The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1865-05-13
Desolation.

The Southern Rebellion is dead, after having
caused the death Of a large share of Southern
People. Persons who have recently passed
through the accessible portions of thc6 Atlantic
Slave States report frightful scarcity ofable-bo-
died males. A few old men few cripples /,
not many boys able to shoulder musket, with
sad abundance of widows and orphans, i'll clad,
coarsely and scantily fed, woe-begone, hopeless
such is the wreck left behind by the fugitive
chiefs of the Shareholders Confederacy. Since
the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, there has been
nosuch utter ruin. In many places, a dumb
stupor appears to have full sway over what are
left Of the Whites, SO that they seem to have no
thoughts and no care for the future.
-Ofcourse, there is much bitterness and venge-
full hate still cherished by the dupes Secession ;
many believing that the North made causeless
war on the South and crushedit by brute strength
in the wantonness of conscious power. But
though hate remains, aud may impel to isolated
acts of crime, there is no thought of further war
fare. The subjugation is felt to be complete
The Government will soon, we trust, be ready
to speak comforting reassuring words to the
great body of the Southern people but mean
time the planting season is swiftly passing un-
improved. The negroes, with a justifabe fear
of guerrilIas and of reinstatement, desert the
plantations and rush into the idle, famishing eli
ties leaving tllage uninterrupted /; for the Whites
have little force, less heart, small aptitude for la
Dor, and are destitute of seed, implements, ami
mals---in short, everything And there is great
danger that the season Of vegetation will pass
mainly unimproved, and leave large sections Of
the South exposed next Winter to the horrors of
actual famine. Sis y ae
Would it not be well, in view of this PERIL if
an order or proclamation should issue from
Washington, exhorting the people of the South
to plant and sow to the extent of their ability,
under an assurance that, come what may, every
one shall be guaranteed the fruit of his labor
Let the most fragrant traitors plant, with a GER
tainty that his family may harvest and eat, even
though his land should be con6scated and be
driven into exile; let the freedman plant any
field he may find abandoned, with an assurance
that the crop shall be his own, even though the
land reverts to its former owner. So much it
seems 10 US wise to guarantee, in order to avert
from wide regions the peril of actual starvation.
We wish comprehensive, efficient organiza-
ton could be formed throughout the loyal States
TO send seed, food and implements TO the most
needy at the South. A dollars worth of seed
given promptly may save family from being
dependents on charity through the ensuing Win
ter, and million dollars thus bestowed may add
twenty millions 10 the exportable wealth of the
South from this years harvest. This City h vs. a
deep and palpable interest in the prompt recupe-
ration of the productive energies of the South ;
and now is the time to re-knit the broken liga-
ments of friendship and good will by taking the
initiative in invoking the generosity of the North
to rekindle hope and resolution in the South.
We trust those accustomed to lead in such eff
forts will give shape and impulse. to the sympa-
thy which we are sure exists among us for the
crushed, humiliated, woe-stricken Whites of the
South, as we'll as for the scarcely yet emancipa-
ted Blacks, who have everything tolearn in the
way Of forecast, thrift, and calculation, and who
have not even peck of seed-corn wherefrom to
evoke the food of their families next winter. -
They cannot hire out for there are very few
able to hire them; they cannot borrow the seed
and implements they need, for there are few il
any able to lend. Let us try to hold out a help
ing hand TO all, in the certainty that benevolence
had never larger field, and was never more ur-
gently needed N y Tribune