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Bread for our Starving Countrymen. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
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 N. F. E. 
 
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 OF VERMONT 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF KEPKESE NT ATI VES, 
 
 MARCH 19, 1867. 
 
 
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 WASHINGTON: 
 PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 
 
 1867. 
 

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BREAD FOR OUR STARVING COUNTRYMEN 
 
 In the House of Representatives, 
 March 19, 1867, 
 Mr. WOODBRIDGE moved that the rules 
 be suspended and the House resolve itself into 
 the Committee of the Whole on the state of the 
 Union. 
 The motion was agreed to. 
 The House resolved itself into the Commit- 
 tee of the Whole on the state of the Union, (Mr. 
 Pomeroy in the chair.) and resumed the con- 
 sideration of Senate jdlnt resolution No. 16, for 
 the relief of the destitute in the southern and 
 southwestern States, being a resolution to ap- 
 propriate $1,000,000 for that purpose. 
 
 Mr. BUTLER. I modify my amendment 
 by substituting the following for it : 
 
 Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert 
 the following in lieu thereof: 
 
 That the several district commanders of the mili- 
 tary districts defined by an act entitled "An act to 
 provide for a more efficient government for the rebel 
 States," approved March 2, 1867, shall have power 
 to assess and collect by military authority, ratably 
 upon all persons within their districts respectively, 
 owning more than one hundred and sixty acres of 
 land or who shall have an income of more than $S0O 
 a year, such sum or sums as such commander may 
 deem necessary to relieve and provide for the des- 
 titution and pauperism of the people in bis district, 
 not within the provisions of the act concerning 
 abandoned lands, refugees, and freedmen : Provided, 
 That all moneys raised by such assessments shall 
 be applied to the purposes of such relief and no 
 other. 
 
 And be it further re/solved. That for the purposes of 
 collecting such assessments such commanders shall 
 severally have, in addition to their military author- 
 ity, thesame powers and authority to levy and collect, 
 
 by sale or otherwise, such assessments as was vested 
 by law in the tax commissioners under an act enti- 
 tled "An act for the collection of direct taxes in in- 
 surrectionary States, and for other purposes," passed 
 June 7, 1862, and the acts amendatory thereof, so far 
 as the same may be applicable, which power, of levy, 
 collection, and sale may be exercised by said district 
 commanders severally, either in person or by a com- 
 missioner duly appointed by each of said military 
 commanders, and all acts and proceedings in such 
 assessment, levy, and collection shall bo as valid to 
 all intents and purposes as if done and carried on 
 under and by virtue of the provisions of said last 
 mentioned act. 
 
 And be it further resolved, That the sums as raised 
 by assessment shall be distributed and applied forre- 
 lief as aforesaid by the several district commanders 
 respectively, either by such officers or military com- 
 missions as they may detail, or through the agents 
 of the Bureau of Abandoned Lands, Refugees, and 
 Freedmen of their several districts at his election, 
 who shall be the agents of said district commander 
 for this purpose, and said district commander shall 
 cause a full, true, accurate, and explicit account to 
 be kept, and return to be made, of his receipts and 
 expenditures, and of his doings under and by virtue 
 of this aot, to the Secretary of War, who sh.ill audit 
 and adjust such accounts in the same manner as the 
 accounts of the disbursing officers of the War De- 
 partment are audited and adjusted. 
 
 And be it further, resolved, That to meet the press- 
 in,' exigencies of the wants of people of his dis- 
 trict, the commander of each of said districts may 
 require for, and receive from the Commissary Gen- 
 eral of Subsistence, such rations of food, from time to 
 time, as he may deem sufficient to meet such exi- 
 gencies and afford proper relief, to bo distribui 
 him in the manner aforesaid, and said commander 
 shall out of the sums so assessed and collected, as 
 soon as may be, reimburse and pay the subsistence 
 department for all the rations as required by him at 
 the prime cost thereof, with a reasonable amount for 
 transportation of the same: Provided, howev r, That 
 no relief shall be given or afforded to any abb-'' 
 unmarried man or to any family wherein an abler 
 bodied inmate is residing who is not continuously 
 
employed in some manual labor during the time of 
 giving such relief. , 
 
 Mr. BTJTUER. With the leave of the com- 
 mittee, I will withdraw the modification of the 
 amendment. 
 
 Mr. SCHENCK. I move it as a substitute 
 for the previous substitute offered by the gen- 
 tleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. Butler.] 
 And as this debate may go over, I ask that it 
 may be printed. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN. That cannot be ordered 
 in committee. 
 
 Mr. WOODBRIDGE. Mr. Chairman, in 
 discussing this question I shall assume that 
 there are thousands of our fellow- citizens 
 within the lately rebellious States who are 
 now, and for a few months to come will be, 
 suffering for want of food. We hive a report 
 from the Christian soldier, General Howard, 
 that such is the fact ; and I may say that in 
 private conversation with that gentleman he 
 assured me of the necessity of material aid 
 and the propriety of legislative action. I am 
 told by my friend from Ohio [Mr. Bingham] 
 that since it has been intimated that General 
 Howard was not in favor of this appropriation 
 he has received a letter from him, stating that 
 no person is authorized to make such a dec- 
 laration. 
 
 I will read a statement respecting the con- 
 dition of the poor of the South from the New 
 York Times : 
 
 "The Cry op Anguish.— 'We have neither money 
 nor corn. Can and will yon Let me have fifty bi 
 till I can make a crop? I will surely pay you. i have 
 fifteen freedmen hired and we can get no corn. If 
 your Christian people could see < .1 feel 
 
 the sympathetic tear would come to their ej as. 
 Only think for a moment ; la t year we had eleven 
 I no rain. Our corn fill in the fields, and 
 there is nothing bnl abjecl want before us.' 
 
 "So writes Mr. li. I , of Ridgeway, Fairfield 
 
 district, South Carolina, in a letter received 
 
 I I lommisi i m of 
 ity. His appi d La ement of 
 
 Fuller, D.D., of Baltimore, to whom he 
 illj known, II i letter repri ots ad 
 
 that, reaches through nearly every district of South 
 Carolina, and includes notfewer than a hundred thou- 
 sand people. Planters have no seed to put into the 
 ground and no bread to feed the laborers needed tc 
 prepare the ground for a crop. Whole families are 
 known to "have lived on corn husks for weeks. 
 
 " What is true of South Carolina is also true of large 
 sections of middle and northern Georgia, and of more 
 than half the counties of Alabama. Some sections 
 of North Carolina- and Mississippi are in the same 
 condition, though not to the same extent. But it is 
 believed, on the authority of much painstaking in- 
 quiry.'that there are at least three hundred thousand 
 people in the above States who must have relief from 
 the benevolently disposed people of the North to 
 prevent suffering which the heart shrinks from con- 
 templating. The South is too deeply impoverished 
 to feed her own starving population, and the bread 
 and the seed must come from the North. 
 
 " The simultaneous appeal appointed to be made 
 from all the pulpits throughout the country to-mor- 
 row should be responded to with a generosity that 
 will give the Commission $100,000 to expend in its 
 timely and benevolent work. Mr. James M. Brown, 
 No. 61 Wall street, is the treasurer, and will see that 
 the money is faithfully applied to the uses for which 
 it is contributed." 
 
 Now, sir, such being their condition, I am 
 in favor of the resolution. Sir, the amend- 
 ment proposed by the gentleman from Massa- 
 chusetts, [Mr. Butler^ to which I am op- 
 posed, as I am also equally opposed to the 
 substitute for the same offered this morning, 
 was not, in my estimation, presented with the 
 idea that it would meet the approval of the 
 House, but rather with the intention of defeat- 
 ing the original measure. I for one do not 
 like such legislative finessing. I prefer to 
 meet a question upon its merits fairly and 
 squarely. The gentleman well knew when lie 
 introduced the substitute that he was placing 
 members of the House in a disagreeable if not 
 in a false position. The constituency which 
 we represent do not demand the passage of 
 such a proposition. The people who are to 
 be aided thereby do not demand.it. It is un- 
 wise to vote for it, and by voting against it 
 the gentleman well knows that we may sub- 
 ject ourselves to the calumnies of demagogues 
 as being recreant to the interest and fal 
 tin' necessities of those widows and orphans 
 
who have nothing left on earth but the fair 
 fame of fathers and brothers who gave up 
 their lives on the altar of their country. Sir, 
 such a proposition partakes more of the art 
 of the politician than the high and manly pur- 
 pose of the statesman. 
 
 I shall vote for the original resolution with- 
 out fear that my constituents will blame me 
 for a want of sympathy or generosity on the 
 one hand, or for undue extravagance in the ex- 
 penditure of the public money on the other. 
 My sympathy for the heroic dead is as great 
 as that of the gentleman from Massachusetts. 
 JThe soldier's memory is as sacred to me as it 
 is to him, and when the proper time comes I 
 trust I shall not be far behind the honorable 
 gentleman in relieving the necessities of their 
 widows and orphans, both from my private 
 purse and from the public chest. I say with 
 him, God bless the noble soldiers who, through 
 rivers of blood, have saved our beloved coun- 
 try, and borne our flag aloft so successfully 
 that it now floats over every sea, the hope of 
 the oppressed and the fear of the oppressor. 
 God bless their widows and orphan children, 
 and palsied be the hand and dumb the tongue 
 that would not by act and word conduce to 
 their comfort and. support. 
 
 Sir, I am equally opposed to the proposition 
 introduced this morning by the gentleman from 
 Massachusetts as an additional substitute. As 
 I gathered from the reading of it by the Clerk, 
 it provides that the military commanders of 
 the various districts may assess those owning 
 over one hundred and sixty acres of land or 
 having an income of more than $600 per an- 
 num to an amount sufficient to feed the starving 
 poor of the South. It seems to me to be 
 thrust forward as an easy, cheap, and I may 
 say illegal method of effectuating the gentle- 
 man's Quixotic scheme of general confiscation. 
 Th" scheme cannot be justified under the Con- 
 
 *\ 
 
 stitution, or in the present condition of the 
 country under the laws of war, or under that 
 principle of sovereignty which is above the 
 Constitution and enables every Government to 
 do that which may be necessary in order to 
 protect the national life. 
 
 When the gentleman from Massachusetts 
 [Mr. Butler] was at New Orleans, where he 
 so well and so faithfully and so gloriously 
 served his country, he could under the laws 
 of war take the property of the^rebel citizen 
 and apply it either to the preservation of the 
 health of the city or the lives of the people. 
 If the gentleman claims that the southern 
 States are now under the exclusive and abso- 
 lute control of Congress, and that his measure 
 is in the nature of a tax, then it is illegal and 
 unjust, because it is indefinite, unequal, and 
 without apportionment. If he justifies it upon 
 the doctrine of sovereignty superior to the Con- 
 stitution, then it is illegal, unwise, and unjust, 
 because it is partial in its operation, and to 
 be applied without condemnation or any of the 
 ordinary procedures of law. 
 
 I know it has been said upon the floor of 
 this House, and more especially by gentlemen 
 upon the other side, that the recent legislation 
 of Congress providing for the more effective 
 government of the rebellious States is uncon- 
 stitutional; that it cannot be justified by the 
 Constitution, or under the laws of war, because 
 war is no longer existing, and hence is im- 
 proper and cannot be sustained. 
 
 Passing over that clause of the Constitution 
 which says that Congress shall guaranty to 
 every State and the people thereof a republi- 
 can form of government, I strike higher ground, 
 and justify the law upon the doctrine of sov- 
 . ereignty, that inherent and necessary power 
 which rests in every Government on earth. 
 The decalogue, in which it is written by the 
 finger of God, "Thou shalt not kill," is the 
 
6 
 
 law for the guidance of every individual soul. 
 And yet who does not know that when a man 
 is called upon to defend his own life that right 
 is superior even to the divine command? 
 
 It is so with nations. Let me illustrate. 
 When Napoleon I. offered to cede the terri- 
 tory of Louisiana to the United States, Pres- 
 ident Jefferson was troubled because he could 
 find no authority in the Constitution, or in the 
 Federalist which expounded it, for making the 
 purchase, IJe consulted his friend, an emi- 
 nent lawyer, who told him that he had looked 
 into the wrong book ; that the constitutions of 
 no nation in Christendom, written, verbal, or 
 traditional, contained any such provision : that 
 it was an attribute of sovereignty and belonged 
 of right by the law of nations to every inde- 
 pendent Government on earth, and the pur- 
 chase was made under that sovereignty, which 
 authorizes a Government to do that which its 
 own preservation demands. 
 
 And so in the present case. The first and 
 paramount duty of the Government is to pro- 
 tect its citizens in their persons and property. 
 "When it fails to do that its vital force is gone ; 
 it becomes a dead carcass, and is no longer a 
 living power. Such being the case, it was 
 within the power of Congress, by virtue of its 
 sovereignty, to pass such regulations and 
 ordain such measures as would give to every 
 citizen in the southern States the protection 
 which Government is under obligation to pro- 
 vide. When Government fails to give that 
 protection, then it is absolutely destroy e 1. 
 Now, this being the case, we had the right, in 
 the exercise of sovereignty, to use all the 
 means and forces which a Christian nation 
 ever uses to preserve the life of the nation. 
 We cannot justify the measure introduced by 
 the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. 
 i.i:i: | upon that or any other tenable ground; 
 and hence I am oppOBed to it. 
 
 The first, the coldest, and the most heart- 
 less objection made to the passage of the reso- 
 lution is that the condition of the public Treas- 
 ury will not justify its passage. Sir, when a 
 house is on fire and a sweet child is at the win- 
 dow crying for help, and the chances are that 
 it may be saved although danger might attend 
 the attempt, shall the fireman hesitate until 
 the flames envelope the child? When the 
 drowning man is struggling in the wave shall 
 the strong swimmer hesitate to save him lest, 
 perchance, the exposure may increase his cold? 
 Sir, should this great nation, burdened it is true . 
 with debt, burdened it is true with taxes, but. 
 boundless in its resources, exhaustless and im- 
 measurable in its recuperative energies, fail to 
 accord sustenance to thousands of its starving 
 citizens? I have no patience with such reason- 
 ing. It belongs to the politician, and not to a 
 statesman having in view his duty to his fel- 
 low-man and his responsibility to God. 
 
 Sir, the next objection is that if we grant 
 this relief the money wc appropriate will be 
 bestowed upon enemies. What if it should 
 be? Are they enemies at war? Do the cruel 
 and bloody laws of war, which justify a nation 
 in inflicting every injury in its power upon its 
 enemy, now prevail? By no means. Peace 
 has returned. We have turned from the long 
 and bloody night of war to the sweet and 
 dawning morn of peace, and amid the parting 
 clouds the grand old arch has struck high in 
 the heavens. If enemies at all, they are no 
 longer enemies in war, and our divine Teacher 
 says, "If thine enemy hungers, feed him: if 
 he thirsts, give him drink." But, sir. th 
 are not our enemies. They are the poor, 
 downtrodden, oppressed whites of the South, 
 whose condition formerly was. but little re- 
 moved from that of the slave, and who now, in 
 their time of trouble and starvation, demand 
 our sympathy and aid. Although the men 
 
wore driven into the war, who will brand as 
 an enemy the poor woman remaining at home 
 and struggling for the sustenance of herself 
 and children, even while her husband was fight- 
 ing against our flag? Who shall say that the 
 infant drawing a miserable sustenance from 
 the half-starved mother's breast is an enemy 
 of the country? And yet, sir, it is such as they 
 that cry to us for help. 
 
 The next objection is that there is enough at 
 the South to provide for all it| people were it 
 properly distributed. For the sake of the 
 argument grant it. That it is hot so distributed 
 we all know. That the starving poor cannot 
 control the matter is perfectly apparent. 
 
 The illustrations used by the gentleman from 
 Massachusetts were addressed to the passions 
 rather than the reason of the House. What 
 if Mississippi has appropriated $20,000 to aid 
 in the defense of that arch traitor, Jefferson 
 Davis?. What if the women of Texas have 
 converted soldiers' clothing into money, and 
 for the purpose of endowing an institution 
 over which Robert E. Lee presides, or have 
 sent a pair of game chickens for his private 
 use? Do such facts change the question? 
 Are the starving poor responsible? Not at all. 
 As well might we say that the children of the 
 unfortunate drunkard should be left to starve, 
 because the father, if he were sober and indus- 
 trious, would be able to support them. 
 
 Sir, these are the three objections which 
 have been urged against the passage of the 
 resolution ; and certainly no one of them 
 commends itself to my judgment. 
 
 Mr. WASHBURN, of Indiana. Will the 
 gentleman give way a moment that I may 
 send up and have read as a part of his speech 
 a letter on this subject from the poet Whit- 
 tier? 
 
 Mr. WOODBRIDGE. I presume it is bet- 
 ter than anything I can say. I yield of course. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 A PEACE AND GOOD WILL LETTER FROM THE POET 
 WHITTIKR. 
 
 Amesbury, 4th Third month, 1867. 
 
 My dear Friend Haskell* I have noticed with 
 great satisfaction a movement in your city for the 
 aid of the people of the South. Threatened as they 
 are in many places with actual starvation, there can 
 be no doubt of our duty to relieve them to the extent 
 of our ability. This obligation is not affected by the 
 question of their loyalty or disloyalty. They must 
 be fed. 
 
 I am sure it will be done, and done cheerfully. 
 Massachusetts, so fiercely denounced by the rebel 
 press and hated with such blind ferocity by the great 
 mass of the men and women of the late confederacy, 
 has never entertained any feeling of hate toward the 
 people of the South. She was forced sadly and re- 
 luctantly to put forth all her energies for the pres- 
 ervation of the Union and the suppression of armed 
 rebellion. She made for this object terrible sacri- 
 fices of her best blood; her Heart Jtill aches with its 
 bereavements, and the bitter memory of the cruel 
 treatment of her sons ; but now, when those so lately 
 in armed conflict with her are actually suffering for 
 lack of food, I think I know the good old Common- 
 wealth well enough to promise that she will not stop 
 to make nice discriminations, nor to take counsel of 
 revenge, but will give liberally, "upbraiding not." 
 
 In the providence of God an opportunity is af- 
 forded us to overcome evil with good, to magnani- 
 mously overlook the insane hatred still manifested 
 toward us; and, so far as any action of ours can do 
 so, to convince the people of the South that while 
 resolved, for their good as well as our own, that sla- 
 very and treason shall have no possibility of resur- 
 rection, we have only kindness and good will for 
 themselves, and that our hearts and purses are open 
 to aid them in recovering from the evils resulting 
 from civil war and social changes. 
 
 May I trouble thee to hand the inclosed to the 
 fund committee, and oblige'thy friend, 
 
 JOHN G. WHITTIER. 
 
 v Mr. WILLIAMS, of Indiana. I ask the 
 gentleman to yield to me for a moment to have 
 an extract from a paper read. 
 
 Mr. WOODBRIDGE. I decline to yield 
 
 x 
 further. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from 
 Indiana [Mr. Washbukn] for causing to be 
 read an article from the sweetest of all our 
 poets, John G. Whittier, a citizen of Massa- 
 chusetts, and an early and earnest pioneer of 
 the anti-slavery cause. It represents the true 
 feelings of that noble old Commonwealth, which 
 
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 is a worthy representative of the grand old 
 fathers who more than two centuries ago un- 
 furled the flag of freedom upon the sacred rock 
 of Plymouth. From that spot were dissemi- 
 nated those principles which were the key- 
 notes of the Declaration of Independence, and 
 upon which is raised our beautiful temple of 
 liberty. In the language of Mrs. Hemans : 
 
 "Ay, call it holy ground, 
 
 The soil where first they trod, 
 They have left unstained what there they found — 
 Freedom to worship God." 
 
 It also represents the feelings of the people 
 of Vermont, a State born into the Union amid 
 convulsions and difficulties which would have 
 intimidated and awed men less brave and 
 patriotic than her fathers were, and preserving 
 a record so pure that she is called the • star 
 which never sets. Her people are already bur- 
 dened with taxation, but are ready to endure 
 more and suffer more when our flag is assailed 
 or our people cry for bread. I have no fear 
 for the little Green Mountain State, and be- 
 lieve, sir, that every man and woman within 
 hex borders would call their Representatives 
 recreant to duty should they oppose the pas- 
 sage of this resolution. 
 
 The question simply is, shall we extend gov- 
 ernmental aid to these starving millions? Great 
 God, has it come to' this, that the American 
 Congress in this century of the Christian era 
 shall close their ears to the cry of thousands 
 of their starving fellow-men for bread, bread, 
 when we have enough and to spare! .When 
 the people of Ireland were famishing Congress 
 hi niied to their aid and appropriated money 
 and provided ships to carry food to the starv- 
 ing. Will we allow it now to be said that we 
 are worse than infidels, and refuse to provide 
 for our own? 1 know there is a vacant chair 
 
 at almost every table, and broken hearts in 
 almost every family at the loss of father, son, 
 lover, or brother in this dreadful war. The 
 starving soldier as he dragged his weary limbs 
 from the fetid prisons of the South ; the maimed 
 soldier who goes upon crutches through the 
 streets ; the hundred battle-fields, rich with the 
 sacred blood of our martyred heroes, cry out 
 for vengeance, but there comes a voice from 
 Heaven, saying: "Vengeance is mine; I will 
 repay, saith the Ijord." 
 
 The tears, the groans, the blood of our 
 heroes are bottled, and in God's time will be 
 poured in inexorable wrath upon the guilty 
 heads of those who were the responsible in- 
 stigators of the terrible and causeless rebellion. 
 Already the incipient curse is upon them. 
 Their land, once basking in the sunny smiles 
 of prosperity and peace, is now ruined by the 
 ravages of war. Their homes are desolate, 
 their fields are at waste, their industries are 
 destroyed, their wealth is scattered, and gaunt 
 famine stalks their streets. 
 
 When altars were reared to the unknown 
 God the conqueror dragged at his chariot 
 wheels thousands of the conquered to become 
 his slaves ; but now that the true and living 
 God has been revealed, and "an eye for an 
 eye and a tooth for a tooth" has yielded to 
 the sublime teachings of forgiveness and a 
 heavenly charity, let us, by the passage of the 
 resolution, show to the South and to the world 
 that "with malice toward none, with charity 
 for all," we will pursue the right. 
 
 Believing that the proposition is just, I shall 
 vote for it, and hope it may receive the favora- 
 ble consideration of the House. And now, sir, 
 having ^promised gentlemen to do so, I move 
 that the committee rise and report the bill. 
 
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