The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1865-12-07
The Nation al THANKSGIVING.

AMERICAN FREEDMAN'S AID Con-. !
General office. 444 Fourteenth ST.. !
Washington d. c., Nov. 18th, 1865.
The Presidenl of the United States has
set apart Thursday. the 9TH day of Dec.
next. to be observed in all places of relig-
! ions worship as a day of National Thanks
! giving for the great mercies of God to our
nation during the year now closing.
1t is customary upon days Of Thanks
giving to remember those who have re-
ceived fewer Of the common comforts OF
life, and to manifest our gratitude for the
larger favors vouchsafed us, by generous
gifts for the more needy
I 1t is therefore suggested for the cnnsid-
Grafton of pastors and churches who may
not have provided already a better desti-
Wards are as yet the Nations Poorest
Poor,
Fortwo hundred years systematically de-
spoiled by State enactment and National
consent. they have been tossed for the last
four years upon the widest waves of the
fiery sea of war, until their very rags were
worn away; and now in weary millions
see far inland. waiting cottages and fields.
But the winter makes haste. and will
bury thousands by the way. unless Good
Samaritan hands shall cover their max ed
ness. and give them shelter from the
storm.
After the winter they will find the fields
and till them, and the cottages, and dwell
in them.
But the winter intervenes.
The officers of the Bureau declare that
thirty thousand will perish i'm Georgia
alone; and forty thousand more in Ala
bama.
In Texas, in Louisiana, in Mississippi,
in Tennessee, in South Carolina, en- ev-
cry Southern State there are many who
need.
1t is not true that the able bodied have
not labored industriousIy and lived pru-
IDENTIFY hitherto as they have had oppor-
tunity. 1t is susceptible ofproof that no
class Of people in the United States have
struggled with adversely more manfully or
successfully, the circumstances being con-
sidered.
fusion OF all social and industrial condi-
tons. the abiect poverty in which the re-
turn of peace found white and black alike.
the extraordinary blight upon the very
imperfect crops Of this year, have together
not strangely, proven too much for the
best endeavors o many. Thousands have
succeeded, hundreds of thousands. des-
pite all these difficulties, in providing for
the winter, and ask no charity.
But there remains, the equally industri-
Gus but less fortunate, who ::can find neith-
or work nor wages until the planting sea-
son returns; beside7 the infirm and the
thousands upon thousands of orphans.
whose mothers cannot be found, and
whose fathers gave up their lives that we
might celebrate this peace.
The President of the United States as
surcd us that. 30 plainly il the relief of
THESE, the Nations Poor, the national du-
tv, that he shall cause rations oftoOd to be
purchased and distributed generously at
the expense of the National Treasury.
For immediate relief, for the purchase OF
blankets and personal clothing, for the
erection of temporary shelters, for the
opening and maintenance of an hundred
additional orphan asylums-not less than
q million of dollars is needed.
1t can be given in one day by the chur-
ches to whom this address will come, with
greatest ease, if the churches will it.
On behalf of the Commission,
MATHEW SIMPSON, Pres't.
JACOB b. SHEPHERD, Sec'y.