the States did, as a rule, was to assume their assessment, agree
to pay it into the Treasury, and then issue bonds to raise the
necessary funds, thus converting the war tax into a loan.

The Confederate, like the Union, Treasury did not have the
courage to force the issue upon taxation and leaned throughout
the war largely upon loans. It also had recourse to the perilous
device of paper money, the gold value of which was not
guaranteed. Beginning in March, 1861, it issued under successive
laws great quantities of paper notes, some of them interest
bearing, some not. It used these notes in payment of its domestic
obligations. The purchasing value of the notes soon started on a
disastrous downward course, and in 1864 the gold dollar was worth
thirty paper dollars. The Confederate Government thus became
involved in a problem of self-preservation that was but half
solved by the system of tithes and impressment which we shall
encounter later. The depreciation of these notes left
governmental clerks without adequate salaries and soldiers
without the means of providing for their families. During most of
the war, women and other noncombatants had to support the
families or else rely upon local charity organized by state or
county boards.

Long before all the evils of paper money were experienced, the
North, with great swiftness, concentrated its naval forces so as
to dominate the Southern ports which had trade relations with
Europe. The shipping ports were at once congested with cotton to
the great embarrassment of merchants and planters. Partly to
relieve them, the Confederate Congress instituted in May, 1861,
what is known today as "the hundred million loan." It was the