rtain date, and exchanged for bonds. If the unlucky
holder could not, or would not, deposit or exchange, he lost
thirty-three per cent. of the value of the Government pledge he held.
The old issues went rapidly out of sight; but the measure did not
appreciably lessen the current medium, while it _did_ very appreciably
lessen the confidence in the integrity of the Department.

It is but the first step in repudiation, thought the people. If
Government will on any pretext ignore one-third of its obligation, what
guarantee have we for the other two? And so, justly or unjustly, the
country lost all faith in the money. Men became reckless and paid any
price for any article that would keep. Tobacco--as being the most
compact and portable--was the favorite investment; but cotton, real
estate, merchandise--anything but the paper money, was grasped at with
avidity.

It has often been charged that speculators ruined the currency. But, to
give the children of the devil their due--we can scarcely think but
that the currency made the speculators.

Had the plain system been adopted, by which the currency dollar could
have ever approximated to coin, it would have been simply impossible
for the holders of supplies to have run prices up to extortionate
figures. Not that I would for one instant excuse, or ask any mercy for,
those unclean vultures who preyed upon the dead credit of their
Government; who grew fat and loathsome while they battened on the
miseries of the brave, true men who battled for them in the front ranks
of the fight. But while the fault and the shame is theirs, it may not
be disguised that the door was not only left open for their base
plundering, but in many cases they were urged toward it by the very
hands that should have slammed it in their faces.

When we come to consider the question of the blockade, we may, perhaps,
see this more clearly. Meantime, in glancing down the past by the light
of experience, one can not but marvel at the rapid, yet almost
imperceptible, epidemic that fastened incurably upon the people,
spreading to all classes and sapping the very foundations of their
strength.

In the beginning, as vast crowds poured into Richmond--each man with a
little money and anxious to use it to some advantage--trade put on a
new and holiday dress. Old shops were spruced up; old stocks, by aid of
brushing and additions, were made to appear quite salable and rapidly
ran off. The demand made the meat it fed u