March 26, 1863, The New York Herald
Advices received from all parts of the seceded States go to prove how greatly the people suffer for provisions and food of every description. Prices have attained a height which places almost all the necessities of life out of reach of the poorer and even the middling classes, the wealthy being themselves deprived of all luxuries. The authorities at the South are making every effort to induce the people to grow corn and wheat in place of cotton, and have begun seizing upon provisions wherever they find them for the purpose of feeding their armies. This, however, but precipitates the moment when, unable to bear such suffering any longer, the misguided people of the so called Confederate States will throw off the yoke of the ambitious and traitorous men who rule their destinies. The want of food will shortly compel them to evacuate many of their strongholds – a fact which is already deeply impressed upon the minds of a large portion of the public in the South.
The Governor of Georgia has issued a proclamation to the people in his State, which, as an illustration of what we have stated above, we append. This document we extract from the Savannah Republican of the 16th of March:
TO THE OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY:
I am satisfied that developments have clearly shown the necessity for further legislation at an early day to secure the use of all our productive labor this year in the cultivation of our lands in grain and other articles necessary to sustain life, and not in cotton, tobacco or like productions, and to prevent the destruction of food by distillation.
As the public exigencies do therefore, in my opinion, require that the General Assembly convene at an earlier day than fixed for your meeting when you last adjourned, I issue this, my proclamation, requiring you and each of you to assemble in your respective halls in the Capitol, in this city, on Wednesday, the 25th day of this present month, at ten o’clock A.M.
Given under my hand and the great seal of the State, at the Capitol, in the city of Milledgeville, this 11th day of March, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-three.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
By the Governor:
N. C. BERNETT, Secretary of State.
We must inevitably, and that at an early date, reduce the suffering South to a recognition of their allegiance to the government of the United States, if our navy will but redouble in vigilance and keep out all blockade runners from Europe, which furnish supplies to the rebels, enabling them thus to defer their subjection. A great victory won by our land forces would, we feel assured, break down the rebellion as if by magic. The people of the South are undergoing sufferings and privations which must end. They are no longer upheld by the hope of a European recognition. The complications caused by the spread of the Polish insurrection have destroyed all chance of any action on the part of the great nations of Europe in our affairs, and hence the people of the South will feel how hopeless their condition has become. We feel assured that an increase of our blockading force and the gain of a decisive battle will crush the rebellion.