April 9, 1863, Clarke County Journal (Alabama)
Is there no remedy for the […..] prices of the essentials of life? Yes, there is a remedy, and it is in the hands of the men who are not in the army, and if they do not remedy it, and that right speedily–well, every sensible man knows the inevitable disaster which awaits us as a people.–In the name of God, how can the poor live at the present prices! Go to the free market, and you will there see squalid poverty and misery in the persons of old men, women and children who never knew distress until the spirit of extortion got abroad in the land.–With what the poor can earn, added to that they receive through charity, many of them are on the verge of starvation, if we may judge from their emaciated faces. Men who were worth a few thousands of dollars a year or two ago, are now reduced to beggary by this curse of the country, Extortion. The extortioners are doing for Lincoln more than his army and navy combined. Take heed, rich men!–you may have been rich before the war began, or may have made a fortune since–we say to you beware! If you do your duty, all may yet be well. But if you do it not, you and your children will most assuredly be beggars, yes, slaves, at the close of this unrighteous war. Our gallant soldiers can avail nothing if the people at home fight against them. Your disposition to make money while your countrymen are bleeding and starving, cannot benefit you in the end, unless your course is changed. And the pulpit and the press throughout the country cannot too often tell you so.–Mont. Mail.