The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-03-19


our country-is to distribute these almI
I which he asks at our hands. 1t Is
| enough sir, for me to know that be
recommends II and is 10 be the almonel
/ OF our bounty. No dollar of this
money VIII cling to his hands. Allow
General Howard 6OS to have the disposition
/ OF this 3, ,0OO, coo, as of the s. ,OO0, ,0OC
I appropriated by the last Congress, and
/ when he tuds men suffering for bread
ne will feed them. Who will object to
that?
Mr.. Farnsworth rose.
| Mr.. Bingham-The gentleman must
/ excuse me.
| Mr.. Farneswortt-I desire to say /
/ will strike hands with the gentleman
I in the grace OF Christian charity, al
though cannot follow him as high as
he goes in lights OF fancy. What de-
sire ls an answer to my question.
Should an investigation be made
throughout the North, would not
more than sixty Thousand persons
be found who have not bread enough
I IN their possession for the next year
and Who have no prospect of obtaining
II except they raise it, If SO, then is
l'It not our duty to hunt out in New
York, in Cincinnati, in Chicago, and
various other cities the poor people
there and feed theIn7
Mr.. Bingham-Mr. Chairman, I do
not believe that the organized repre-
sented States of this Union contain six
" thousand men or any considerable
number OF persons for whom there is
no provision for bread. l do believe,
on the other hand, in every one of those
States not materially disturbed by the
late conflict of arms, there are ample
provisions made by existing law for
the support of their poor. 1 know 1t is
so in my own State, and say there is
not sixty thousand, nor sixty, nor even
ten men within the limits of that great
ComInOnU ealth which Ihaye the honor
in part to represent, for whom there
does not exist to-day an ample fund
| provided by law to supply their neces-
sary wants. 1 trust the gentleman is
answered.
But, sir, this appropriation is meant
for the people in the yet uuorganized
southern States, who are not yet per
mltted Dy our own law to organize To-
cal State governments. We have right
fully declared that the people of those
States shall not exercise those privile-
geS and functions until certain prelim-
mary steps shall have been taken.
Pendinding this movement, we are in
formed by the head of the Bureau of
Freedmen, Major General Howard that
there are sixty thousand persons in
| those States who, not by want ofindus-
try or care or providence, but by reason
of their crops having perished in the
neld by the visitation OF Heaven, mus
suffer for bread before the spring crops
can be produced, and therefore he asks
this appropriation. The distinguished
gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr.
Butler,) who rendered good service in
the held asks US to apply in time of
peace to the people of the Southern
country the IRON rule of war. Sir,
cannot consent to that. No war rocks
the continent, no armed rebellion
Thraafnna with -
uons of the country. The pillars OF the
holy temple of our liberties do not
tremble in the storm of battle; the
whole heavens are no longer covered
with blackness, and the habitations of
the people are no longer filled with lam
fentatton aud sorrow for the beauti-
ful being slain upon the high places of
the land! Thanks be TO God ! the har-
vest of death is ended, and the sickle
! has dropped from the hands of the
'Pale reapers" on the field of mortal
combat.
Sir, You may apply in the day of war
the iron rule of war, and say that the
innocent and uuofending in the be-
leaguered city shall perish with the
guilty; but when wars dread alarm has
ended, as happily II has with US, when
the broken battaiions OF rebellion have
surrendered to the victorious legions of
the Republic, let no man stand within
ALG III uL1 VI TIC pGOBAt anu utter Lne
horrid blasphemy that you shall not
have regard for the famishing poor, that
you shall not give cup Of water to him
that is ready to perish in the name of
our Master, that you shall not even re-
lieve the wants OF those who have new
er offended against the laws. The un-
offending little children are not enemies
of your country or of mine; the crime
of treason is not upon their souls
Surely. surely they are not to be denied
your care. The great French patriot of
liberty, banished from the empire for
his love OF liberty, gathered little chill
dren around him in his exile at Guern-
sey, and led them from his own table,
utterlnR the judgment of our common
humanity in its best estate: Little
children at least are innocent, for God
wills it So"
The majority of those who are to be the
benefciaries of your bounty never lift
ed their hands against your flag; they
are uuohending children, the children
of the poor.
The men who own the broad acres of
the South are not the men to whom
aims are to be distributed by General
Howard. The great majority to whom
this bounty will go are the children of
poverty. Some of them perchance may
have been driven by cruel and en-
forced conscription to serve the rebel
whom this charity will go, if you pass
the bill, are widows and orphan chill
dren. Under no pretenss of assisting
the orphan and widow of those who
suffered and died in the prisons of Libby
and AndersonviHe, as martyrs only can
suffer and die, will refuse my support
to this resolution of the Senate. The
sacred dust of those perished braves
would rebuke me il did. Our lost
braves know that mercy is an attribute
Of God himself
Mr.. Chairman, il their widows and
children are not already sufficiently
provided for, in Gods name provide
for them abundautly. am ready to
vote any additional needed relief to
them. 1 have voted hitherto, 1 know,
ten-fold the supplies to them that are
proposed in this resolution. If gentle
men will take the pains to make the
computation, II will be found that this
joint resolution provides only to the
amount of fraction over eighteen dol
lars per capita tn save sixty thousand
people from destitUtion during the
space of i've months That Is the head
and front Of its offending. Do not,
then, l pray you, ask that this Govern
meut shall degrade itself in the pres
eneS of the civilized world by refusing
supplies to its own citizens who are
famishing for bread, and stop to inc uire
of the starving thousands whether Lhey
were friends or enemies Sir, You can
not discriminate, If you would, between
[ friends and enemies when famishing
men ask for bread.
We might learn lesson upon this
subject by words that come down to us
through three thousand years from Pa
gan antiquity, when famine swept over
Thraee, and a father in his dying agony,
appealing to that charity which is the
Z diYinest of all the virtues, and which is
as universal as the material structure
| OF man, cried ont, '.Xanthus, good