Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-03-14

1t is quite probable the great body of
our people have a very imperfect knowl>
edge of the extreme destitution which
prevails in many portions Of the South.
The following extract from private let
ter to a gentleman in Philadelphia from
a warm-hearted Christian physician in
Georgia" will convey an idea of the
great restitution to which the people of
that State are now subjected
oh what horrors of famine will be
felt and seen in this country ere March be
gone. Last week | met a poor Baptist
preacher, neighbor Of mine, and he told
me he had not particle Of bread, nor the
means TO obtain it, He has never wanted
before, and lives By his own industry, has a
a wife, and think five or six children.
told him to call at my house and get some
-four, that ] had neither meat nor lard but
still some bread, and when we starved we
would all go together. He got the flour,
and God still keeps ms alive Day before
yesterday, / overlook a poor man in the
road, have known him for twenty years as
a Woodworking farmer, not a bit of bread
in his family, nor a particle of means
with which TO buy aught. / was going
on a medical visit TO a poor, help
less man, when overlook the one Just
named. The sick man IS dying for The lack Of
proper ROurishment, and no one has il for
him. He will die, | fear, and leave a
widow with five or six children to starve.
He has been an industrious, henest man,
and has, think, worked himself into his
present sickness took up an old man Of
eighty -four, at this sick mans house, and
carried him nearly home in my buggy. He
told me he did not have as much as a
double handful of meal and no -four: moth
ing to buy with when the meal is gone.
Our whole country is swarming with widows
and children, besides men whose crops per-
ished by drouth last summer who will
starve to death unless they get help All
are working as hard az they can to make
another crop, but they have no food for
themselves OF animals, and they must die,
many of them, unless help is given TO
them. verify believe nine-tenths of the
people in this, and several other parts of
Georgia, will die of famine and the pesti-
lence that must surely follow, unless you
Northern people and the great West save
US"
The writer of this letter says that there
are fifty thousand people within reach of
him who need help to save them from
death "Shermans and Wheeler's men
swept like two dreadful hurricanes right
over this region, scourging it for twenty
to fifty miles, from the Oconee to the
savannah
The Philadelphia Age, in publishing
the letter from which we have extracted,
says That there is great suffering
throughout the entire South cannot, for
one moment be doubted Every day
makes us acquainted with painful facts
to prove it beyond all preadyenture, and
to all true friends of humanity solemn
appeal is made for help to the distressed
in this hour Of gloom and darkness
When Ireland gaunt with famine,
stretched out her withered hands for sue
eorwe heard her cries and sent across the
sea ship loads of stores to feed and clothe
her impoverished people At this time
we are dispensing charities to the citizens
Of France, who suffered from terrible
foundations, and our tender pity is
awakened for the helpless Cretans in their
moment OF sorrow and despair Can we
do less for our own people p
If the people Of the North should be
actuated by the spirit of their Represen~
tatiyes in Congress, the appeals for relief
would, we fear, accomplish but little In
the Houses of Representatives on the 18th
inst, the Senate Joint resolution appro-
priating $4,000 for the reliefof the des'
titute colored people in the District of
Columbia was agreed to, but when the
resolution appropriating 81 100000 for
the relief Of destitute persons IN the South
came up, it was referred to the commit
tee ofthe whole, and motion to 60 into
committee to consider the resolution was
met by an adjournment Such rs the
consideration the white people OF the
South receive from the Radicals in
Congress-