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 exist as to its usefulness as a circulating medium, but one and 
 only one of these qualities, the latter, exists in regard to a 
 treasury note. The reverse is the fact respecting the other 
 quality, as it, the treasury note, gets into existence, as evidence 
 of an indebtedness to its first holder ; and since the dues to the 
 Government are smaller than the notes which may be issued, 
 their value as a circulating medium must be short-lived and 
 ephemeral. The treasury notes of the Government are cheer- 
 fully used by our citizens and the banks ; and if no other evi- 
 dence was furnished of the cordiality with Avhich every interest 
 was prepared to sustain the Government of the Confederate 
 States, this would be ample ; but we are dealing with principles 
 older than our Government, and more permanent than our 
 present conflict is likely to be. There is a standard of values 
 recognized by us and all the world, and that standard of values 
 is for every transaction, viz : so many grains of gold or silver, 
 called in our language and for our commerce a dollar. We may 
 evidence our indebtedness by any description of paper issues 
 most acceptable ; but the debt cannot be cancelled by the country 
 until taxes are collected from the land, and labor sufficient to 
 liquidate the obligation ; but the strong confidence evinced on 
 all hands in our cause and our delivery, carries with it power 
 onoudi to overcome all difficulties connected with our finances. 
 Still, that this immense force shall be conducted into safe and 
 judicious channels, has been the object of these suggestions. 
 
OF THE CONFEDEllATE STATES. 17 
 
 CHArTER III. 
 
 WEIGHTS, MEASURES AND COINS. 
 
 As gcrman to these subjects of commerce and finance, comes 
 up the subject of weights and measures ; and here, fortunately 
 for us, tlie hibor has been already performed by the French. 
 The spherical distance from the equator to the pole has 
 been carefully ascertained to be 5,130,740 toises (six feet 
 89450-100000 parts.) This divided by ten millions of parts 
 gives the metre (which is 39 371-1000 English inches.) This is 
 the unit of their measures of length. Its square and cube arc 
 taken as standards of surface, capacity and solidity. The 
 gramme, which is the unit of the French weights, is the one- 
 hundredth part of a cubic metre at (39.26 degrees temperature 
 Fahrenheit or 4® centigrade,) the melting point of frozen water. 
 The litre French for measuring capacitj', is the cube of one- 
 tenth of a metre. The terms for multiplying are Greek ; those 
 for dividing are Latin. A simpler or a more exact system can- 
 not be devised. We could adjust ours from natural objects, 
 such as the seed of tobacco or cotton, or even the fibre of the 
 sea island cotton ; but the present complex tables of Troy 
 weight, "Apothecaries weight," Avoirdupois weight, "wool 
 weight and cheese and butter weight," are indefensible expect 
 that they are in use, whilst our measures arc equally as bad. 
 "Long measure," superficial measure, "cubic or solid measure," 
 liquid measure, "dry measure," and wood measure — ever}'- one 
 arbitrary. New names and a new coin for our standards struck 
 by ourselves, abrogating entirely every name of every instru- 
 ment which is now attached to our commercial intercourse, will 
 destroy the badges of our inferiority. Let the baptism of fire 
 and blood through which we are passing, enable us to speak a 
 new language in our exchanges with the world. We are on 
 the banks of aii eternal deliverance from bondage ; let us speak 
 with new tongues ; let us not recall our former servitude by any 
 word which is used by that race and Government whose course 
 2 
 
18 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 toward us ought to make us hesitate to speak even the same 
 vernacular. The metrical system has been adopted by law in 
 Spain, Belgium. Greece, Holland, Lombardy, Poland, Switzer- 
 land, and in Chili, Columbia and Mexico. 
 
 Tlie Convention veaohed this conclusion on this subject ; 
 
 liesolvcd, That to facilitate and simplify commercial calculations in tlie 
 comtiy, we recommend that the Congress of tlie Confederate States pass a 
 law regulating coins and weights and measures, and that the basis shall be 
 put upon a decimal ratio, with appropriate denominations. 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 19 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Tdllowing articles were pnblifjlied upon the subject of Weights, treas- 
 ures anil Coins, by the author of this treaties upon Commercial Enfranchise- 
 ment in the onler in vvliicli the> here appeal. 
 
 The proposed alterations in our weights and measures, as well 
 as coins, which suggests the French system instead of our pres- 
 ent ones, must lead to investigations of some value and interest, 
 and being perfectly satisfied and approving of the action of the 
 Macon Convention on the subject, the following statements of 
 names, and the origin and value of the metrical system, are re- 
 garded of sufficient importance to claim general attention. 
 
 The metrical system has one unit for its basis, is universal 
 and decimal : from the unit of length all the other units are 
 derived. 
 
 In order that this unit might belong equally to all nations, it 
 was taken on the actual dimensions of om* globe. It is the ten 
 millionth part of the quarter of the terrestial meridian. 
 
 This miit of length is called "metre" to adapt it to the deci- 
 mal calculation ; the metre was sub-divided into parts of ten, 
 and those into others ten times smaller, and its multiples are by 
 ten, and those by ten again. 
 
 The metre serves as a basis to the other units in the follow- 
 ing manner: 
 
 The arc, or the unit of superficial measure, is a square, the 
 size of which is ten metres long. 
 
 The stere, or the unit of cubation for wood, is a cubic metre. 
 
 The litre, or the unit of gauging vessels for dry or liquid 
 
 materials, is a cube, the side of which is one-tenth of a metre. 
 
 The gramme, or the unit of Aveight, is the weight of a cube 
 
 of 1.100 of a metre, or one cubic centimetre of distilled water 
 
 at its maximum density, (4.0 centigrade) weighed in a vacuum. 
 
 The franc, or the monetary unit, is five grammes of an alloy 
 
 compounded of nine parts of fine silver and one part of pure 
 
 copper, and made under guaranty. 
 
20i COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 All these units are multiplied and divided like the metres, to 
 systematize the denominations. The names of the multiples 
 are taken from the Greek language, and those of the divisions 
 from the Latin, thus: deca for ten; hc<;to for 100; hilo for 
 1,000; myria for 10,000; deci for one-tenth, or 0.1 ; centi for 
 one-hundredth, or 0.01; milU for one-thousandth, or 0.001. 
 These names are written before that of the kind of unit in ques- 
 tion. Thus, we say 1 deca-metre for 10 metres; kilo-metre for 
 thousand metres; kilogramme for a thousand grammes; centi- 
 metre, centilitre, centigramme, for 0.01, or one-hundredth of a 
 metre, of a gramme and of a litre. 
 
 Each of these multiples or divisors may, in the calculation, 
 be taken for principal units. It is thus that the kilometre 
 serves as unit of topographical length for railroads; the milli- 
 metre for micrometical measures; the kilogramme for the 
 weights of commerce, &c. Custom has adapted all these Greek 
 and Latin names onlv for the metre, the litre and the si;ramme. 
 Those which belong to the are, are only the hectare and the 
 centiare ; those which relate to the stere are the decistere and 
 the centistere. 
 
 For the franc the names of decime and centime, taken for 
 0.1 franc, (one-tenth,) 0.01 franc, (or one-hundredth,) are the 
 only ones that are made use of. 
 
 It is an ascertained fact, that this adjustment, so simple, pre- 
 sents the feature of remarkable unity in this: that there is no 
 standard of measures of capacity; in fact, it would be unneces- 
 sary, since the litre, the unit of this standard, is a cubic deci- 
 metre; and a cubic decimetre of distilled water, at its maxium 
 density, weighs in a vacuum exactly one kilogramme. 
 
 The above facts are drawn from official sources, and present 
 us with much worthy of careful consideration. We are enter- 
 ing into a new order of things; and setting up for ourselves as 
 a nation, we demand and seek independence and individuality 
 as a people. Commercially, we have been wholly dependent on 
 Yankee masters; in striking oif our shackles and reaching out 
 our unloosed arms ; let our tongues utter new words ; let new 
 names be adopted for our insignia in commerce and trade — 
 differing in everything from a Yankee in our thoughts, our 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 21 
 
 religion, our feelings, our laws, our institutions, our voices, our 
 walking, our writing, and our talking; it surely must be soon a 
 necessity that we have new weights and measures as well as new 
 coins. Commercial independence is, and has been, the burden 
 of thousands of speeches and myriads of essays throughout the 
 Confederate States; many theories have been suggested, but it 
 is singular that not one single Legislature, Congi-ess, or even 
 any council, has adopted any suggestion by changing any law 
 or usage, and for all apparent good, we yet sec the vast changes 
 now taking place in our political relations will find us just as 
 much a Yankee-patronizing and sustaining province as we for- 
 merly were. Reformation by changing our commercial language 
 will certainly make us a different people so far as our books of 
 accounts are concerned, and also in relation to our school-books, 
 in our counting-houses, at our exchanges, in our stores and 
 shops, in our apothecaries and drug stores, as well as at our 
 market-places; and when at all these places the people speak a 
 new tongue in their buying and selling, we shall know certainly 
 we have begun to carry on our affairs independently. The fact 
 that in the dispersion of mankind at the Tower of Babel their 
 language was made different, announces a potent principle, 
 which we can apply to our commercial interests without detri- 
 ment. 
 
 The questions as to the value of any one system over another, 
 are to be discussed hereafter ; and in placing the above facts 
 and suggestions before the reader, his consideration of the sub- 
 ject may suggest a different and better system. We may, at 
 the least, think over the names and familiarize our minds with 
 the necessity for such action as shall cut off all evidence of our 
 accursed connection with the United States. If, by any occur- 
 rence in a single day, the people of the State of Tennessee 
 should change their language to the French, intercourse with 
 them of every kind would be seriously interrupted, if not en- 
 tirely suspended; and so with our language of commerce. If 
 we shall, in the Confederate States, change our commercial lan- 
 guage, make it different from the Yankees, we may certainly 
 infer that a serious obstacle will arise to intercourse with them. 
 
22 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCniSEMENI 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ''Wliose is this image and superscription?"' 
 
 The answer to tins question settled the nationality of the 
 place at which the interrogatory was put, the piece of money, 
 the com of tlie country, had upon it the image of Caesar, it was 
 the current coin, the money of Syria, and it was evidence of 
 the government to which they should pay tribute — a simpler 
 elucidation could not have been found. It settled the question 
 of their obedience, their subjugation, and of their duty to obey 
 their sovereign's demand. This fact announces, in plain terms, 
 that every nation should indicate its existence by its own coins. 
 Have we any? The Confederate States have no coins. There 
 is no legal unit (for a dollar) of the Confederate States. A 
 5-franc piece, by the act of March 9th, 1861, is declared to be 
 worth ninety-five cents, and a Mexican and an United States 
 dollar to be worth one hundred and two cents. On the 9th of 
 March, 1861, a law was passed requiring that suitable dies 
 should be prepared for the coins of the Confederate States, but 
 nothing has been, as yet, done vipon the subject. The relative 
 value which gold and silver bear to each other, as well as what 
 ought to be their relations in our circulating medium are to be 
 declared. In 1834 the United States Government made the 
 value of gold to be sixteen to one of silver ; it had been fifteen 
 to one by the act of 1793. The alloy is inexact in the coins of 
 Great Britain and the United States, and indeed of all nations 
 except the French. The sovereigns of Great Britain are finer 
 than the French Napoleons ; the Mexican and United States 
 silver dollars are finer than the French five-franc pieces. The 
 object of all alloy, that is, durability as well as exactness, is 
 secured better by the policy of the French Government, by 
 making their coins out of a mixture — one-tenth of which is of 
 an inferior metal, copper, with their gold or silver coins, and in 
 the copper coins ninety-five copper, four of tin and one of zinc. 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES- 23 
 
 The real value of a kilogramme of gold is thirty-one hundred 
 francs: in j^ilver two hundred francs; in copper ten francs. A 
 centime, in copper, weighs one gramme; a franc silver five 
 grammes; twenty centimes, silver, one gramme. The franc, 
 their unit, may be very easily converted into a standard of 
 either a weight or a measure, as it is 23-1,000 of a metre across 
 its face and is just 1-200 parts of a kilogramme, the commercial 
 unit of weight. The questions which might arise with a nation 
 respecting any change in their coins ought not to be considered 
 with us, as wc begin our existence and ought to seek the true 
 standard and adopt it. If Ave make silver our unit in our coins, 
 then wc should find the simplest weight and make the coin to 
 contain a decimal of the mixture, which itself should possess 
 decimal proportions of alloy and pure silver. The same course 
 should be pursued if we take gold. The names to be applied 
 to these coins should be expressive of the nation. We have the 
 words Confederate, State, county, which could be easily used 
 without any violence to the customs of our people. The ques- 
 tion once settled as to the unit, the names are simple, and the 
 decimal being the divisions, of course custom would soon regu- 
 late the balance. One thing is, however, certain that nothing 
 can reconcile the people to any other than a decimal system in 
 their currency; and if any argument were needed in favour of 
 a decimal system in weights and measures, this very fact that, 
 after a trial of the principle in the currency, the experience of 
 the whole population approves of it entirely, would answer every 
 objection against the adoption of a decimal system in our weights 
 and measures. 
 
 Moses said, "Do not say any unjust thing in judgment, in 
 rule, in weight, or in measure; let the balance be just and the 
 weights equal ; the bushel just, and the sextary equal." The 
 impossibility of being exact in our weights and measures, with 
 our present system, will be made apparent by the statement of 
 a few facts : A grain of wheat taken from the middle of the 
 ear, ivcll dried, is the standard which starts the jjoimd troy — 
 a.s follows: 24 grains a pennyweight, (an old silver coin of Great 
 Britain being of that weight,) 20 pennyweights an ounce, and 
 12 ounces a pound. In avoidupois weight there is a starting 
 
24 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 point, except that, by an act of Parliament, 10 grains make one 
 scruple, and 3 scruples a drachm, 16 drachms an ounce, and 16 
 ounces a pound, in the same natural object. In apothecaries' 
 weight we have a long string of names suitable for doctors and 
 quacks to call over and write out for the apothecary, but there 
 is no meaning to any of these several words out of the pursuits 
 to which they relate. A grocer is, by his profession, a stranger 
 to the weights of the apothecary, and the silversmith would do 
 a poor business if he adopted the weights of the grocer or 
 the apothecary, as he must use troy weight or dian>ond weight; 
 but yet we teach our children all these tables, and they are all 
 in use amongst our people without any advantage, but very 
 great troiible, and not unfrequently with blunders and mistakes^^ 
 and never with positive exactness. Since twenty grains of one 
 field and one variety of wheat will weigh very differently from 
 another twenty grains from another field, and as Ave are seeking 
 exactness, and as the foundation of the whole system is variable, 
 we should abandon the system as worthless and look for another. 
 Our measures are equally as objectionable, as a few facts will 
 demonstrate. We have, as the starting point, or the unit, the 
 inch, defined thus : three barleycorns make an inch, twelve 
 inches a foot, three feet a yard, &c. In many portions of the 
 Confederate States barley is not known. It being one of the 
 staple productions of England, however, she might apologise for 
 making such an object the basis of her long measures, but for 
 us it has no claims of this kind. In measuring grain, or to 
 speak as the merchants now speak, by dry measure, we have a 
 bushel in name, but the thing used is a half bushel, with but few 
 exceptions. Ten pounds of distilled water is a gallon, and eighty 
 pounds of distilled water is a bushel — this measure is, of course, 
 dependent upon the wheat grain, and that being variable, the 
 standard which we have derived, and is in use, must be defec- 
 tive. Our liquid measures are divided and subdivided so singu- 
 larly as to require familiarity, in absolute use, to make us recol- 
 lect them. Four gills a pint, two pints a quart, four quarts a 
 gallon, &c. Cubic measure is a real difficulty — let us state it: 
 1,720 inches a foot, 27 feet a yard, 12 cubic feet a ton of ship- 
 ping, &c. Our square measure are, of course, bottomed upon, 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 2') 
 
 the divisions of inches, feet, yards, &c. An acre is a quantity 
 of land in which there are 4,840 yards square, or 160 square 
 rods or perches, and which it takes a surveyor to ascertain with 
 certainty. So difficult and treacherous arc all our weights and 
 measures, that in almost every article of build. ng, and for every 
 piece of work done by house-carpenters or railway builders, or 
 land sold, the sworn professional weigher, measurer, or surveyor, 
 is essential before the simplest i^ettlement can be made between 
 neighbour and neighbour. We have in each State a page or. 
 two, and in some, doubtless, more, of laws upon the subject of 
 weights and measures, all of which are bottomed upon a stand- 
 ard derived from the United States, and they obtain their stand- 
 ard from England, and she had hers from the sources already 
 alluded to. 
 
 Now, is there any real, unchangeable, fixed and exact standard 
 existing in nature capable of being used instead of those we 
 now have? If so, the simplest understanding must determine 
 in favour of its adoption. The fact that the earth has been 
 already measured, and that its proportions are definitely ascer- 
 tained and applied to weights, measures and coins, furnishing every 
 required advantage, has been announced by the highest scientific 
 authority in the whole world — the French Academy of Sciences. 
 A history of the facts connected with the affair is of the highest 
 importance, and, with such materials as are at command, we 
 may gather all of the imposing results of this interesting appli- 
 cation of science to the commerce of the world. In 1700, 
 Talleyrand obtained from the Constituent Assembly, of which 
 he was a member, an order that the Academy of Sciences shoi^ld 
 found a metrical sj^stem based upon nature and suitable for 
 acceptance by all nations. The Academy fixed the unit at the 
 ten millionth part of the terrestrijil meridian — a measurement 
 having been made by Lacaille, in Peru; but another line was 
 measured, passing through France, extending from Dunkirk to 
 Barcelona, and afterwards northward through England and 
 Scotland — and from the Isle of Wight southward, through Spain, 
 to the island of Fomentera. This ffvand achievement, durinir 
 the throes of revolution, was participated in by other nations at 
 the invitation of the provisional government. This commission 
 
2G COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 was composed of the following persons : Berthola, Borda, Bris- 
 son, Laplace, Lefevre, Gineau, Legendre, Mecbam, Monque, 
 Prony and Vandermondc, members of the Institute of France; 
 Aenx and Van Swinden, sent by the Republic of the Nether- 
 lands; DeBalbo, by Sardinia; Bugge, by Denmark; Ciscar 
 and Pedrayes, by Spain; Fabbroni, by Tuscany; Franchini, 
 by the Roman Republic ; Mascheroni, by the Cis-Alphine Re- 
 public; Mullcdo, by the Laguyrian Republic; Trallcs, by the 
 Swiss Confederation; Vassalli, by Piedmont; Lenoir, a French 
 artist, who executed the metre and apparatus relative to it, and 
 Fontiae, also a French artist, author of the kilogramme and its 
 apparatus. Julliet Lavoisier and General Meunier took an 
 active part for only a short period, unfortunately. This com- 
 mittee, after suitable verification, reported the metrical system 
 of measures, and the weights were deduced from the metre with 
 the new coins, constituting five units, as follows : 
 A metre — 1-10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the 
 
 pole. 
 An are — 100 square metres. 
 A store — 1 cubic metre. 
 
 A gramme — 1-100 of a metre of water, the unit of weight. 
 A litre — 1-10 of a metre square. 
 
 These names are very simple, and are invariable, and one 
 reveals the other. The coins are of different weights and 
 measure certain proportions of a metre, as has been stated before. 
 Now, the question arises, can we in the Confed>.rate States adopt 
 a metrical decimal system in lieu of the one which the Yankees 
 use? The great change wrought in our currency was Mr. 
 Jefferson's work, by which a decimal currency was substituted 
 in the place of our confused pounds, shillings and pence. May 
 we not, with perfect propriety, carry into our weights and 
 measures the very same principle which we have so much 
 reason to see is the simplest and the best in our currency. The 
 names of the new weights and measures, as well as our coins, 
 may need some very immaterial changes, and the revolution in 
 our whole social and commercial and literary existence becomes 
 as great as that in our political relations has been. Why may 
 not the Congress now in session pass a resolution authorizing 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 27 
 
 the President to appoint a committee of one or two gentlemen, 
 of known intelligence, from each State, to prepare a system, 
 embracing the decimal metrical principles, and dissolving our 
 language in commercial intercourse from the Yankee language, 
 because it is a better one and a purer tongue. Let us of the 
 Confederate States adopt it, drawing from the earth on which 
 we tread the system by which we will buy or sell, and teaching, 
 in every business transaction, by the image and superscription 
 on the coin we may use, that we are a race of men affirming 
 our nationality, and in our weights and measures declaring tliat 
 we obey the great Jewish Lawgiver — the balance being just, th/g 
 weights eci[ual, the bushel just, and the sextery equal 
 
28 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 One of the highest acts of sovereignty -which any Government 
 performs, is the assigning of instruments to commerce, and 
 designating the names by which they are to be known in 
 every transaction, by which property is passed from citizen 
 to citizen, in all their buying and selling, exchanging or 
 bartering. These things, called by names originating in the 
 customs of the people, were ascertained and announced by 
 the Governments of the world, from uncertain standards, 
 up to the period of the French revolution, in 1790, when a 
 higher and more comprehensive suggestion was inaugurated^ 
 as that intelligent and scientific people took cognizance of the 
 fact that, of all the words used amiongst mankind^ the names of 
 their coins, weights and measures were used as often, indeed 
 oftener, than any other words in their language — that the 
 language of any people, if found to be adopted from their con- 
 querors, was conclusive evidence of their entire subjugation. 
 They recognized the fact that Vt'ords used so oftea as the namea 
 of the weights, measures and coins of the people^ should convey 
 ideas of an exact and positive character; that anything called 
 by a name to be explained and comprehended, the thing itself 
 must be shown, and the name by which it is called must be told 
 to the listener before the mind can form any idea of the thing 
 itself. None of us could possibly conceive of what a man speaks 
 in an unknown tongue^ although he might announce the name 
 very clearly, or if the commonest object about us be called by a 
 new name we must learn the change of name and see the thing 
 alluded to before the mind can understand the sound. Our 
 Government calls the measure by which cloths of all kinds are 
 sold "a yard*" We have seen the thing which marks the 
 length on the cloth, and we understand the quantity we shall 
 buy or sell, when we hear the word mentioned; but why call it 
 a yard; why not call it the "measure"? What we mean by the 
 word yard, we know to be the distance which three feet, com- 
 
OP THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 29 
 
 posed of twelve inches each, the inch heing just as long as three 
 barley corns, when laid end to end. In plain language, a 
 "yard" is just the same space that one hundred and eight 
 barley corns would cover laid in a straight line on a level sur- 
 face, each end of each grain touching the grains next to it, and 
 this is the idea, the thought which is conveyed to the mind when 
 the Government says "a yard" — by its la^vs or its proclama- 
 tions, since it is a term in law as well as custom. Every one 
 who can calculate in figures the simplest sum will readily under- 
 stand the great ease and exactness of all calculations by tens or 
 hundreds, a decimal or its compound. Why, then, should we 
 impose upon ourselves and upon all who may come after us the 
 unnecessary labor which that learned simpleton, John Quincej 
 Adams, refused to take from our shoulders, when, in 1821, this 
 very question of decimal weights and measures was reported on 
 by him when Secretary of State; and chiefly by his deport- 
 ment, the United States Government refused to adopt a decimal 
 system, in lieu of the burthensome and complex one which we 
 had inherited from England, and which in turn the Confederate 
 States have adopted from the Yankees. If we mean to express 
 a distance from one point to another, the fractions below the 
 unit can be expressed better in parts of a hundred than in parts 
 of a foot — an inch — or by quarters, halves, or eighths or six- 
 teenths. This is too clear to admit of discussion. Is not the 
 measure itself objectionable, when we come to analyze it? Sup- 
 pose we should take a certain part of the distance of the earth's 
 surface, from one point to another, as the French have done for 
 for our unit, and divide it into decimals, as they have done — we 
 should then find our Government and our people, when speaking 
 of the measure, would mean exactly the one ten-millionth part 
 of the distance from the equator to the pole, or one forty- 
 millionth of the distance around the earth through the poles. 
 The name by which this thing shall be called may lead to some 
 discussion, as the whole reformation in our commercial nomen- 
 clature turns on this starting point ; for if we can dethrone the 
 "yard," the origin of which has hecn traced to barley corns, we 
 have dispelled the charm of the whole system, and the pathway 
 becomes clear to a reformation, absolute .and incalculable, inas- 
 
30 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 much as every Yankee book is expelled from our schools, and 
 every word a Yankee uses in buying or selling becomes obsolete 
 as certainly as the course of nature continues ; for the new 
 measure, bottomed on the size of the globe on which we live, be- 
 comes the foundation of all the weights and coins, as well as of 
 every thing to be measured. We shall speak a new commercial 
 dialect, truthful because exact, becoming because it will be just 
 and right. The word yard is a bad one — it signifies other 
 things than a measure, as an enclosure ; when used in regard to 
 ships, it means a long piece of timber suspended upon the mast 
 by which a sail is extended. We have the word "meter," or 
 "metre," signifying measure, and already applied to this very 
 subject by a very large proportion of the civilized world. In 
 France, Greece, Belgium, Sardinia, Switzerland, and indeed all 
 Continental Europe, the meaning of metre is far better under- 
 stood than the word yard* The metrical system has been 
 adopted by some of the South American States, as well as 
 Mexico ; and the word metre, the term employed, is in use in all 
 these countries, signifies the same everywhere, and is stereo- 
 typed in" its application to distances and measures of all kinds 
 throughout the world, for all time to come. In the French sys- 
 tem, they have borrowed all their nomenclature from the dead 
 languages — the dividing terms being taken from the Latin, and 
 the multiplying ones from the Greek. It has been said with 
 some pious emotions, and with much apparent force, that when 
 the oracles of the Jewish Scriptures became complete, the 
 Hebrew language ceased to be a spoken or living language — 
 that upon the completion of the New Testament Christian 
 Scriptures, the Greek language became a dead language ; the 
 Book of God thus is stereotyped forever beyond the possibility 
 of change or interpolation by any agency. The French Acad- 
 emy of Science, with her philosophers and statesmen, in search- 
 ing for names, borrowed their words fromHhe dead languages^ 
 hut the things they signified from the unalterable proportions of 
 the earth itself ; thus, by two immutable things adjusting upon 
 exact principles, the instruments of their commercial transac- 
 tions to the latest posterity. We are wishing to liberate our- 
 selves from Yankee ideas in business matters, let us change our 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 31 
 
 words in business affairs. Wc uish an independence of them 
 commercially ; let us make our language of commerce a different 
 one, and the thing follows as a necessary consequence ; for 
 although commerce may be king, yet the king must and does 
 obey laws, and one of those laws <as unchangeable as gravitation 
 is, that without a change in our laws upon commercial subjects, 
 without different laws from those of the Yankees, we shall have 
 the same commercial ideas, and, what is far worse, the same 
 habits and customs in all our transactions. Man makes the 
 laws, true ; but then the laws he makes govern and mould him 
 and the institutions which control his action and form his char- 
 acter. The words metre and kilogramme — the one the unit of 
 commercial measure and the other the unit of commercial 
 weight — signifying the things they truly represent, would, if 
 adopted and placed in the business and comn>erce of our country 
 in the place of the words yard and pound, do more in the 
 course of time to destroy Yankee influence in the Confederate 
 States, than did the battle of Manassas — and we value above 
 any price this splendid exhibition of Southern valor. The 
 kilogramme weight is exactly the weight of one-tenth of a metre 
 square of distilled water — the unit of measure for liquids. If, 
 therefore, science and the plainest truths can weigh upon a 
 question of so much gravity and so easy of accomplishment, we 
 anticipate the action which has been suggested, viz: the ap- 
 pointment of a committee of enlightened gentlemen to prepare 
 and report to Congress a decimal system of weights and 
 measures, as well as new coins, deriving the unit of measures 
 from the metre, which we have shown is the basis of the whole 
 system. 
 
 The ten figures we use in our calculations are constantly tell- 
 ing us on every occasion that we may use them, that the decimal 
 system is the simplest and the best ; but the facts that every 
 approach towards it^ntroduction into general use has been ap- 
 proved and sanctioned by all the nations who have tried it, and 
 that we arc devising means of escape from Yankee tyranny and 
 aggression, and that the enemy of Southern men and of the 
 Southern States, John Quincy Adams, opposed the introduction 
 of the decimal system into our weights and measures, after Mr. 
 
32 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 Jefferson had introduced it into our currency, should certainly 
 go a great way in determining us to abandon a system bad in 
 itself, but rendered worse by its use amongst a people who are 
 to-day plotting our destruction by sea and land. Revolutions 
 iire far more valuable in unloosing men's minds from old ideas 
 and forcing society into new habits and customs, than they are 
 in settling rights or adjusting disputes. If amidst this one of 
 such fearful magnitude, our habits and customs shall so change 
 as that the very language of our Aveights, measures and coins 
 shall be made new and cleansed of its pollution from Yankee 
 words and things, we may say, in years to come, with the intel- 
 ligent and gifted philosopher and tradesman of France, as he 
 looks upon the metre on his counter — the letre upon his shelf, 
 and the franc in his till, and his code Napolean on his table, 
 these are some of tjie gifts to me of the bloodiest revolution in 
 the tide of time, and they are more than any other country has 
 ever obtained from any civil or political revolution, since they 
 teach me the size of the earth, the value of science, the excel- 
 lence of fairness and the wisdom of justice. 
 
 It may be stated as one of the last measures brought to the 
 attention of the Confederate Pongress by the illustrious states- 
 man, John Tyler, was his resolution instructing the committee 
 on Commerce to enquire into the expediency of adopting a new 
 system of weights and measures, as well as new coins for the 
 Confederate States. 
 
 Your valuable suggestion respecting the coins for the Confed- 
 erate States in your editorial of the 23d inst., renders it neces- 
 sary that an omission in the communicatian upon weights, 
 measures and coins should be supplied. 
 
 The values of all coins arc ascertained and defined by their 
 vrEiGiiT and fineness — as appears by our acts of March 16th, 
 1861. The American dollar should wei^ 412| grains. The 
 Mexican dollar 415 grains of 867||.000p pure silver ; a five 
 franc piece should Aveigh 384 grains of 900||1000 pure silver. 
 Our unit of weight is a wheat grain; and since all wheat grains 
 are not of the same weight, the standard is inexact. If we 
 were to derive our unit of weight by taking the distance from 
 
OP THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 33 
 
 one place to another on the earth's surface, and dividing that 
 distance into a given number of parts, and then take a fraction 
 of a single part and construct a square measure and fdl it with 
 distilled water of a given temperature, we should have an exact 
 standard of tveiglit^ since every such measure would weigh the 
 same everywhere. 
 
 As to the size of the coins, it is but too obvious that we 
 snould avoid the diminutive unit of the French, although the 
 skill with which they have ascertained the distance from the 
 equator to the pole, may be worthy of our highest praise, and 
 even adoption, as the means by which we shall find a unit of 
 weight, in lieu of the grain of wheat and as a basis for our 
 measures, in place of the grains of barley corn. A new nomen- 
 clature in the place of our yards, ells, acres, miles, roods, 
 perches, penny-weight, scruples, gallons, gills, quarts, pints, 
 butts, pipes, tons, pounds, stones et al, &c., seems so necessary 
 that.it needs not to be commended. We do not abandon the 
 decimal currency by altering the unit of weights, although it 
 would upset the standard by which the value of the coin itself 
 would be ascertained. You desire to get rid of the word 
 "dollar" because the Yankees use it — a southern sentiment, 
 and evidences a purpose which seeks independence, and will ob- 
 tain it — the proposed system for new weights and measures will 
 get rid of it. 
 
 We positively have no standard for weights, measures or 
 coins, and yet make them standards of admeasurement for other 
 things. How long is a foot ? As long as twelve inches. How 
 long is an inch ? As long as three barley corns. How long is 
 a barley corn ? That depends on circumstances. What is the 
 weight of a grain of wheat? 
 
 Sir Robert Peel, in 1817, when advocating a reform in the 
 currency of Great Britain, says he asked a witness before the 
 Parliamentary Committee what a pound sterling was, and his 
 reply was, "I can't tell you, but* every body knows." The 
 great statesman at once undertook the great work of reforming 
 and correcting the inaccuracies existing in the coinage of the 
 kingdom, the process by which this was accomplished need not 
 
 be related. He reached as much exactness as the bad standards 
 3 
 
34 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 he found in use would warrant. But we must not dismiss this 
 important subject without saying that there is hut one exact and 
 unalterable standard yet discovered, viz: A certain proportion 
 of the distance from one point to another of the earth, and this 
 standard is applicable alike to weights, measures and coins. 
 
 We shall encounter some difficulty in deciding whether we 
 shall take silver for our unit or gold ; if we adopt gold, we may 
 very readily find a unit of such value as will obey your sugges- 
 tion for a larger unit than we now have, and yet observe the 
 decimal divisions; if we adhere to silver we may be compelled 
 to find a reconciliation of the decimal proportions of alloy and 
 pure metal with the same principle in the division of the coin 
 itself, in an unit possessed of more bulk than convenience would 
 justify. The matchless resources of the country and the gene- 
 rous dispositions of our people, seem to indicate a large and 
 valuable unit as proper for us, since the coins are part of the 
 character of the nation that may use them. 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 35 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FREE TRADE-EXCISES -MERCHANTS' SALES, &C.-SOTJRCES 
 OF REVENUE-DIRECT TAXATION. 
 
 We now approach the subject of taxation, the true method 
 for raising the revenues of the Confederate States — whether 
 by taxes of an indirect character on imports — by excises — by 
 taxation on the sales of merchandize, d* by a direct tax on the 
 whole property of the citizens of the Confederacy. History 
 furnishes us with the fact, that two prolific sources of wars 
 amongst mankind have been the collection and disbursement of 
 the public revenue. The decay and downfall of nations lies 
 deeper, and is traceable to the wearing out of the lands on 
 which they live, more than to any defects in Government. An 
 enquiry into the reasons which led to our separation from our 
 late associates, must compel us to recognize as one of the chief 
 causes of dispute, and, indeed, the very root and beginning of 
 the quarrel, a tariff on imports ; for obviously until the col- 
 lection was made, no distribution could occur ; and although we 
 felt and saw the injustice practiced upon us in the distribution, 
 as well as in the collection of the revenue, yet, if there had 
 never been any duty levied upon the imports of the United 
 States, our situated might, and doubtless would have been 
 widely different from that we now occupy. The dispute be- 
 tween the disciples of protection and revenue may vindicate the 
 folly of one side or the other, but the system of raising the 
 revcDues for a Confederacy covering so many degrees of the 
 earth's surface, by a tax upon the productions brought into it 
 for sale at the very moment of their introduction, is objected to 
 because of its injustice and want of diffusion amongst the people, 
 and particularly by a tariff varying the charges on the different 
 articles. 
 
 A tax upon all the property of a country, according to value, 
 is an ad valorem tax ; but if property in land be taxed one 
 dollar, and property in horses or slaves to be taxed at fifty cents. 
 
86 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 it is not ad valorem, and, singular as it may seem, our tariff has 
 been enacted so as to violate these simple principles. Different 
 charges being exacted upon the value of different articles — the 
 article, not its value, regulating the charges exacted by the 
 Government — the reasons Avhich controlled our Congress must 
 have been those which have been offered by the old Government 
 that now is tottering into the grave, viz., that articles of luxury 
 must and ought to pay more than necessaries — the decision of 
 what is a luxury and what a necessary being made, of course, 
 by Congress. A pair of boots costs five dollars in Paris ; the 
 duty is fifteen per cent., or seventy-five cents; a diamond may 
 cost the same to ornament a breast-pin, the duty is ten per 
 cent., or fifty cents ; the cost of cloth enough to make a coat 
 may be in England ten dollars, the duty will be one dollar and 
 fifty cents ; the value of forty pounds of South American wool 
 may be the same, and yet it will pay only one dollar. You tax 
 one citizen upon his consumption one sum and another citizen a 
 different sum upon the same value of foreign merchandize — the 
 folly and injustice of these discriminations is too obvious ; but 
 the statement that neither would pay anything unless we used 
 the articles, thus rendering all imposts optional with the citizen, 
 is of all the defences for injustice the most deceptive and 
 Jesuitical, in this, that it assumes we ought not to trade with 
 any nation except ourselves, as all other buying is taxed rightly. 
 The whole argument comes to this absurdity, and ought, there- 
 fore, to be discountenanced and abandoned forever. If a 
 uniform rate of duty upon all articles was adopted, it would be 
 a nearer approximation to justice and equity ; but a fatal objec- 
 tion exists respecting all duties upon imports, which cannot be 
 removed by any device yet discovered. How can the value be 
 ascertained ? If the value at the place of export is taken, that 
 varies as between seller and buyer so much as to favor all who 
 consign goods on their own account, made by themselves, and 
 of course the foreign manufacturer becomes the supplier of 
 our markets, through his own agent, who swears to all the 
 invoices sent him, as to the cost and value to the maker, with- 
 out detriment, if he escapes detection ? Our resident importers 
 are merely dealers in selected articles, and, if honest, cannot go 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. -J t 
 
 beyond this limited sphere except \sitlialoss. If you take a 
 home valuation, different valuer will attach to the same article 
 at different ports. This objection is positive, and cannot be 
 removed as against cither system — a home or foreign valuation. 
 The policy of making the merchants of the cauntry its col- 
 lectors of revenue cannot be sound, since the honest man is 
 defeated in his vocation by the unscrupulous. The Government. 
 l)v gathering its taxes at the gates of the country, declarer 
 itself unwilling to place any confidence in those who propose to 
 bring in their property for sale. The smuggler, undetected, is 
 without a crime, and, with his class, is an object of admiration. 
 The detective, as the Government officer is obliged to become, 
 is not an enviable character. ■ The worthy merchant feels and 
 sees the injustice to him, which ought te be removed, but he is 
 without any remedy, since there is no citizen of any country 
 who can tell the cost to him of his Government when the taxes 
 are collected on imports. The revenue is collected as stealthily 
 as the pickpocket filches property from his unsuspecting victim. 
 The results upon the mind of the independent citizen when 
 forced to choose between the swindler and the smuggler, wouM 
 be a condemnation of both, but for his knowledge of the fact 
 that his own Government was exercising the office of taking 
 tribute from a people Avith6ut their knowing the amount actually 
 abstracted. Yet we are burthened with a tariff on imports at 
 the very threshold of our existence, as a Confederacy, bottomed 
 upon old ideas taken from a Government which was tumbling 
 into ruins, chiefly from this cause, when we escaped from it. 
 The rapacity incident to man in every Government will en- 
 deavor to use the power of the ncAv Government for its own ad- 
 vancement, and we must expect a revival of the old quarrel 
 unless we discard the system of taxation upon imports, by which 
 the Government of the United States collected its revenue. 
 The hiatus in the system which the war has occasioned is very 
 lucky for the liberties of the country. The absence of revenue 
 from the custom-houses has disembarrassed the subject, although 
 the officers arc kept, with their salaries, in whole or in part, 
 regularly paid — an expense which should be stopped at once. 
 Excises levied upon certain articles, when sold, of both 
 
38 COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT 
 
 foreign and domestic manufacture, such as liquors, salt, etc., are 
 equally unjust ; but if an indirect tax, yet a certain method of 
 securing the revenue without the difficulty of finding the value 
 and an approximation to justice, be decided upon then as a basis 
 of taxation, let the sales of the licensed merchants of the country 
 he taken, attaching the simple condition that the article shall be 
 taxed but upon one sale. This will settle the question of its 
 value, for the sale will disclose the value of the articles quite 
 surely. The fact of allowing every one to enter our ports with 
 their products, free of charge, and here seek a market for them, 
 would create for us ships, merchants and imports, and, as a 
 consequence, .ready buyers and carriers for our crops. Could 
 there be a question but that the Government would thus collect 
 the amplest revenue, since it would take its revenue on a higher 
 value than the foreign invoice ; and an additional recommenda- 
 tion to that course would be, that the State officers could collect 
 the Confederate taxes, thus dispensing with the immense army 
 of custom-house officers. But the fact that the taxes which 
 would be thus collected must come from the land and labor of 
 the country, and would be gathered by indirect means, makes 
 the proposal to collect the revenues of the Confederate States 
 by a tax on the sales of the merchants, and not on their impor- 
 tation, only a preferable competing proposition to do the same 
 thing, viz : collect the revenue indirectly. Any system is 
 better than a tariflf with different charges on different articles 
 for an independent commerce. No independence can exist 
 without liberty. To render a nation free and independent, it is 
 a prerequisite that its trade should be free, absolutely. 
 
 The hand of Government is pernicious in all trading, inas- 
 much as all laws regulating the subject must originate in some 
 interest or other. The major interest must enact them, and 
 that for which all laws and constitutions should exist, viz : the 
 protection of the weak, is defeated and overridden by the rapa- 
 city of the majority. The fact that we are Southern States and 
 people, owning the same kind of labor, will not dethrone the 
 inherent organization of man. For every reason originating in 
 integrity, and a sagacitj^ worthy of the great mission upon 
 which we are now entering, let us discard every indirect method 
 
OF ■yiE CONFEDERATE STATES. 
 
 39 
 
 of obtaining from the people tlie money necessary to carry on 
 the Government wliicli the States have called into being. The 
 fact that so many State Governments, which manage our 
 domestic concerns so well, collect their revenues in the open 
 light of day, without difficulty, and that they and the people of 
 whom they collect their taxes desire to know what they pay, 
 should vindicate the system of direct ^nd honest dealing. The 
 office-holder and the wealthy miser may dislike direct taxation : 
 but, that according to the property of every man in the commu- 
 nity the central Government should apportion its revenue, may 
 be safely commended as a policy destitute of a thousaiul evils 
 which must attach to any indirect method of securing a revenue. 
 In addition to these reasons, absolute experience, as reported by 
 Seybert, shows that the cost of collecting the direct taxes from 
 1791 to 1810, by the Government of the United States, was 
 only four dollars' and four cents average on each hundred 
 dollars. The cost of collecting the i-evenue through the custom- 
 houses, for fifty years, was much more ; to which must be 
 added the enormous cost of custom-houses, warehouses, revenue 
 service, etc. Sec the financial report of 1857 and 1858 of the 
 Government of the United States, and De Bow's Review, vol. 
 22, page 386, gives a table which makes the cost of the indirect 
 .system fully fifty per ceittum more than the expenses of collect- 
 ing the taxes directly. 
 
 An argument in favor of direct taxation, if there were no 
 other perfectly conclusive, may be f^und in the question respect- 
 ing emigration, which must arise upon the return of peace. All 
 taxes on imports act as a premium to emigration. A shoe- 
 maker in Lynn will not come to the Southern States to make 
 shoes if he have an open market for his productions ; but if he 
 finds his shoes taxed, he will simply come into the Confederate 
 States witli his tools and make his shoes here, thereby obtaining 
 the protection furnished by the tax on the importation, and also 
 protection against all other foreigners and their labor. 
 
 Upon lliii: subject the Convention caino to tliis conchision : 
 Resolved, 'ihat it be recommended to the Congress of tlie Confederato 
 States to i*ns|iend the collecfioii of all duties on imports, and lhat all the pons 
 of the Confederate Stales be thrown open, and be made free to the trade of all 
 tlip ,,.t;,,,w <,jii,,. ^.v^ri.i ^,■l.o rnaiiitain peace with us. 
 
40 COMMERCIAL ENFKANCUI^MEXT 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PROPOSITIONS FOR ADOPTION BY CORPORATIONS, STATES. 
 AND CONFEDERATIONS. 
 
 The pilot laws of some of the States arc prejudicial to foreign 
 commerce; particularly is this so in Virginia. See the subject 
 discussed, in De Bow's Review, and in a letter appended to 
 the speech of D. II. London before the Virginia Legislature, 
 January, 1860. The pilots should be made to enter upon every 
 Northern vessel, and a Confederate officer, at the charge of the 
 vessel, continued with her, during her stay in Southern waters, 
 as a police over her. The voluntary feature respecting the 
 pilots in all the States should be substituted instead of any com- 
 pulsion to employ them as to all other vessels. 
 
 The Government of the Confederate States was instituted to 
 take care of our foreign relations, the States to watch over and 
 protect our domestic interests. 
 
 We suggest that the taxes collected upon each sale of mer- 
 chandise by the States of South Carolina, Alabama and Virginia 
 ought to be altered, and the principle of the license laws of 
 Tennessee, collecting but one tax on the same article, could be 
 substituted without detriment either' to the States or their com- 
 merce. The dealings in bills of exchange and the banking laws 
 of the several States are subjects which time and the operations 
 of the tax on bank issues will correct. 
 
 All city taxation should be abandoned on the use of capital 
 and on trades throughout the Confederate States. 
 
 "After the prodigious changes which have been Avrought in 
 our situation, and, indeed, in that of the world, it has become 
 absolutely necessary to enter on a careful, but fearless revision 
 of our whole commercial system, that Ave may be enabled safely, 
 yet promptly, to eradicate those faults which our former con- 
 nections have enabled or displayed ; to retrace our steps where 
 we shall find that they have deviated from the line of true 
 policy ; to adjust and accommodate our laws to the alteration of 
 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 41 
 
 circumstarccs; to abandon many prejudices alike antiquated 
 and senseless, unsuited to the advanced age in which we live, 
 and unworthy of the sound judgment which should distinguish 
 tile nation." 
 
 Thcroforo, in view of tlic considerations anil fact-;, mc ask tbe c9ncurre)fico 
 "■f tlie Convention at Macon in the following propositions: 
 
 1st. That the report preceding be laid before the Congress of the Confede. 
 rate States, and such action thereon taken as shall be jti.stificd by the argu- 
 ments therein contained, and such otlier coiisi<leration6 as may present 
 tliemsclves to Congress in connection with our commercial interests at the 
 ports on the Meditorranean ocean, the Baltic and all otlier European ports, as- 
 n^ell as tbc ports of South America and the West Indies. 
 
 2d. That the trade in the tobacco of tlie Confederate States should be 
 disci/ ibarrassed of all Government monopolies in Europe, and that a reduction 
 of the duties in England should be soiight by every means. 
 
 3d. That a commission to prepaisB at once an entirely new system of 
 weights and measures, as well as new coins, may be created. 
 
 4th. A repeal of the entire system of duties on imports, and a permanem 
 .-'ystem of direct taxation be adopted. 
 
 .^tU. That the entry and clearance of all vessels, as well as the police on 
 the vessels of the (Northern) United States of .\merica, properly belongs to 
 tlie Navy Department of the Government, and .should be placed under that 
 department and not under the Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 fith. .That the establishment of an exchequer of the Confederate States 
 would greatly assist and facilitate onr Government and people in their tran.«- 
 iictions. by furnishing a siife doiioMt-irv and a uniform mcdiuni nf pxcli:in<r,. 
 fur all parts of the countr;. 
 
 And \vc further ask I'm- ■ oiirurn-titu- of the Conventidii in lij" loiidw ,i)g 
 [iroposals : 
 
 1st. That the report may be enclosed to the Governors of Virginia. Nurth 
 Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Loni.-iana. 
 Texas. Arkansas, Tennessee and Jlissouri, with the reqtiest that they will lay 
 it before their several Legislatures, requesting them to adjust where they mav 
 their pilot, inspection and other laws to our altered circumstances; securing 
 the delivery of all vessels entering our waters from the L^nitcd States to the 
 proper Confederate officers. That ail inspections of commodities not abso- 
 lutely necessary may be dispensed with or rendered voluntary, and that in all 
 ■•rtses where any article may require any mark or marks of condemnation, the 
 letters V, S'. may bo used to indicate that they are below standard marketable 
 articles ; that the gierchants' liccpso laws may be so altered where they exist 
 as that no article of merchandise upon its sale shall pay but one State tax- 
 thus securing its delivery to the consumers all over each State at the same 
 rate of taxation. 
 
 An-1 we further ask of the Ci.nvention concurrence in the followii.^ 
 projio^als : 
 
^- COMMERCIAL ENFRANCHISEMENT, iC. 
 
 1st. That the annexed report be I'orwarded to tlie Councils of Norfolk. 
 Richmond and Petersburg, Va.; Wilmington, Beaufort and Raleigh, N. C. ; 
 Charleston and Columbia, S. C. ; Savannah and Macon, Ga.: St. Augustine 
 and Pensacola, Fla. ; Mobile and Montgomery, Ala.; Vicksburg, Miss.; New 
 Orleans, La.; Galveston. Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas: Memphis and 
 Nashville, Tenn.; with the request that they may consider the propriety of 
 iidjusting their system of corporation taxes, so as to relieve the trades and 
 jn-ofcsf ions of all unnecessary restrictions, as it is obvious tliat these render 
 real estate usefid — it is the trading population of all of our cities whicli 
 renders real estate valuable. 
 
 Tlie Convention reached the following resolution upon the .subjects dis- 
 cussed : 
 
 Resolved. That the memorial of a citizen of Virginia upon the subjects oi 
 free trade, coins, weights and measures, taxation, pilot laws, &c., be recam- 
 mended to the attention of the several States and commercial cities, and be 
 printed amongst the proceeding's of the Convention. 
 
V 
 
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