Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1847-03-18
TO THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA.

FAMINE, heretofore known 10 modern civil
lZation rather from the teachings Of history
than from experience. is wasting tie nations
Of Europe. France, Belgium, Scotland and
especially Ireland, are suffering the rayaees
Of want. In Ireland the calamity seems to be
greatest, the means Of relief the most remote
and uncertain. The entire failure Of the pota-
to crop, and the want ofother supplies, have
brought millions other people TO the verge Of
starvation. The food Of her weakly neigh
bors, who would otherwise eheeTtully hasten
10 her relio., Is absorbed in feeding their own
destitute poor. Our virgin land, happy in lis
abundance, can alone supply her great wan.
Indeed, the other nations Of Europe must re-
sort to our market TO supply their necessities.
The Roman daughter from her full bosom
nourished her fapishing parent: America,
the daughter OF Europe, may now present the
same lovely spectacle.
In Ireland the work ofdealh has already be-
gun. Strong men have sunk beneath the
wasting effects Of starvation, or, wandering
wildly in the open fields, have died ofex haus-
ton. Mothers with their infants in their arms.
children crying in vain 10 their parents for
bread, have met the same fearful doom Hos
pitaliy is eXtinguished, the sweet charities Of
life are suspended, the natural affections ofthe
heart have given way to the fierce and selfish
cravings of hunger. Among people hereto
fore warm-hearted and hospitable 10 the ver-
est stranger, accustomed TO set apart from their
scant supplies portion for the destitute, pa
rents are now REFUSING their own offspring
from their doors, because they ask for bread.
The dead, in many cases, lie in the habllations
OF the living, unheeded, unblessed and unbu,
RED, whilst starvation and gaunt, loalhsome
pcstlencc, add daily to the numbers Of the
dead
In view Of such picture Of wretchedneSs,
Virginia will not consent to be laggard in the
noble and benevolent work Of giving relief to
the sufferers. She will never hear with cold
heart and closed hand the appalling cry Of a
whole nation for food foreign and iraus-At.
lanuc though tina, nation be. But can Ireland
be called wholly foreign to us2 How many
citizens OF this country, natives of that isle,
are now toiling on our works of internal i'm
provement, cultvaing our soil as its sover-
eigns, and adjoining every walk of life among
us2 It's the country Of these, our fellow
citizens in which famine is making its dread
ful havoc. Ii is in the land Of MONTGOMERY,
the soldier Of WASHINGTON, who in stormng
Quebec achieved the second brillian; exploit
of the Revolution, that forms, stalwart as his
inc. 1t is in the isle of BURKE, whose clo-
quence in our earliest troubles, shook the Par
lament of England in advocacy of our rights,
that lips touched by nature with FIRE like his,
are now thin and pale with hunger. It's in
the native place OF EMMETT and GRATrAs, that
hearts fired with benevolence and patriotism
and love of liberty Ike theirs, are withering
with starvation. 1t is in that Emerald Isle Of
the Ocean, lately vocal with those Irish rnelo-
dies which move our hearts and give love and
dehghtto our social hours, that voices once
uttered TO their music, are harsh with hunger.
Ii is in that country on the opposite shore of
the Atlantic already annexed TO America by
the ties of kindred and gratitude and love. that
the hearts OF thousands are palsied by the
touch Of that most horrld and degrading of all
caiamles, gaunt, pestilental, maddening fam
inc. The wasting, the loathsome, the appal-
ing calamity which overwhelmS man IN his
strength, woman in her lovelineSs, and child.
rem IN their innocence.
/ Would we could speak of as past Blu,
alas II IS not only existing but Increasing
and not ill their harvest viii their own resour-
ces arrest Its frightful progress Fearful even
to us, who contemplate the scene from our
happy homes, smiling with plenty and Gods
choicest blessings, is the dark and darkening
prospect before the people of Ireland How
awful, how frightul must that prospect seem
to those who are beneath the cloud of Gods
inscrutahle judgments, who feel the bitter
ness OF the curse and cannot escape it; who
see death in its most terrible form, with slow
but certain strides approaching them. and can
not avoid it, Horrible horrible is the doom.
and well may the unhappy ones pray for fever,
pestilence and death to hurry them from their
I miseries to the grave. Despair broods over
millions Of our fellow beings--our friends
our kinsmen; and beneath the dark pail the
Angel of Death is walking and will walk for
seven months. The solemn and startling cry
Of those pershng millions has come across
the ocean TO us. We cannot but hear it,
Shal! we hear the cry and not answer it with
large gifts Of chanty2 Virginians the great
Giver Of all good has blessed your land with
abundance; and has thereby enabled YOU to
initiate after mans finite fashion His own in