subordinates were doing; with regard to others, I am in doubt, but think that they could scarcely have been ignorant of what was going on, and only wanted to be able to say, in case of any difficulties occurring, that they, personally, were not to blame.
There were, of course, numerous manufacturers, merchants, jobbers, brokers, and others, who were eager to make money wherever it could be made, and whose only object in concealing their transactions, so far as the Southern market was concerned, was to avoid getting into trouble. Some of these people were loyal to the Federal government after a fashion, while others were as undisguised in their expressions of sympathy for the South as they dared to be. Political partisanship was, however, not a very strong point with either set; they considered it legitimate to make money by the buying and selling of goods, without regard to what the politicians at Washington and elsewhere might think or do; and, so long as they bought and sold in a reasonably honest manner, their consciences did not trouble them. With such as these, I and my associates found it easy to deal.
If it was easy, it was not always satisfactory to deal with people of this kind; and during the last year of the war, especially, some of the largest transactions were with houses that had reputations to lose, and that were managed by men who aimed to stand high in the regards of the government, and with those of their fellow-citizens who supported the government. To do business with such houses required some finesse, but, except in rare instances, it could be done, without a great deal of trouble, and, as I am convinced, in a majority of cases, with the approbation of the heads of the concerns.
Circumstances alter Cases.
Looking at this buying and selling from a Southern point of view, it was not only legitimate and proper, but it was a violation of every natural or political right for the Federal government to interfere with it. From a Northern point of view, however, it was giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and it was discreditable, according to the extent which those engaged in it professed to be in favor of coercing the South, and of sustaining the government in the prosecution of the war.
