The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1867-04-02
Speech of Hon. +. l.. Woodbridge on
the Bill for Relief of the DestI.
tute in the Southern and
Southwestern states.

Mr.. Chairman I'm discussing thi
que tion | shall assume that tle,e arc
tn u ands of ouc fellow. citizens With
the lately rehellious States who are now,
and Tor a few months to come will be-
suffering for want of food We have q
report from the Christian soldier, General
Howard, that s2ch is the fact AMI
may say that IN private conversation with
that gentleman he assured me of the ne
cessily of material aid and the proprety
Of legislative action | am told by my
friend from Ohio Mr.. bingham that
General Howard was not in favor of this
appropriation he has received letter
from him, stating that no person Is author
lied TO make such declaration.
| will read statement respecting the
condition Of the poor of the South from
the New York Times:
"TnE CnY OF ANGuisH-'wc have neither
money nor corn. Can and will you let me have
fifty bushels till | can make n crop? | will
su'e'y pay you. ! have fifteen freedmen
hired and we can get no corn. If your Chris
tan people could see our sulferings | feel that
the sympathetic tear would come to their ewes
only think or moment; last year We had
eleven weeks and no rain Our corn fell in
the fields, and there is nothing but ahiect
want before u.s.
$50 writes Mr. II. Elmonds of ri geway.
Fairfield district, South Carolina, in a letter
received yesterday by the Southern Famine
Relief Commission of this city Ills appeal
comes with the Endorsement of Rev. Richard
E,,lln II 10
personally known. His letter represents a
distress that reaches through nearly every
district of touth arolina, and includes not
fewer than hunl lred thousand people Plant
ers have no seed to put into the groutd and no
brc ID t feed the labOrers needed to prepare
the grounl for crop Whole families are
known to have live | ON corn husks for weeks
"What IS true # South Carolina is also true
Of large sectn n Of IN d lie an | northern Ge r
ga, and of more than Ii IF the counties of Ala-
bama Some sections of North arolina and
Mississippi are in the same condition though
not to the same extent. But it is believed on
the authority of mu h painstaking inquiry,
that there are at least three hundred thousand
people in the above States who must have re-
lief from the beneyoently disposed people OF
the North to prevent suffering which the neart
shrinks from contemplating. / he South l. too
y
population, and the bread and the seed must
come from the North
"Ihe simultaneous appeal appointed to be
made from all the pulpts throughout the coun
try tomorrow should be rcspo. de1 to with a
generosity that will give the Conim sson SlOI.-
900 to expend in its timely and beneyo ent
work. Mir James NJ. Brown, No. Gl Wall
street, is the treasurer and will see that the
money is faithfully applied to the uses for which
it is contributed
Now sir, such being their condition.
am in favor OF the resolution. Sir, the
amendment proposed by the gentleman
from Massachusetts,, Mr.. Butler, TO
which am opposed, IS am as equally
op loscd TO the substitute for the sam.
offered this morning, WAS not, in nv es.
tim tinn, presented with the idea that it
would meet with the approval of the
House, but rather with the intention of
defeating the original measure. | for
one do not like such legislative fnessing.
prefer to meet a question upon its mer-
its fairly and squar2ly. The gentleman
well knew when he introduced the sub
s,itute that he was placing members Of
the House in n disagrceahle if not in a
false position. The constituency which
we represent do not demand the passage
CT such proposition. The people who
are to be aided thereby do not demand it
1t is unwise to vote for it, and by voting
against 1t the gentleman well knows that
we may subject ourselves to the calum-
nies OF dcmagogucs as being recrcant to
the interest and false to the necessities of
those widows and orphans who have
nothing left on earth but the fair fame of
fathers and brothers who gave up their
lives on the altar of their country. Sir.
such II proposition partakcs more of the
arts OF the politician than the high and
manly purpose Of the statesman.
| shall vote for the original resolution
without fear that my constituents will
blame me for n want Of sympathy or gen
erosity on the one hand, or for undue
extravaganza in the expenditure of the
public money on the other. My SYM
pathy for the heroic dead is as great as
that of the gentleman from Massachusetts
The soldiers memory is as saci ed to m,
as it is to him, and when the proper time
comes | trust shall not be far behind
the honorable gentleman in relieving the
necessities of their widows and orphans,
both from my private purse and from the
public chest. | say with him, God bless
the noble soldiers who, through rivers of
blood, have saved our beloved country.
and borne our flag aloft so successfully
that II now floats over every sea, the hope
of.the oppressed and the fear of the op-
pressor. God bless their widows and
orphan children, and palsied be the hand
and dumb the tongue that would not by
act and word conduce to their comfort and
support.
Sir, l am equally opposed to the pro-
position introduced this morning by the
gentleman from Massachusetts as an ad-
ditional substitute. As gathered from
the reading of it by the Clerk, it provides
that the military commanders of the
various districts may assess those owning
over one hundred and sixty acres of Land
or having an income of more than 5000
per annum to an amount sufficient to feed
the starving poor of the South. 1t seems
to me to be thrust forward as IN easy.
cheap, and may say illegal method of
calculating the gentlemah's Quixotic
scheme of general confscation. The
scheme cannot be justified under the