New York Times US
COTTON IN ARKANSAS.
A Temple at Helena
Its Votaries
Certain Grounds of Infidelity
Trading off Negroes for Cotton
Salt and Quinine as a Circulating Medium
Fortunes Made by the Army
Preparations for Vicksburgh.
HELENA, Ark., Thursday, Dec. 11, 1862.
In the absence, for the present, of more exciting news, it may, perhaps, be well to say something of regal cotton. After having spent months in offering inky incense to red-browed Mars, it is no more than right to pay one's duty to the white-headed monarch, to whom Manchester, Jewellery, and the hungry and speculating world, generally, pine to pay allegiance.
We have a temple here, whose dimensions are none of the smallest, whose wealth is not the least, and whose attendance is not the fewest -the worship is the grandest, and glorious and golden are the rewards paid to the devotees.
Our King is rather a saint than a ruler, for men offer wealth, honor, life, integrity, everything, rather than the mere lip-allegiance of courtiers. Men boldly dare the shot-gun of the bushwhacker, the perils of water, arrest, imprisonment; the recesses of swamp, morass and bayou; in short, they dare everything and fear nothing in search of altars upon which they can offer their devotion to this saint of saints, this king of kings.
Nor, as in the case of many other allegiances or theologies, do the worshipers represent a single nationality or neighborhood. The congregation is cosmopolitan, and includes the shoulder-straps of the Major-General and Lieutenant. The pork-hating descendants of Abraham, the dull-eyed disciple of KANT and SCHLEGEL, the thin-legged son of chivalry, and the sharp-looking Yankee. Never were worshipers more devout than these; never approached pilgrim Mussulmen the sacred caaba with feelings more reverential than approached these to the hooped and hemped object of their worship.
Yet withal, there are infidels, as there are in all faiths; and perhaps I can no better illustrate the beauties of the cotton-worship than by giving an extract from the creed of one of the unbelievers. The divine precepts of Him who uttered the sermon of the mount never were more beautiful and benevolent than when contrasted with the cold, unpromising infidelities of a Paine. I will avail myself of the effectiveness of the contrast, and give the subjoined document:

"HELENA, Ark., Sept. 29, 1862.
In compliance with an official request, I make the following statement:
On the 24th of September, sixteen negroes were taken from a planter living twelve miles below Lacon, Mo., by Col. CHAS. E. HOVEY, of the Thirty-third Illinois Infantry. On the 24th or 25th of September, these negroes were placed on the Government steamer Iatan, taken back to their owner, and exchanged for forty bales of cotton. When going down the negroes asked if they were going to be given up, and were answered emphatically in the negative by Col. HOVEY; but when the boat started to return they found themselves on shore and their price in cotton on the boat. It is generally believed that transactions of a similar kind in Col. HOVEY's command are of frequent occurrence -- that is, the exchanging of negroes for cotton and money.
On the 26th of September, a force of two hundred men from the Eleventh Illinois were sent to Friar's Point, a distance of five miles from HOVEY's camp, who surrounded and held the place, while a force consisting of infantry, artillery and cavalry started for a point immediately opposite HOVEY's encampment, and proceeded to a point twenty miles into the interior of Mississippi, where they seized some three hundred and fifty bales of cotton. Putting it in wagons, they started back, reaching the river bank on the 27th inst.
This cotton, taken by United States troops, and transported on United States wagons, was sold, and its proceeds pocketed by the gentleman who captured it. The cost, apart from the march of troops, &c., was Capt. CHRISTY and three privates of the Eleventh captured, and Sergt. MASON, of the Thirty-third Illinois, killed, and Capt. POTTER and five privates of the same regiment, wounded."
This statement is made by a gentleman who is running for Congress in Tennessee, and who undoubtedly has concluded that serving his country in a legislative capacity, at $3,000 per annum, is better and more profitable than service in the congregation of the cotton worshipers.
I might add that a dozen other statements of perfect reliability might be adduced, showing that not only is the practice of running off negroes and then trading them for cotton common, but also that it is equally an every-day operation to use the power of the Government in seizing cotton, whose proceeds are put in the pockets of enterprising private speculators.
In our 'late trip under Gen. HOVEY, an enterprising Hebrew, who had smuggled himself along as the correspondent of the Volk's Freund, of Cincinnati, deputized me to offer Gen. HOVEY $200 for the privilege of buying up a little cotton on the route homewards. The antecedents of the General convinced me that the offer would be an unsafe one; and in consequence, notwithstanding a most liberal inducement, I refused to act as the agent.
There is another branch of cotton worship that has its peculiarities -- that is, in fact, less patriotic than profitable. The South needs salt and quinine, and several other things -- particularly recognition. For all of these she is willing to give cotton -- her only available circulating medium at present --and of these, the two first-named only are attainable. Every cotton seller makes two stipulations -- one, that upon delivering of his cotton he shall receive a certain amount of salt and quinine in addition to cash. Buyers are allowed to give limited quantities of these articles, or rather the sellers, upon receiving a permit from the Board of Trade in this place, are allowed to purchase sufficient quantities of these more necessary articles for family use.
Agents of the Confederate Government, however, are willing to supply cotton in unlimited quantities, providing they can be supplied with salt and quinine. The opportunity for a good speculation is tempting; it is only necessary to smuggle a few barrels of salt and a few bottles of quinine aboard, drop down to some point agreed upon, unload the contraband goods, receive the precious cotton, return to St. Louis and dispose of the freight at an advance that will render the operator independent for life. So gigantic has grown this species of transaction of late, and so profitable, that many persons heretofore, not over-wealthy, have been enabled to purchase steamboats and carry on a trade entirely upon their own responsibility.
Officials here knew of the transaction, but failed to see it, providing a bandage of greenbacks were bound over their eyes -- apt personifications of Justice, who always rights a wrong when she sees it.
Somebody, however, failed to pay the proper bonus, and the result is, that within the last week or ten days, not less than a dozen vessels, engaged in this lucrative contraband trade, have been tied up, and their owners threatened with arrest, and their boats and cargoes with confiscation. All these boats have, for some time past, been in the practice of dropping below this point and exchanging supplies for cotton. By a tacit understanding between the Confederate agents and the guerrillas, none of the boats engaged in this trade have been molested; if they made fortunes for their owners, they furnished much-needed articles for the Confederates, and hence were of too much benefit to the latter to be molested.
The fortunes that have been made here in cotton buying are beyond all belief. Not merely have thousands of citizens thus benefited themselves, but officers of all grades in the army have been participators in cotton transactions whereby they have suddenly become possessed of immense wealth. I am personally acquainted with men -officers in the United States Army, who, six months ago, could scarcely raise sufficient money to buy a clean shirt, but who to-day have a "clean" half million.
They become rich in various ways. Sometimes an agent operates for them, but most generally they get a start by receiving a few thousand dollars from some speculator, and in liquidation thereof, they send out a few wagons and an escort, which, under pretence of going for forage, goes a few miles into the interior, and brings in a hundred or two hundred bales of cotton.
The extent of transactions in cotton may be estimated when it is known that the shipments through Cairo alone since September 1st have reached a figure not less than 24,000 bales.
These few facts may give you an idea of how we manage things in this Department. Matters in relation to Vicksburgh are assuming a tangible shape. All the boats in the river above here have been seized and ordered to report at once to Memphis, and as the whole number of boats is about one hundred, something important may reasonably be anticipated. GALWAY.