The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1867-03-29
BEL AIR, MD FRIDAY MORNING. MARCH 49, 1867

our bounty. No dollar of this money will
cling to his hand. Allow General How.
ard to have the disposition of this ST.
100000, as of the 100000 appropri-
ated by the last Congress, and when he
finds men suffering for bread he will feed
them. Who will object to that?
Mr.. FARNSWORTH rose.
Mr.. BINGHAM. The gentleman must
excuse me.
Mr.. FARNSWORTH. 1 desire to
say l will strike hands with the gentle.
man in the grace of Christian charity, al
though | cannot follow him as high as he
goes in flights of fancy. What I desire is
an answer to my question. Should an in.
vestigation be made throughout the North,
would not more than sixty thousand per-
sons be found who have not bread enough
IN their possession for the next year, and
who have no prospect Of obtaining it OK,
copt they raise it {? If SO, then is it not
our duty to hunt out in New York, in Gin
cinnati, in Chicago, and various other
cities the poor people there and feed
them
Mr.. BINGHAM. Mr.. Chairman, do
not believe that The organized represented
States of this Union contain sixty thous-
and men or any considerable number of
persons for whom there is no provision for
bread. | do believe, on the other hand,
i'll every one of those States not material.
ly disturbed by the late conflict Of arms,
there are ample provisions made by ex.
isting law for the support of their poor.
l know it is SO in my own State, and l
say there is not sixty thousand, nor sixty,
nor even ten men within the limits of
that great Commonwealth which | have
the honor in part TO represent, for whom
there does not exist to, day an ample fund
provided by law to supply their necessary
wants. l trust the gentleman is answer.
ed.
But, sir, this appropriation is meant for
the people in the yet unorganized South
ern States, who are not yet permitted by
our own law to organize local State GOV
ernmcnts. We have rightfully declared
that the people of those States shall not
exercise those privileges and functions
until certain preliminary steps shall have
been taken. Pending this movement, we
are Informed by the head of the Bureau
OF Freedmen, Major General Howard, that
there are sixty thousand persons in those
States who, not by Want of industry or
care or providence, but by reason of their
crops having persisted in the field by the
visitation of Heaven, must suffer for
bread before the apring crops can be pro-
duced, and therefore he asks this appro-
priaticn. The distinguished gentleman
from Massachusetts, Mr.. Butler] who
rendered good service. in the field, 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
threatens with overthrow the institutions of
the country. The pillars of the holy tenn
pie of our liberties do not tremble in the
storm of battle the whole heavens are
no longer covered with blackness, and tho
babitatiops of the people are no longer
filled with lamensation and sorrow for
their beautiful being slain upon the high
places of the land Thanks be to God
the harvest of death is ended and the
sickle has dropped from the hands of the
the ''pae 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 in
nocent and unoffending in the beleaguered
city shall perish with the guilty; but
when wars dread alarm has ended, as
happily it has with US; when the broken
battalions of rebellion have surrendered
to the victorious legions of the Republic,
let no man stand within the forum of the
people and utter the horrid blasphemy
that you shall not have regard for the
furnishing poor, that you shall not give u
Gun of water to him that is ready to per-
ish in the name of our Master, that you
shall not even relieve the wants of those
who have never offended against the laws.
The unofendipg 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 children
around him in his exile at Guernsey, and
fed them from his own table, uttering the
judgment of our common humanity in its
best estate "Little children at least are
innocent, for God wills it 500
The majority Of those who are to be the
bsne6ciares Of your bounty never lifted
their hands against your flag; they are
unoffending 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 90 are the children of poverty. Some
of them percbance may have been driven
by cruel and enforced CONSUMPTION to
serve the rebellion but the great ma
jority of those to whom this charity will
oo. If Won BASS the bill, are widows and