Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1863-09-30
SUFFERING OF REFuGREs.

While the people of Pennsylvania. Ohio,
and the northeastern States are wrangIing
over minor questions of policy, and copper
head orators are pointing the people to the
burdens of sstaxes and oppression heaped up
on them, the real sufferers from this s.slaye-
mongers' y war-the refugees from the South
bear in silence the woes Indicted upon them
waiting hopefully for the hour when the tri-
umph of the Union cause will enable them to
return to the homes, desolated by the march
OF armies and the iron despotism of the re-
bellion. We present but one instance, of hun
dreds, and ask our readers to contrast their
own trials in this war with those of Southern
loyalists:
"Coi. Quin Morton. command ing at Rolla
Mo.,sfaies that there now at that post fed
by the Government of the United States one
hundred and seventy women and six hundred
and nine children. All these women are Ell
ther refugees or widows and wives OF soldiers
and in destitute condition. Winter is now
fast approaching, and numbers OF these fami-
lies are without shelter or sufficient clothing
Some OF these families are in houses without
a roof, and others are in frame buildings,
without siding, only the roof over head 9TH
ers again are under the shades of large trees,
without any protection except the shade of
the trees. Many OF the families are sick
most OF them have sad and despairing look
the little children look as if hardship and suf-
fering had stamped their mark npon their
young faces, and scarcely ever smile the
bright sunny smiles Of childhood. No work
can be obtained for these poor women to do III
this place when the offer is made TO send
them TO their friends, they say they have none.
Most OF them were originally from East Tenn
essee and North Carolina. Cannot something
he don aF,rf, nd
families !''
Thousands of families in the border States
have been reduced from afiIuence 10 poverty
thousands are now homeless and friendless
wanderers, without a shelter for their heads
from summers heat or winters cold. Wher
ever the iron heel of the rebellion has fallen
upon loyal families, or loyal communities, the
people have been remorsely crushed, stripped
of everything, and compelled to suffer in ST.
lence or fly. Yet these victims ask no other
boon than speedy restoration of the Union
by force of arms; the complete obiteraton
of the despotism which has ruined them. For
this they endure their present miseries iD ST.
leuce. What a shameful mockery of these
people is embodied in the barsngues OF the
cOpperhead orators of the North. who prate to
communities that have hardly felt the breath
of war-save, alas in the silently increasing
gaps in nearly every family circle-the va
cant places in so many households-ot the
tyranny OF the Administration, or the crush
ing burdens Of the war. Vast treasures have
been expended, thousands of lives have been
offered up, to preserve the Union, and the
price has been paid as cheerfully as might be;
but in property and civil rights the people
of the North secure day they have
ever been. To deciaim otherwise may suit
the purpose of mounting orators, bat tb mixing
people know and appreciate this fact.