The Portland daily press., 1862-08-04

| feel disposed 70 grant, that the unfortunate
| people of color, abandoned by heartless set
ofrebel owners-the poor men, boys, women,
| girls and iniants-may ~ decently clothed and
comfortably fed, and how is he welcomed on
such mission by the press referred to? Read
the following:
"Let the District of Columbia provide for
| her paupers as Maine does for hers.
| 1.-THE contrabands for whom relief is asked, are
not the freed slaves of the District, but those
| abandoned slaves who have been passed
through the federal lines, and have found their
way to Washngton.l Hundreds Iof our sol
| diersl have left their bleaching bones on the
| ground from Bull Run to New Orleans. The
telegraph informs us daily of their needs
| Worn with toll and disease, wounded, suffer-
| ing for medicines and suitable food, crying out
| for vegetables to ward off the scurvy, satisfied
| with clothes not newt seems to us these
| deserve our energies now. as they have taxed
the energies and pockets of loyal and patriotic
mothers and fathers so largely already.
! Our idea is that ii were better to let Congress
take care OF the paupers they have aided to
make. They may humanely relieve themselves
in part, by putting out to their especial friends
portion of these blacks, as New York does
foundlings and children of vagabonds. We
advise Mr.. III. Hamlin. of Washington, in all
good faith, that he return to his official duties
at Washington. just now the people are not
in a temper to furnish "new clothes" and mon
ey for these estray colored people,"
The old story: "Why was not this ointment
sold for three hundred pence and given to the
poor?" 1t was no true friend to the poor who
uttered this captious query, when the
hand of penitence perfumed the person of a
forgvng and loving master; but it was the
thief, Judas. who carried the bag, and wanted
the three-hundred pence, not for the poor, but
to put in that bag that he, perhaps, might en-
bezzle it. Such objections usually come from
the kinsmen or descendants of Judas the
enemies of the poor, who, for thirty pie
ces of silver would betray the truest friend the
poor ever had.
The suffering soldiers! We trust we are not
insensible to their wants, or to the demands
which their sufferings and necessities make
upon the generosity of every humane heart
But our observation has taught us the truth of
this general proposition: that those who do
the most for one class of real objects of chart
ty and sympathy, do the most for all other
classes. The man who gives literally to one
good cause is usually found to be the truest
friend of all other good causes. The more he
gives, the more he feels able to do so. Gener-
osity and benevolence grow by exercise, like
all other qualities of the human heart Re
lief to the soldier or relief to the "contraband'
is gathered from a generous, humane and kind
spirit, and the same spirit is ever approachable,
and ever responsive to all genuine calls for the
needy. But your morose, fault-findng, cap
tious, quibbling, never ready men, who are so
ready to tell what others should do, and to
find fault with what Others actually do, but so
slow to do anything themselves except to
bubble and find fault and hold back, are not
the men TO favor any good cause. They are
very forward TO extol the cause that don't hap
pen to be the one pressed upon their attention,
but never ready to lend a farthing's aid when
the hand of need is showed directly In their
faces. We will wager suit of decent second
hand clothes for "contraband,' or anybody
else, that those men in this city who do the
most for the "contrabands,' are the very ones
who have done and will continue to do the
most for the needy soldiers. They have hearts,
and the tale of suffering touches those hearts,
and their pockets dsgorge with liberal free
dom for all real objects of charity. But will
any one think of going to your fault-finders,
your three hundred pence" men, your Judas
like grumblers, for aid? Would the soldier
get it any more THAN the "contraband" p
Doubted. You might as well extract maple
sugar from dead hemlock, or blood from a
white turnip, as to touch their hearts, or as to
extract one particle of aid from them for any
good cause.