The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1863-03-19

''Vu'h' lHeh wafer mlguG run up Niagara,
and nation bleeding at every pore grow
rich and prosperous because of its CALAMITY.
If the people we're not suffering, there
might be much of reply. If there we're a
great sheet let down from heaven full of all
cOmpensations and comforts in our distress,
who ought to hear the heavenly voice, CRY,
ing, "Arise Peter, XII and eat7"
The strange perversity of Nature, by
which time of war according to the pre-
tension of our opponents, has become
slime of singular success, does not alter this
result; that, come veal OF come woe, there
is to be an eq lity in its distribution among
the people. If the direful evils Of the bat
tle-6eld have some poor compensation in
moneyed plenty in the Confederacy, where
Is the justice that exempt people should stpp
in to possess it2 10 ether words, extorti n;
mas Met 30 JOSS a. muca extortion II it
seizeo the only chance for generations, and
unfairly occupies il; if it clutches the money
that the government is pouring out, and
leaves others in the future to pay it, impoyr
erishing the soldier in the camp, and strip
ping at flush time If the chances of an
equitable success those who are fighting
our battles; or those who are enduring at
heme the bereayements and actual calami-
ties Of the cOntest7
Now, we are wiling to admit that couu-
ties far off from the camp have received a
great deal of money, and that, if there had
been more extortioners, there would have
been great deal more of spff ring among
the people. We ara wiling TO admit that
when money is a)wing all about, the poor
get some OF it, and would get more if it were
not for few that ask them too much for
shoes, and for one or two. that. they mono.
police, of the necessaries ef life. We are
willing TO admit that prices hove so risen,
side BY side, as the currency has kept pour
ing in, that wages have also gone up, and
that tbey would have stil more nearly suf
feed, if these same gentlemen had not been
so eager for inordnate income.
But where is the help for the extortioner
in anything like this9
Aud in the broad South, how does it affect
the qaestion2
High rates have only existed part of
season. (uuless it be these same unfortunate
instances sporadic aud scattered in their
history. Men are still hauling out old stores,
and ORA wing cut remains of credit. The
lowering cloud has scarcely begun to de-
scend upon the South. And yet how it nut
tiers and lovers, and actually flashes all over
this Confederacy.
Whil. extortoners have been doing their
work, noble spirits have arisen, and kept
off as much as they could the pressure from
the resi-; and yet in the most favored coun-
ties It is not the fact that there are not
numerous cases Of panic and privstion.
And then all over the broad SOuth--the
counties trampled by the enemy-thc Dor
4degs cnpded bY the camps-tae country
LEI dssu!a.e by frienG md -, y
ios .nis second winter living over agains
shoes and on half rations, the winter at
Valley Forge; and the soldiers families down
at the very bottom Of the list in their chances
in the str0ggIe; the refugees wandering
among US like broOding spectres over the
comforts of The past vi teach us. that those
that cry out that there is no suffering mock
our misery, and that those, who are leauiug
man, ard who aspire in ordinary time to
off e and political preferment in The States,
are eXtOrtiOners, who choose this moment
sfor building up their wealth, and who cover
themselves With sophistical cloud to defend,
as they easily can, dispropOrti0ned compen-
satiOns 10 the business they have chosen for
their living.
II the proud spirit of our Southern men
bears, in way that the world has never
seen, the crushing of an accomplishing dis.
tress and the soldiers surprise Bs by what
they can endure, and the soldiers wives
recall the ideas. of an heroic age by what
they have submitted to for the freedom of
the States; if the families who, when the war
began, gave cut from their store rooms, and
their presses the food and the clothing that
were npeded in%he camp, are now trembling,
and sufAring themselves in need of those
same necessaries for their own meagre sup
port, shame on the man wh6is turning these
sad emergencies into ah,eccasiou of wealth,
and who is rejoicingi in gains that are wrung
from the fingers of these very martyrs Of
liberty.
We had wanted to say more things. We
had wanted to say that some families wonld
rather starye than take charity. We had
wanted to Say that men are piling up debt,
and are allowed to do it, because the class
that pay will eventually furnish enough pro-
fit on etnrn to a more solid currency, to
compensate for those who fail. We had
wanted to say that it is the deserving that
vii pay. and, therefore, that hard lots are
reserved for this honorable class even after
the war. We had wanted TO say. therefore,
that our worst trials are in the future, and
that, therefore, when the exsortioner says
that there is no suffering, he is blind to the
agonies Of those who are too proud to be
helped, and oblivious to the elaine which he
himself perhaps is building up against his
neighborS We had wanted to say that
widows and orphans, who cannot work, must
suffer. And we had wanted to show that
while this is the time that the extortioner
perpetrates his guilt, the future may be the
period when he shall be confronted with its
most CHASTITY indications. ALAMBY.q
For THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN.