New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-06-07
THE CRY FOR FOOD.

had elapsed tho people Vi tno oou'Hoi" o'''o
would be stretching out their hands to the
North for broad. We did not venture to
assume that the South could be starved out,
because no ono could then say how stringent
the blockade would become. But its general
efficiency has been 80 sharp aud mercliess o.
TO blast with O common palsy the commerce OF
two tbousapd miles Of seacoast, shutting out
the vast region behind it from supplies oil every
description, and leaving large population 10
depend exclusively on its own productions. NO
one could mistake in predicting such results as
sure 70 follow an eflectual blockade. Whether
such would be established was the only ques-
tiou to DO solved. 1t remained for this Gov
eminent to demonstrate its power BY shutting
up line of coast SO extensive that all Europe
,Deered at the attempt as futile. No other
nation had attempted half as much, and there
fore we must fail. Europe, however, has been
conlounded at the creative energy OF the
American people, and now hears in the cry for
bread in oil her manufacturing cities the EVIL
deuce that no former blockade has been 50
p,tilessly maintained. Can it be supposed that
if thus potent enough to convulse Europe, IL
can be less disastrous to tho people against
whom it has been enforced
| Az their commercial cities successfully fall
before our advancing fleets and armies, tho
vail behind which the blockaded populations
concealed their suffeTiDgs and their squalor is
suddenly drawn aside. The first vessel to
New Orleans is hurried of by Government to
feed community low for the first time ad'
mitted to be nearly famished. Nashville was
found to DO measursbly destitute. When Norfolk
wus occupied by our troops, it was discovered
thst provisions commanded prices such as no
Nortberu community had ever heard Of. The
Federal army in Virginia, as it penetrates the
Leurt Of the rebellion, discovers multltudes oil
private families without food enough to satisfy
"a single soldier. Many of the Rebel prisoners
te.lify to the gaunt fare they have been com
pelled 10 live on. Evidence from all quarters
of the Rebel districts shows that the people
have been subsistiDg upon hog aud homny, or
even menner food, such as even Northern mud.
Ellis. stupid enough to know how 10 build
locomotive or base enough 20 carr. nod,
would spurn from their table, y ~ notrrious
that M N,vber. ,hg .cLera.s have peeh era-
tuitously feedig AghGrrrs CO. families VINO had
neither work mol o.eaG. uaH. ot whom be-
longrd 10 traitorS low ia arms against US,
while for months past Tree market has been
open st New Orleans, nc which thousands,
made paupers by the blockade have been pub
licly fed. These spec!aclcs remind US of the
suifernes of bclcaguered European garrisons.
Our country has Lever witnessed them till
now. What We yet know OF them is but the
general view. Hereafter the details will come
tbrouginQ in to excite our horror possibly our
pity. at tie intensity Of this sell-mposed suffer
inc. We shall hear narratives of good men
made bsggars by rebellion, Of poor widows,
with families of children, compelled to humble
themselves to charity for bread. with details
even yet more sickening. when the local history
Of each of these blockhded cities comes to DO
written. If We already learn that great crowds
stretch forth their hands to an outraged Gov
eminent 10 save thtm from a famine which
their leaders have invited into every household.
who shall conjecture the agOnlzing minntin Of
which the vast aggregate Of suffering il com.
posedi
The weight of evidence IA against the ability
of the South to feed herself. One had only to
! look into commercial statistics to see that she
/ had never done 30, oven in time OF peace.
But when made TO stagger under the palsy Of
runous blockade. forging cannon, drilling
armies, fighting battles, committing with insane
violence every act of sel-destructon, and doing
anything but raise food. II required no special
prophet to predict results identical with those
wo now behold. Baltimore did max. out TO
it was beggarIy in its facts md unpatrotic
in ito aspirations. The kindred organizations
in Norfolk, Richmond, Charleston, and New
Orleans were last year dumb-they had no
trade to report. But what the trade Of those
cities was composed Of. what they have lost.
aud why insolvency and famine have desolated
lnll, may be ascerlained by looking into the sta.
tistics Of q previous year. They show indeed,
that any different result was impossible. Take
Norfolk as case in point That city was the
best corn market in Virginia, prices ranging
two or three cents higher than in Baltimore,
and within fraction Of New-York, the trade
reaching LOO, 900 bushels annually. In wheat.
corn, and oats, the receipts were 1900, 900
bushels. OF -four. fish, tar pitch, and turpen.
tine. the annual receipt was $4,000 barrels.
1t was the depot for $1,000, 900 of slaves and
shingles manufactured yearly from the noigh.