The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-07-19
Ex. DEPARTMENT, SOUTH CAROLINA.

COLUMBIA, July 6, 1866.
GENERAL: have the honor to acknowl-
edge the receipt of your letter OF the Sd IN
stant informing me that there was reliable
testimony as to suffering for want of food by
the poor in South Carolina of both races,
and that General Sickles had disapproved Of
the ration return upon my statement that
the want is very much exaggerated, has just
been received, and hasten to reply with
view of correcting any misrepresentation on
the subject growing out of my conversation
with General Sickles.
There is great need of distributing rations
through the Freedmen's Bureau in every dis
trict in the State. In some the necessity is
much greater than in others, and all [ intcn-
ded to impress upon General Sickles was,
that applications were made by many per-
sons, white and colored, who were not fit
subjects of relief and that if all the stories
which were told the officers of the bureau In
different sections were to be credited, that
the distribution would embrace too wide
range l ~egret that General Sickles should
have understood from me that the necessity
for issuing rations to very many people,
white and coloretl. had passed.
AS early rs March last an estimate was
made in Chesterfield district, and it was
found that there were only seven bushels of
corn to each person in the district, without
feeding any part of them to stock. The
supply was inadequate to bread the people.
Other districts nearly as destitute. In
Pickens am informed that some six hun
dred families are without sufficient supplies
of breadstuffs; the scarcity is also great in
Barnwell, Beaufort, Collector, Clarendon.
williamsburg, Lexington, Spartanburgh,
lancaster Richland Fairfield and Kershaw.
and the local authorities cannot possibly fur
nish the needy. The tax levied for the sup
port of the poor is district tax, and it hap
pens that those sections where the scarcity is
most felt the general population are least
able to pay local tax, and hence there are
. thousands in the State-whitc and colored-
who must suffer for the commonest means of
: subsistence unless rations are issued from
your bureau, and regret extremely that any
opinion of mine should have been so under
stood as to justify or require the suspension
of the issue OF the rations which it was propo-
sed to distribute in the State. My object
and intention was simply to guard against
| these issues to persons without claim, and
thereby increase idencss and vagabondiSm :;
but doubtless l did not sufficiently explain
III, views. and General Sickles was justified
in reaching the conclusion he did
a month ago it was generally believed
about the time of the wheat harvest that an
average crop would be made, but since the
crop has been thrashed out, it is found not to
exceed half an average crop, and far less re-
lief will be furnished the needy from that
source than had anticipated.
therefore earnestly request that you will
have the rations issued as estimated for by
your agents in the State, and which was
tlisapproved by General Sickles.
Proper instructions to distributing agents
may be- if they have not already been, given
to guard against imposition from those, who
are not proper subjects of relief.
have written to day to General Sickles,
and have explained to him the extent to
which intended my conversation with him
to go.
have the honor to be- very respectfully,
your obedient servant,
JAMES L. ORR.
Governor Of s. G.
Major General O. O. Howard, B. r., F., and
y. L., Washington, D. c.