January 11, 1864
---The Richmond Daily
Dispatch prints an editorial about the farmers of Virginia who have been
complaining about the cut rates the Army pays for the food they buy:
The Farmers and the army.
The duty of supplying the army at
liberal rates is one which it might be as well for the farmers of Virginia to
consider from that fascinating point of view, their own interest. The question
for them to decide is whether they will dispense liberally of their products to
the defenders of their possessions, or whether they shall be overrun and laid
waste, their estates destroyed, and their houses burned down over their heads
by the advance of Meade’s army, which will follow the falling back of Lee, a
calamity that the failure of the farmers to respond liberally to the calls of
their country may render inevitable. If the farmers of Virginia prefer the
condition of the people of Culpeper, Norfolk, and New Orleans, to their present
state, they have only to keep fast their grip on their corn and wheat, and
their desires can be gratified.
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