 Daily Advocate
(Baton Rouge, LA),
April 25, 1861
The war spirit manifested in our noble little parish is highly creditable to its patriotism. Recruiting goes on rapidly. The Pelican Rifles now overnumber the quota required to fill a company. And the Creole Guards will complete its ranks in a few days. Capt. Rauhman’s (German) company of National Guards are drilling regularly and receiving accessions to their numbers. This company is composed entirely of our adopted citizens, and in a short time will be ready to prove, on the tented field, their devotion to the land of their adoption. In the next battle the Baton Rouge boys will give the Yankees a taste of their valor which they will remember for many a long day.
Notwithstanding this cheering display of eagerness to aid their country’s cause, manifested among our citizens of all classes, a more fervid impulse would be infused in the military movement if some reliable arrangements could be made to support the families of poor men during their engagement in the service of their country. We have heard of quite a number of this class, ardent to partake of the patriotic duties of a campaign, but restrained, on account of the daily necessities of their families, to enlist. Their daily labor is the only support of their wives and children. They cannot go to the wars and leave those they love best to starve or subsist upon uncertain charities. While anxious to serve their country, the dearest ties known to the human heart bind them to the ministries of household needs. Now, in order to allow such a participancy in the labors of patriotism, to the same extent enjoyed by their wealthier fellow-citizens, let some special, certain and reliable fund be set aside for the support of their families. And the best and quickest way of raising such a fund is for our Police Jury to assemble as soon as possible and appropriate a suitable account, say $20,000 out of the general treasury of the parish. The fund might be raised by private subscription, but that method would be very slow, uncertain and unequal. If the parish assumed guardianship over poor soldiers’ families, its charities would be sure, punctual and ennobling; if from private hands unreliable and probably vexatious to all concerned. Besides, the public source of relief would be replenished by a fair and impartial assessment. In fact, it would be derived from a general taxation, which is the surest and most equitable mode of creating a fund for a purpose so purely public and necessary as this.