Year: 1863




membership, signed by the Recording
Clerk.


Provisions.


The following address to the people of
Halifax County, Virginia, may we'll be con-
sidered as addressed to our people. Our
first duty is to feed our army. If any stint
exists we should suffer, not they:


In making the following appeal to you, I
hope that I shall not be deemed guilty Of
unseemly ofhciousness. Our armies in Vir-
ginia, are beyond question, in great need of
supplies. Especially do they require corn
for cavalry and artillery horses, and meat
for the soldiers. Thessoil of our county
has been so far unpolluted BY the tread Of
hostile foot, aud we ought to provide, to
the full measure Of our ability, for the sup.
port of our army, which SO far, under God,
has protected u.s.; Much has been doneby
our people, but not enough. There is un-
EXCEPTIONALLY some scarcity, but tits nothing
like SO great as many seem to think. Per-
sons are alarmed by the high prices, without
rejecting that this is owing more to the re-.
dundancy Of currency than to,a deficiency
Of food. Why should we look any further
ahead than to the coming wheat harvest,
which will commence on the 10th Of next
june ?><We can safely spare every grain of
corn, over and above what is necessary to
carry us to the 1st of July. Prudence in
ordinary times is not prudence now. It is
the climax of prudence to sustain our ar
mics, forif they are vanquished by famine,
the bounties Of summer and autumn will
enure to the benefit of onr enemies, and
not to us, and our families. Our crops of
Irish potatoes will be fit for use early in
June, and in July the earth will team with
beets, beans, peas and other vegetables
Even if Providence should deny us, a boun.
tiful wheat harvest, We have other safe
guards against famine. An enormous crop
of Indian corn will be planted, and this
may be used for bread by the 18th Of Sep
tember, after being dried in. the sun. In
deed it used to be common saying among
us, that if the corn would "fetch wheat"
that if it would hold out to wheat harvest,
there was no danger. 1t is true that while
the winter oat in this county, the last year
was magnificent crop, that sowed in the
Spring was failure, it is also true that
while the wheat was of fair quality, the
quantity was greatly short. Butitis equal
ly true, that the crop Of corn, taking all
parts of the county together, was rather
above that of average years. In an expe.
rience of thirty years / am sure that I have
seen twenty worse corn years, and not six
better For our stockjHe shall have the
fruits Of an oat crop by the 10th Of June.
A great breadth of land has been sowed
with winter oats, and having grown this crop
for the last ten years, I have never met with
failure. We may count on it with Ger
tain,y, and weighing forty pounds to the
bushel; are we SO different from the Scotch
man, that we could not, in an emergency,
use it for bread? =


On those of my brother planters, who,
like myself, are kept at home by age or in
trinity, and who have ingloriously slipped
in between two wars, without seeing active
service in either, it is peculiarly incumbent
to bsstir ourselves in this patriotic work of
supplying our armies with subsistence. Let
US put our families on ths,shortest rations,
and make it point to send to our; soldiers
everything that absolute existence does not
demand. In. 1917, 1 think it was, during
great dearth in England, most Of the no.
bility and gentry of the kingdom determin:
ed to use no bread on their tables and the
tables of their servants. They lived we'll
on potatoes and other vegetables. They
were actuated by motives of charity; to
charity We have the added impulse Of pat
riotism. An honored friend of mine, now
no more, the late Captain Pointer, of the
South of Dan, told me that when a youth
he visited wealthy man of his neighbor-
hood. He sat down to dinner with large
family of sons and daughters. On the
centre of the table was placed huge smo
king wooden tray of black eyed peas, gar
nished with three small bits of bacon. This
was the dinner. During the meal my
friend ventured, timidly, to ask for piece
of bread. His host said, or rather roared
to him, "Young man, when we eat peas We
eat peas, when We eat bread we eat bread
this is pea day." Now, my friends, let us
prove that patriotism can endure as much
as avarice, and that love of country will
imp.l us to as many sacrifices as the love of
money. Let us have our pea days aud our
potato days, and let bread and meat days be
few and far between. Let no man say that
my barrel of corn, or my hundred weight
of fodder, or my ten pounds of bacon, will
do hut little good. An army is sustained
by these Titles, and by them is liberty gain
ed and preserved. One soldier is worth
but little by himself in driving back an in
vading host, yet he is unit, and units con.
stitute the great sum Of a protecting army.


Let us act promptly and without days
delay; send meat, corn, oats, fodder, hay
and straw to our armies. Let us trust to
Providence, and not look through one har-
vest to another. Our great danger just now
is not famine, but the fear Of famine. We
have the men to drive back our enemies,
and they are ready and willing, and the
! o,o.t;on for no "a dooide ia whethar ve will