Year: 1864

VIZ have before US a copy of the Phila-
phia Age,.a copperhead journal of the most
virulent type; and its leading article-a
long one-is devoted to an exposition of
the effects of this ''abolition war" upon
the fortunes of the poor. Ofcourse it is
an appeal to the unreasoniug and the ig-
rant poor against the policy of the war,
and an attempt to make them believe that
New England is growing rich out Of the
war, at their expense. tNew England con-
tractors and manufacturers" it says "daily
grow inordinately rich on the price of
blood, and the mass of the people, who
work for their bread, hour by hour grow
poorer and still more poor, marching stead.
lily downward from common poverty to
downright beggary, and from beggary
straightWay to starvation" This extract
gives the gist of the whole. article. The
statement is boldly made that "of the
thousands of millions which the war has
cost, and for which the laborer is taxed,
not penny finds its way into his pocket"
This statement is made in the face of the
patent fact that the New England manu-
facturers are paying the heaviest taxes that
are paid in the country, and the laborers
are thriving on unprecedented wages and
have NO taxation at all, or none that 10
worth mentioning. The labOriDg pOpula-
ton of the country were never earning so
good wages as they are earning to-day,
even when we take into account the relA-
tion of wages to cost of living, and never
lived when there was such a demand for
labor at the highest prices as now. There
is nobody who has disposition TO work,
from the boy and the girl of twelve to the
man and woman of every age, who cannot
get work to do at prices which pay munif-
Gently. If we were to select any class
which is more prosperous than .auy.other it
would be the laboring class! The AbOrersl
themselves know or ought to know this.
If they do not, those who employ them do.
The great burdens of the war come upon
the rich men and the business men, and,
with the scarcity of labor which every
where prevails, the poor have a guaranty
of constant remunerative labor which they
have never had before in the history of this
country.


Still further to show the poor man what
he is coming to, the Age quotes from the
New York Tribune of January lst, an arti-
Gle showing how one DR.. Winthrop Dun
sumner has ascertained that the soil which
grows cabbages and other vegetables, con-
tains all the nutritive elements of those
vegetables, and can be used for food, as
"the Patsgonians and other Athletic tribes
of savages make dirt a portion of their daily
banquets." 1t also quotes from the Boston
Commonwealth the statement that Professor
WinslOw Perkinpine, of Harvard, has dis
covered that the flesh of the common grass.
hopper contains l15 per cent. of nuttiment,
and has been fayorite dish of that most
intelligent and beautiful people, the Dig!
ger Indians of California, and that, with
dirt and grasshoppers, ''Ihe laborer may
we'll bid defiance to poverty and hunger,
and can, without serious privation, give all
of his earnings, instead of nine tenths, for
the support of the government, and the
liberation and sustenAnce of the noble
black" These articles, which are, upon
their face, fctious, the second one being a
gross IFaNeSu6 OI. Tue urbt, arc ACtuhIlY
quoted by this scoundrelly sheet to show
that this diet is prescribed by the Yankees
for the poor, and the editor coolly adds /:
"And so the world goes on--the war bleeds
and beggars us, and the Yankees of New
England entertain Us with editorial speci-
fes for emptiness and rags"


1t is humiliatiug to believe that the Vri-


ter of this rsscally stuff knows that he has
a market for it among the ignorant poor
around him, to whom it win be faithfully
read by bar. room and brothel demagogues;
and it is still more humilisting to believe
that there are others engaged in editorial
work who are equally lost to shame with


the editor of the Age himself. 1t is sad


to know that the government, and every
we'll wisher of the government, have these
men to meet in an election which is to de-


eide the policy of the nation for the next


four years, and that this damnable ma


chinery is used for the simple purpose Of


transforming simple people into foes of the


government and into foes of New England.
It is ssdder still TO realize that among all
the democratic presses of this country
there is not one which desires or .dares to
expose the rascality of this appeal or


spurus the means by which this eaitif tries
10 win supporters 70 the nominees of the


Chicago convention, whom he promises in
! advance TO sustain.