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economy to save them from starving and enable them to push forward their crops so that next year shall not be worse than this. The horses and mules of this country are already unable, in many instances, to drag forward these travesties of farming tools called plows, with which these creatures scratch the ground to make a living.

I have spoken of 50 families near me, in Jefferson, that are destitute; but Jefferson is a large County, 30 miles by 25, more or less, and the same style of destitution prevails in other sections as well as this. I have been studying this destitution for months, and it is as clear to my mind as a mathematical demonstration, that it will take at least 10,000 bushels of grain, of some sort, to save our people and their work animals; without which they are lost. 

If this matter is not considered by our leading men now, it will be forced on them, in all its horror, in a few months. There are many destitute negroes here as well as white people; negroes who have to feed themselves and families, while they work on farms. Among them are multitudes of children, and a number of old men and women, whom their sons and other relatives are trying to support. I plead for these poor destitute negroes as well as for the destitute whites. In speaking above, before