TO THE BENEVOLENT PEOPLE
OF
Berkshire, Hampshire and Hampden Counties.
FRIENDS OF HUMANITY:- You have heard, ere this, of the appalling condition
of famine-stricken Ireland; how thousands are daily melting away, like morning
dew before the sun, consumed by Famine and Pestilence, which are walking hand
in hand over this unhappy land, and threaten destruction to one-third of its
population. May I not address an appeal to your compassion and benevolence from
this 'potter's field' of destitution, despair and death? May I not entreat you
to look into your basket and your store, and see if a bountiful Providence had
not poured you out this year more blessings than are absolutely necessary to
your support, and which you may divide with those who are perishing with hunger?
Is there a farmer among your healthy hills who could not spare from his granary
or cellar a bag of Indian corn, rye, or potatoes, and add to the gift of a few
pounds of salt pork or beef? And is there a wardrobe in all your towns, which
could not spare some half-worn garment, to warm the naked, living skeletons
of God's image that are lying upon the straw ess, miry floor of thousands of
hovels in this afflicted land? How easy it would be to collect these contributions
and convey them to the different depots on the railway lines that meet in Springfield?
No section of New England is favored with such facilities of communication and
conveyance as your three counties. Perhaps there is none more blessed with abundance
of food and raiment. There is the Connecticut River Railroad and the Great Western,
which would glean the river towns those among the Berkshire Hills, and convey
their contributions to Boston free of charge, if an appeal were made
to the generosity of the companies. I am sure it would be easy comparatively
for these three noble counties to freight a vessel with these free-will offerings
to the perishing. And there is not part of Ireland where they could be more
properly directed, than to the town of Bantry, twenty-four miles west
of Skibbereen, on the celebrated Bay of Bantry. I have been assured that the
ravages of famine and pestilence are more dreadful in that place and the parishes
which comprise the Bantry Union, than in Skibbereen. A vessel would make the
port of Bantry without the slightest difficulty, as it is one of the largest
and finest harbors in the Kingdom. The cargo should be consigned to the Chairman
of the Board of Guardians of Bantry Union, which is made up of representatives
from all the parishes, and who would see that it was distributed among them
according to the amount of destitution existing in each. Let me beg the readers
of the Citizen, and others who may meet this appeal, in those three counties,
to bring this subject before their fellow-citizens. |