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indispensable, that some action be taken, to provide for the widows, orphans, cripples, and aged and infirm persons, whose natural protections are no longer left them.  
The condition of many of these people is pitable indeed, they are not only without food or the means of obtaining it, but, in many instances, with scarcely a sufficiency of clothing to hide their nakedness.  The unusual amount of sickness which has prevailed during the summer and fall has greatly increased the suffering among these people.  Being scantily clad with insufficient and unsuitable food, frequently, without medicines or medical attention, many have perished.  Others are now in a most wretched condition, and poorly prepared to meet the chilling blasts of the coming winter.
In all the poorer counties, where the largest white population is to be found, there are in every neighborhood, widowed mothers with families of little children, without a days supply of food in their house and no one around them able to give them employment or food.  Feeble old men and women are found with no one to protect or care for them.  These make a strong appeal to the sympathies of every generous hearted man and humanity demands that some certain provision be made for their relief.
The issue of food by the Government is, under ordinary circumstances, a questionable if not dangerous expedient.  Its tendency is to encourage idleness, and it is almost necessarily attended with evil consequencies.  Yet the extraordinary condition of our country, the unusual scarcity of food, and the large number of destitute, helpless, and dependent