At the close of the " voluntary period," as it may be called, when the system of helping the families of volunteers gave way to the juster and more practical method of relief by town and county bonds, the record shows that there had been raised, in Port Chester, $4403.75, of which the balance remaining on hand, when the first bonds were received, wa-s $218.53 -- a result that shows, even at the present day, when the paper is yellow with age, the ink faded and brown, that the hearts of the people of Port Chester, in the persons of their relief committee, were in the right place during the war.

But the time had come when this system of relief was to give way to another. On the 1st of September, 1862, came the first town bonds, into the hands of the committee, and with them, alas! the first token of that " bounty system," which was to do more to degrade the name of the American soldier than anything that occurred in the whole course of the war. The account of this change brings us naturally to the facts on record, in regard to the cost of the war to the county, made necessary by the unconcealed aversion of a part of the people to engage in a struggle from which the romance had departed, and where nothing remained but the grim reality of death, to be faced as best the heart might be found therefor.

The work of the Union Defense Committees, therefore, gave way to that of the " Ladies' Aid Societies " and the "Councils" of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, whose sphere of action was diH'erent. I am glad here to give a specimen of what that sphere was, by the final report of the Sing Sing Council, which has come into my hands since the above was written.