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+Project Gutenberg's Report on the Condition of the South, by Carl Schurz
+
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+Title: Report on the Condition of the South
+
+Author: Carl Schurz
+
+Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8872]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on August 18, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONDITION OF THE SOUTH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+REPORT ON THE CONDITION OF THE SOUTH
+
+Carl Schurz
+
+
+First published 1865
+
+
+
+
+39TH CONGRESS,    SENATE.    Ex. Doc.
+1st Session.                 No. 2.
+
+MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
+
+COMMUNICATING,
+
+_In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 12th instant,
+information in relation to the States of the Union lately in rebellion,
+accompanied by a report of Carl Schurz on the States of South Carolina,
+Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; also a report of Lieutenant
+General Grant, on the same subject_.
+
+DECEMBER 19, 1865.--Read and ordered to be printed, with the reports of
+Carl Schurz and Lieutenant General Grant.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In reply to the resolution adopted by the Senate on the 12th instant, I
+have the honor to state, that the rebellion waged by a portion of the
+people against the properly constituted authorities of the government
+of the United States has been suppressed; that the United States are
+in possession of every State in which the insurrection existed; and
+that, as far as could be done, the courts of the United States have
+been restored, post offices re-established, and steps taken to put
+into effective operation the revenue laws of the country.
+
+As the result of the measures instituted by the Executive, with the
+view of inducing a resumption of the functions of the States
+comprehended in the inquiry of the Senate, the people in North
+Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
+Arkansas, and Tennessee, have reorganized their respective State
+governments, and "are yielding obedience to the laws and government of
+the United States," with more willingness and greater promptitude than,
+under the circumstances, could reasonably have been anticipated. The
+proposed amendment to the Constitution, providing for the abolition of
+slavery forever within the limits of the country, has been ratified by
+each one of those States, with the exception of Mississippi, from which
+no official information has yet been received; and in nearly all of
+them measures have been adopted or are now pending to confer upon
+freedmen rights and privileges which are essential to their comfort,
+protection, and security. In Florida and Texas the people are making
+commendable progress in restoring their State governments, and no doubt
+is entertained that they will at an early period be in a condition to
+resume all of their practical relations with the federal government.
+
+In "that portion of the Union lately in rebellion" the aspect of affairs
+is more promising than, in view of all the circumstances, could well have
+been expected. The people throughout the entire south evince a laudable
+desire to renew their allegiance to the government, and to repair the
+devastations of war by a prompt and cheerful return to peaceful pursuits.
+An abiding faith is entertained that their actions will conform to their
+professions, and that, in acknowledging the supremacy of the Constitution
+and the laws of the United States, their loyalty will be unreservedly
+given to the government, whose leniency they cannot fail to appreciate,
+and whose fostering care will soon restore them to a condition of
+prosperity. It is true, that in some of the States the demoralizing
+effects of war are to be seen in occasional disorders, but these are local
+in character, not frequent in occurrence, and are rapidly disappearing as
+the authority of civil law is extended and sustained. Perplexing questions
+were naturally to be expected from the great and sudden change in the
+relations between the two races, but systems are gradually developing
+themselves under which the freedman will receive the protection to which
+he is justly entitled, and, by means of his labor, make himself a useful
+and independent member of the community in which he has his home. From all
+the information in my possession, and from that which I have recently
+derived from the most reliable authority, I am induced to cherish the
+belief that sectional animosity is surely and rapidly merging itself
+into a spirit of nationality, and that representation, connected with
+a properly adjusted system of taxation, will result in a harmonious
+restoration of the relations of the States to the national Union.
+
+The report of Carl Schurz is herewith transmitted, as requested by the
+Senate. No reports from the honorable John Covode have been received by
+the President. The attention of the Senate is invited to the accompanying
+report of Lieutenant General Grant, who recently made a tour of inspection
+through several of the States whose inhabitants participated in the
+rebellion.
+
+ANDREW JOHNSON
+
+Washington, D.C., _December_ 18, 1865.
+
+
+
+REPORT OF CARL SCHURZ ON THE STATES OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, ALABAMA,
+MISSISSIPPI, AND LOUISIANA.
+
+Sir: When you did me the honor of selecting me for a mission to the States
+lately in rebellion, for the purpose of inquiring into the existing
+condition of things, of laying before you whatever information of
+importance I might gather, and of suggesting to you such measures as my
+observations would lead me to believe advisable, I accepted the trust with
+a profound sense of the responsibility connected with the performance of
+the task. The views I entertained at the time, I had communicated to you
+in frequent letters and conversations. I would not have accepted the
+mission, had I not felt that whatever preconceived opinions I might carry
+with me to the south, I should be ready to abandon or modify, as my
+perception of facts and circumstances might command their abandonment or
+modification. You informed me that your "policy of reconstruction" was
+merely experimental, and that you would change it if the experiment did
+not lead to satisfactory results. To aid you in forming your conclusions
+upon this point I understood to be the object of my mission, and this
+understanding was in perfect accordance with the written instructions I
+received through the Secretary of War.
+
+These instructions confined my mission to the States of South Carolina,
+Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and the department of the Gulf. I informed
+you, before leaving the north, that I could not well devote more than
+three months to the duties imposed upon me, and that space of time proved
+sufficient for me to visit all the States above enumerated, except Texas.
+I landed at Hilton Head, South Carolina, on July 15, visited Beaufort,
+Charleston, Orangeburg, and Columbia, returned to Charleston and Hilton
+Head; thence I went to Savannah, traversed the State of Georgia, visiting
+Augusta, Atlanta, Macon, Milledgeville, and Columbus; went through
+Alabama, by way of Opelika, Montgomery, Selma, and Demopolis, and through
+Mississippi, by way of Meridian, Jackson, and Vicksburg; then descended
+the Mississippi to New Orleans, touching at Natchez; from New Orleans I
+visited Mobile, Alabama, and the Teche country, in Louisiana, and then
+spent again some days at Natchez and Vicksburg, on my way to the north.
+These are the outlines of my journey.
+
+Before laying the results of my observations before you, it is proper that
+I should state the _modus operandi_ by which I obtained information and
+formed my conclusions. Wherever I went I sought interviews with persons
+who might be presumed to represent the opinions, or to have influence
+upon the conduct, of their neighbors; I had thus frequent meetings with
+individuals belonging to the different classes of society from the highest
+to the lowest; in the cities as well as on the roads and steamboats I had
+many opportunities to converse not only with inhabitants of the adjacent
+country, but with persons coming from districts which I was not able to
+visit; and finally I compared the impressions thus received with the
+experience of the military and civil officers of the government stationed
+in that country, as well as of other reliable Union men to whom a longer
+residence on the spot and a more varied intercourse with the people had
+given better facilities of local observation than my circumstances
+permitted me to enjoy. When practicable I procured statements of their
+views and experience in writing as well as copies of official or private
+reports they had received from their subordinates or other persons. It was
+not expected of me that I should take formal testimony, and, indeed, such
+an operation would have required more time than I was able to devote to
+it.
+
+My facilities for obtaining information were not equally extensive in the
+different States I visited. As they naturally depended somewhat upon the
+time the military had had to occupy and explore the country, as well as
+upon the progressive development of things generally, they improved from
+day to day as I went on, and were best in the States I visited last. It is
+owing to this circumstance that I cannot give as detailed an account of
+the condition of things in South Carolina and Georgia as I am able to give
+with regard to Louisiana and Mississippi.
+
+Instead of describing the experiences of my journey in chronological
+order, which would lead to endless repetitions and a confused mingling
+of the different subjects under consideration, I propose to arrange my
+observations under different heads according to the subject matter. It
+is true, not all that can be said of the people of one State will apply
+with equal force to the people of another; but it will be easy to make
+the necessary distinctions when in the course of this report they become
+of any importance. I beg to be understood when using, for the sake of
+brevity, the term "the southern people," as meaning only the people of
+the States I have visited.
+
+CONDITION OF THINGS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE WAR.
+
+In the development of the popular spirit in the south since the close of
+the war two well-marked periods can be distinguished. The first commences
+with the sudden collapse of the confederacy and the dispersion of its
+armies, and the second with the first proclamation indicating the
+"reconstruction policy" of the government. Of the first period I can state
+the characteristic features only from the accounts I received, partly from
+Unionists who were then living in the south, partly from persons that had
+participated in the rebellion. When the news of Lee's and Johnston's
+surrenders burst upon the southern country the general consternation was
+extreme. People held their breath, indulging in the wildest apprehensions
+as to what was now to come. Men who had occupied positions under the
+confederate government, or were otherwise compromised in the rebellion,
+run before the federal columns as they advanced and spread out to occupy
+the country, from village to village, from plantation to plantation,
+hardly knowing whether they wanted to escape or not. Others remained at
+their homes yielding themselves up to their fate. Prominent Unionists told
+me that persons who for four years had scorned to recognize them on the
+street approached them with smiling faces and both hands extended. Men of
+standing in the political world expressed serious doubts as to whether the
+rebel States would ever again occupy their position as States in the
+Union, or be governed as conquered provinces. The public mind was so
+despondent that if readmission at some future time under whatever
+conditions had been promised, it would then have been looked upon as a
+favor. The most uncompromising rebels prepared for leaving the country.
+The masses remained in a state of fearful expectancy.
+
+This applies especially to those parts of the country which were within
+immediate reach of our armies or had previously been touched by the war.
+Where Union soldiers had never been seen and none were near, people were
+at first hardly aware of the magnitude of the catastrophe, and strove to
+continue in their old ways of living.
+
+Such was, according to the accounts I received, the character of that
+first period. The worst apprehensions were gradually relieved as day after
+day went by without bringing the disasters and inflictions which had been
+vaguely anticipated, until at last the appearance of the North Carolina
+proclamation substituted new hopes for them. The development of this
+second period I was called upon to observe on the spot, and it forms the
+main subject of this report.
+
+RETURNING LOYALTY.
+
+It is a well-known fact that in the States south of Tennessee and North
+Carolina the number of white Unionists who during the war actively aided
+the government, or at least openly professed their attachment to the cause
+of the Union, was very small. In none of those States were they strong
+enough to exercise any decisive influence upon the action of the people,
+not even in Louisiana, unless vigorously supported by the power of the
+general government. But the white people at large being, under certain
+conditions, charged with taking the preliminaries of "reconstruction" into
+their hands, the success of the experiment depends upon the spirit and
+attitude of those who either attached themselves to the secession cause
+from the beginning, or, entertaining originally opposite views, at least
+followed its fortunes from the time that their States had declared their
+separation from the Union.
+
+The first southern men of this class with whom I came into contact
+immediately after my arrival in South Carolina expressed their
+sentiments almost literally in the following language: "We acknowledge
+ourselves beaten, and we are ready to submit to the results of the war.
+The war has practically decided that no State shall secede and that the
+slaves are emancipated. We cannot be expected at once to give up our
+principles and convictions of right, but we accept facts as they are,
+and desire to be reinstated as soon as possible in the enjoyment and
+exercise of our political rights." This declaration was repeated to me
+hundreds of times in every State I visited, with some variations of
+language, according to the different ways of thinking or the frankness
+or reserve of the different speakers. Some said nothing of adhering to
+their old principles and convictions of right; others still argued
+against the constitutionality of coercion and of the emancipation
+proclamation; others expressed their determination to become good
+citizens, in strong language, and urged with equal emphasis the
+necessity of their home institutions being at once left to their own
+control; others would go so far as to say they were glad that the war
+was ended, and they had never had any confidence in the confederacy;
+others protested that they had been opposed to secession until their
+States went out, and then yielded to the current of events; some would
+give me to understand that they had always been good Union men at heart,
+and rejoiced that the war had terminated in favor of the national cause,
+but in most cases such a sentiment was expressed only in a whisper;
+others again would grumblingly insist upon the restoration of their
+"rights," as if they had done no wrong, and indicated plainly that they
+would submit only to what they could not resist and as long as they
+could not resist it. Such were the definitions of "returning loyalty" I
+received from the mouths of a large number of individuals intelligent
+enough to appreciate the meaning of the expressions they used. I found a
+great many whose manner of speaking showed that they did not understand
+the circumstances under which they lived, and had no settled opinions at
+all except on matters immediately touching their nearest interests.
+
+Upon the ground of these declarations, and other evidence gathered in the
+course of my observations, I may group the southern people into four
+classes, each of which exercises an influence upon the development of
+things in that section:
+
+1. Those who, although having yielded submission to the national
+government only when obliged to do so, have a clear perception of the
+irreversible changes produced by the war, and honestly endeavor to
+accommodate themselves to the new order of things. Many of them are not
+free from traditional prejudice but open to conviction, and may be
+expected to act in good faith whatever they do. This class is composed, in
+its majority, of persons of mature age--planters, merchants, and
+professional men; some of them are active in the reconstruction movement,
+but boldness and energy are, with a few individual exceptions, not among
+their distinguishing qualities.
+
+2. Those whose principal object is to have the States without delay
+restored to their position and influence in the Union and the people of
+the States to the absolute control of their home concerns. They are ready,
+in order to attain that object, to make any ostensible concession that
+will not prevent them from arranging things to suit their taste as soon as
+that object is attained. This class comprises a considerable number,
+probably a large majority, of the professional politicians who are
+extremely active in the reconstruction movement. They are loud in their
+praise of the President's reconstruction policy, and clamorous for the
+withdrawal of the federal troops and the abolition of the Freedmen's
+Bureau.
+
+3. The incorrigibles, who still indulge in the swagger which was so
+customary before and during the war, and still hope for a time when the
+southern confederacy will achieve its independence. This class consists
+mostly of young men, and comprises the loiterers of the towns and the
+idlers of the country. They persecute Union men and negroes whenever they
+can do so with impunity, insist clamorously upon their "rights," and are
+extremely impatient of the presence of the federal soldiers. A good many
+of them have taken the oaths of allegiance and amnesty, and associated
+themselves with the second class in their political operations. This
+element is by no means unimportant; it is strong in numbers, deals in
+brave talk, addresses itself directly and incessantly to the passions and
+prejudices of the masses, and commands the admiration of the women.
+
+4. The multitude of people who have no definite ideas about the
+circumstances under which they live and about the course they have to
+follow; whose intellects are weak, but whose prejudices and impulses are
+strong, and who are apt to be carried along by those who know how to
+appeal to the latter.
+
+Much depends upon the relative strength and influence of these classes.
+In the course of this report you will find statements of facts which may
+furnish a basis for an estimate. But whatever their differences may be,
+on one point they are agreed: further resistance to the power of the
+national government is useless, and submission to its authority a matter
+of necessity. It is true, the right of secession in theory is still
+believed in by most of those who formerly believed in it; some are still
+entertaining a vague hope of seeing it realized at some future time, but
+all give it up as a practical impossibility for the present. All
+movements in favor of separation from the Union have, therefore, been
+practically abandoned, and resistance to our military forces, on that
+score, has ceased. The demonstrations of hostility to the troops and
+other agents of the government, which are still occurring in some
+localities, and of which I shall speak hereafter, spring from another
+class of motives. This kind of loyalty, however, which is produced by the
+irresistible pressure of force, and consists merely in the non-commission
+of acts of rebellion, is of a negative character, and might, as such,
+hardly be considered independent of circumstances and contingencies.
+
+OATH-TAKING.
+
+A demonstration of "returning loyalty" of a more positive character is the
+taking of the oaths of allegiance and amnesty prescribed by the general
+government. At first the number of persons who availed themselves of the
+opportunities offered for abjuring their adhesion to the cause of the
+rebellion was not very large, but it increased considerably when the
+obtaining of a pardon and the right of voting were made dependent upon
+the previous performance of that act. Persons falling under any of the
+exceptions of the amnesty proclamation made haste to avert the impending
+danger; and politicians used every means of persuasion to induce people to
+swell the number of voters by clearing themselves of all disabilities. The
+great argument that this was necessary to the end of reconstructing their
+State governments, and of regaining the control of their home affairs and
+their influence in the Union, was copiously enlarged upon in the letters
+and speeches of prominent individuals, which are before the country and
+need no further comment. In some cases the taking of the oath was publicly
+recommended in newspapers and addresses with sneering remarks, and I have
+listened to many private conversations in which it was treated with
+contempt and ridicule. While it was not generally looked upon in the
+State I visited as a very serious matter, except as to the benefits and
+privileges it confers, I have no doubt that a great many persons took it
+fully conscious of the obligations it imposes, and honestly intending to
+fulfil them.
+
+The aggregate number of those who thus had qualified themselves for voting
+previous to the election for the State conventions was not as large as
+might have been expected. The vote obtained at these elections was
+generally reported as very light--in some localities surprisingly so. It
+would, perhaps, be worth while for the government to order up reports
+about the number of oaths administered by the officers authorized to do
+so, previous to the elections for the State conventions; such reports
+would serve to indicate how large a proportion of the people participated
+in the reconstruction movement at that time, and to what extent the masses
+were represented in the conventions.
+
+Of those who have not yet taken the oath of allegiance, most belong to the
+class of indifferent people who "do not care one way or the other." There
+are still some individuals who find the oath to be a confession of defeat
+and a declaration of submission too humiliating and too repugnant to their
+feelings. It is to be expected that the former will gradually overcome
+their apathy, and the latter their sensitiveness, and that, at a not
+remote day, all will have qualified themselves, in point of form, to
+resume the right of citizenship. On the whole, it may be said that the
+value of the oaths taken in the southern States is neither above nor below
+the value of the political oaths taken in other countries. A historical
+examination of the subject of political oaths will lead to the conclusion
+that they can be very serviceable in certain emergencies and for certain
+objects, but that they have never insured the stability of a government,
+and never improved the morals of a people.
+
+FEELING TOWARDS THE SOLDIERS AND THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTH.
+
+A more substantial evidence of "returning loyalty" would be a favorable
+change of feeling with regard to the government's friends and agents, and
+the people of the loyal States generally. I mentioned above that all
+organized attacks upon our military forces stationed in the south have
+ceased; but there are still localities where it is unsafe for a man
+wearing the federal uniform or known as an officer of the government to be
+abroad outside of the immediate reach of our garrisons. The shooting of
+single soldiers and government couriers was not unfrequently reported
+while I was in the south, and even as late as the middle of September,
+Major Miller, assistant adjutant general of the commissioner of the
+Freedmen's Bureau in Alabama, while on an inspecting tour in the southern
+counties of that State, found it difficult to prevent a collision between
+the menacing populace and his escort. His wagon-master was brutally
+murdered while remaining but a short distance behind the command. The
+murders of agents of the Freedmen's Bureau have been noticed in the public
+papers. These, and similar occurrences, however, may be looked upon as
+isolated cases, and ought to be charged, perhaps, only to the account of
+the lawless persons who committed them.
+
+But no instance has come to my notice in which the people of a city or a
+rural district cordially fraternized with the army. Here and there the
+soldiers were welcomed as protectors against apprehended dangers; but
+general exhibitions of cordiality on the part of the population I have not
+heard of. There are, indeed, honorable individual exceptions to this rule.
+Many persons, mostly belonging to the first of the four classes above
+enumerated, are honestly striving to soften down the bitter feelings and
+traditional antipathies of their neighbors; others, who are acting more
+upon motives of policy than inclination, maintain pleasant relations with
+the officers of the government. But, upon the whole, the soldier of the
+Union is still looked upon as a stranger, an intruder--as the "Yankee,"
+"the enemy." It would be superfluous to enumerate instances of insult
+offered to our soldiers, and even to officers high in command; the
+existence and intensity of this aversion is too well known to those who
+have served or are now serving in the south to require proof. In this
+matter the exceptions were, when I was there, not numerous enough to
+affect the rule. In the documents accompanying this report you will find
+allusions confirming this statement. I would invite special attention to
+the letter of General Kirby Smith, (accompanying document No. 9.)
+
+This feeling of aversion and resentment with regard to our soldiers may,
+perhaps, be called natural. The animosities inflamed by a four years' war,
+and its distressing incidents, cannot be easily overcome. But they extend
+beyond the limits of the army, to the people of the north. I have read in
+southern papers bitter complaints about the unfriendly spirit exhibited by
+the northern people--complaints not unfrequently flavored with an
+admixture of vigorous vituperation. But, as far as my experience goes, the
+"unfriendly spirit" exhibited in the north is all mildness and affection
+compared with the popular temper which in the south vents itself in a
+variety of ways and on all possible occasions. No observing northern man
+can come into contact with the different classes composing southern
+society without noticing it. He may be received in social circles with
+great politeness, even with apparent cordiality; but soon he will become
+aware that, although he may be esteemed as a man, he is detested as a
+"Yankee," and, as the conversation becomes a little more confidential and
+throws off ordinary restraint, he is not unfrequently told so; the word
+"Yankee" still signifies to them those traits of character which the
+southern press has been so long in the habit of attributing to the
+northern people; and whenever they look around them upon the traces of the
+war, they see in them, not the consequences of their own folly, but the
+evidences of "Yankee wickedness." In making these general statements, I
+beg to be understood as always excluding the individual exceptions above
+mentioned.
+
+It is by no means surprising that prejudices and resentments, which for
+years were so assiduously cultivated and so violently inflamed, should not
+have been turned into affection by a defeat; nor are they likely to
+disappear as long as the southern people continue to brood over their
+losses and misfortunes. They will gradually subside when those who
+entertain them cut resolutely loose from the past and embark in a career
+of new activity on a common field with those whom they have so long
+considered their enemies. Of this I shall say more in another part of this
+report. But while we are certainly inclined to put upon such things the
+most charitable construction, it remains nevertheless true, that as long
+as these feelings exist in their present strength, they will hinder the
+growth of that reliable kind of loyalty which springs from the heart and
+clings to the country in good and evil fortune.
+
+SITUATION OF UNIONISTS.
+
+It would have been a promising indication of returning loyalty if the old,
+consistent, uncompromising Unionists of the south, and those northern men
+who during the war settled down there to contribute to the prosperity of
+the country with their capital and enterprise, had received that measure
+of consideration to which their identification with the new order of
+things entitled them. It would seem natural that the victory of the
+national cause should have given those who during the struggle had
+remained the firm friends of the Union, a higher standing in society and
+an enlarged political influence. This appears to have been the case during
+that "first period" of anxious uncertainty when known Unionists were
+looked up to as men whose protection and favor might be of high value. At
+least it appears to have been so in some individual instances. But the
+close of that "first period" changed the aspect of things.
+
+It struck me soon after my arrival in the south that the known
+Unionists--I mean those who during the war had been to a certain extent
+identified with the national cause--were not in communion with the leading
+social and political circles; and the further my observations extended the
+clearer it became to me that their existence in the south was of a rather
+precarious nature. Already in Charleston my attention was called to the
+current talk among the people, that, when they had the control of things
+once more in their own hands and were no longer restrained by the presence
+of "Yankee" soldiers, men of Dr. Mackey's stamp would not be permitted to
+live there. At first I did not attach much importance to such reports; but
+as I proceeded through the country, I heard the same thing so frequently
+repeated, at so many different places, and by so many different persons,
+that I could no longer look upon the apprehensions expressed to me by
+Unionists as entirely groundless. I found the same opinion entertained by
+most of our military commanders. Even Governor Sharkey, in the course of a
+conversation I had with him in the presence of Major General Osterhaus,
+admitted that, if our troops were then withdrawn, the lives of northern
+men in Mississippi would not be safe. To show that such anticipations were
+not extravagant, I would refer to the letter addressed to me by General
+Osterhaus. (Accompanying document No. 10.) He states that he was compelled
+to withdraw the garrison from Attala county, Mississippi, the regiment to
+which that garrison belonged being mustered out, and that when the troops
+had been taken away, four murders occurred, two of white Union men, and
+two of negroes. (He informed me subsequently that the perpetrators were in
+custody.) He goes on to say: "There is no doubt whatever that the state of
+affairs would be intolerable for all Union men, all recent immigrants from
+the north, and all negroes, the moment the protection of the United States
+troops were withdrawn." General Osterhaus informed me of another murder of
+a Union man by a gang of lawless persons, in Jackson, about the end of
+June. General Slocum, in his order prohibiting the organization of the
+State militia in Mississippi, speaks of the "outrages committed against
+northern men, government couriers, and negroes." (Accompanying document
+No. 12.) He communicated to me an official report from Lieutenant Colonel
+Yorke, commanding at Port Gibson, to General Davidson, pointing in the
+same direction. General Canby stated to me that he was obliged to disband
+and prohibit certain patrol organizations in Louisiana because they
+indulged in the gratification of private vengeance. Lieutenant Hickney,
+assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, at Shreveport, Louisiana,
+in a report addressed to Assistant Commissioner Conway, says: "The life of
+a northern man who is true to his country and the spirit and genius of its
+institutions, and frankly enunciates his principles, is not secure where
+there is not a military force to protect him." (Accompanying document No.
+32.) Mr. William King, a citizen of Georgia, well known in that State,
+stated to me in conversation: "There are a great many bad characters in
+the country, who would make it for some time unsafe for known Union people
+and northerners who may settle down here to live in this country without
+the protection of the military." The affair of Scottsborough, in the
+military district of northern Alabama, where a sheriff arrested and
+attempted to bring to trial for murder Union soldiers who had served
+against the guerillas in that part of the country, an attempt which was
+frustrated only by the prompt interference of the district commander, has
+become generally known through the newspapers. (Accompanying document No.
+19.) It is not improbable that many cases similar to those above mentioned
+have occurred in other parts of the south without coming to the notice of
+the authorities.
+
+It is true these are mere isolated cases, for which it would be wrong to
+hold anybody responsible who was not connected with them; but it is also
+true that the apprehensions so widely spread among the Unionists and
+northern men were based upon the spirit exhibited by the people among whom
+they lived. I found a good many thinking of removing themselves and their
+families to the northern States, and if our troops should be soon
+withdrawn the exodus will probably become quite extensive unless things
+meanwhile change for the better.
+
+ASPECT OF THE POLITICAL FIELD.
+
+The status of this class of Unionists in the political field corresponds
+with what I have said above. In this respect I have observed practical
+results more closely in Mississippi than in any other State. I had already
+left South Carolina and Georgia when the elections for the State
+conventions took place. Of Alabama, I saw only Mobile after the election.
+In Louisiana, a convention, a legislature, and a State government had
+already been elected, during and under the influence of the war, and I
+left before the nominating party conventions were held; but I was in
+Mississippi immediately after the adjournment of the State convention, and
+while the canvass preparatory to the election of the legislature and of
+the State and county officers was going on. Events have since sufficiently
+developed themselves in the other States to permit us to judge how far
+Mississippi can be regarded as a representative of the rest. Besides, I
+found the general spirit animating the people to be essentially the same
+in all the States above mentioned.
+
+The election for the State convention in Mississippi was, according to the
+accounts I have received, not preceded by a very vigorous and searching
+canvass of the views and principles of the candidates. As I stated before,
+the vote was very far from being full, and in most cases the members were
+elected not upon strictly defined party issues, but upon their individual
+merits as to character, intelligence, and standing in society. Only in a
+few places the contest between rival candidates was somewhat animated. It
+was probably the same in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.
+
+The Mississippi convention was, in its majority, composed of men belonging
+to the first two of the four classes above mentioned. There were several
+Union men in it of the inoffensive, compromising kind--men who had been
+opposed to secession in the beginning, and had abstained from taking a
+prominent part in the rebellion unless obliged to do so, but who had, at
+least, readily acquiesced in what was going on. But there was, as far as I
+have been able to ascertain, only one man there who, like the Unionists of
+East Tennessee, had offered active resistance to the rebel authorities.
+This was Mr. Crawford, of Jones county; he was elected by the poor people
+of that region, his old followers, as their acknowledged leader, and his
+may justly be looked upon as an exceptional case. How he looked upon his
+situation appears from a speech he delivered in that convention, and
+especially from the amended version of it placed into my hands by a
+trustworthy gentleman of my acquaintance who had listened to its delivery.
+(Accompanying document No. 13.) But several instances have come to my
+knowledge, in which Union men of a sterner cast than those described as
+acquiescing compromisers were defeated in the election, and, aside from
+Mr. Crawford's case, none in which they succeeded.
+
+The impulses by which voters were actuated in making their choice appeared
+more clearly in the canvass for State officers, Congressmen, and members
+of the legislature, when the antecedents and political views of candidates
+were more closely scrutinized and a warmer contest took place. The
+population of those places in the south which have been longest in the
+possession of our armies is generally the most accommodating as to the
+new order of things; at least the better elements are there in greater
+relative strength. A Union meeting at Vicksburg may, therefore, be
+produced as a not unfavorable exponent of Mississippi Unionism. Among the
+documents attached to this report you will find three speeches delivered
+before such a meeting--one by Mr. Richard Cooper, candidate for the
+attorney generalship of the State; one by Hon. Sylvanus Evans, candidate
+for Congress; and one by Colonel Partridge, candidate for a seat in the
+legislature. (Accompanying document No. 14.) The speakers represented
+themselves as Union men, and I have learned nothing about them that would
+cast suspicion upon the sincerity of their declarations as far as they go;
+but all there qualified their Unionism by the same important statement.
+Mr. Cooper: "In 1850 I opposed an attempt to break up the United States
+government, and in 1860 I did the same. I travelled in Alabama and
+Mississippi to oppose the measure. (Applause.) But after the State did
+secede, I did all in my power to sustain it." (Heavy applause.) Mr. Evans:
+"In 1861 I was a delegate from Lauderdale county to the State convention,
+then and in 1860 being opposed to the act of secession, and fought against
+it with all my powers. But when the State had seceded, I went with it as a
+matter of duty, and I sustained it until the day of the surrender with all
+my body and heart and mind." (Great applause.) Colonel Partridge: "He was
+a Union man before the war and a soldier in the war. He had performed his
+duty as a private and an officer on the battle-field and on the staff."
+
+These speeches, fair specimens of a majority of those delivered by the
+better class of politicians before the better class of audiences, furnish
+an indication of the kind of Unionism which, by candidates, is considered
+palatable to the people of that region. And candidates are generally good
+judges as to what style of argument is best calculated to captivate the
+popular mind. In some isolated localities there may be some chance of
+success for a candidate who, proclaiming himself a Union man, is not able
+to add, "but after the State had seceded I did all in my power to sustain
+it," although such localities are certainly scarce and difficult to find.
+
+It is not so difficult to find places in which a different style of
+argument is considered most serviceable. Your attention is respectfully
+invited to a card addressed to the voters of the sixth judicial district
+of Mississippi by Mr. John T. Hogan, candidate for the office of district
+attorney. (Accompanying document No. 15.) When, at the commencement of the
+war, Kentucky resolved to remain in the Union, Mr. Hogan, so he informs
+the constituency, was a citizen of Kentucky; because Kentucky refused to
+leave the Union Mr. Hogan left Kentucky. He went to Mississippi, joined
+the rebel army, and was wounded in battle; and because he left his native
+State to fight against the Union, "therefore," Mr. Hogan tells his
+Mississippian constituency, "he cannot feel that he is an alien in their
+midst, and, with something of confidence in the result, appeals to them
+for their suffrages." Such is Mr. Hogan's estimate of the loyalty of the
+sixth judicial district of Mississippi.
+
+A candidate relying for success upon nothing but his identification with
+the rebellion might be considered as an extreme case. But, in fact, Mr.
+Hogan only speaks out bluntly what other candidates wrap up in lengthy
+qualifications. It is needless to accumulate specimens. I am sure no
+Mississippian will deny that if a candidate there based his claims upon
+the ground of his having left Mississippi when the State seceded, in order
+to fight for the Union, his pretensions would be treated as a piece of
+impudence. I feel warranted in saying that Unionism absolutely untinctured
+by any connexion with, or at least acquiescence in the rebellion, would
+have but little chance of political preferment anywhere, unless favored by
+very extraordinary circumstances; while men who, during the war, followed
+the example of the Union leaders of East Tennessee, would in most places
+have to depend upon the protection of our military forces for safety,
+while nowhere within the range of my observation would they, under present
+circumstances, be considered eligible to any position of trust, honor, or
+influence, unless it be in the county of Jones, as long as the bayonets of
+the United States are still there.
+
+The tendency of which in the preceding remarks I have endeavored to
+indicate the character and direction, appeared to prevail in all the
+States that came under my observation with equal force, some isolated
+localities excepted. None of the provisional governments adopted the
+policy followed by the late "military government" of Tennessee: to select
+in every locality the most reliable and most capable Union men for the
+purpose of placing into their hands the positions of official influence.
+Those who had held the local offices before and during the rebellion were
+generally reappointed, and hardly any discrimination made. If such
+wholesale re-appointments were the only thing that could be done in a
+hurry, it may be asked whether the hurry was necessary. Even in Louisiana,
+where a State government was organized during the war and under the
+influence of the sentiments which radiated from the camps and headquarters
+of the Union army, and where there is a Union element far stronger than in
+any other of the States I visited, even there, men who have aided the
+rebellion by word and act are crowding into places of trust and power.
+Governor Wells, when he was elected lieutenant governor of Louisiana, was
+looked upon and voted for as a thorough Unionist; but hardly had he the
+patronage of the State government in his hands, when he was carried along
+by the seemingly irresistible current. Even members of the "Conservative
+Union party," and friends of Governor Wells, expressed their
+dissatisfaction with the remarkable "liberality" with which he placed men
+into official positions who had hardly returned from the rebel army, or
+some other place where they had taken refuge to avoid living under the
+flag of the United States. The apprehension was natural that such elements
+would soon obtain a power and influence which the governor would not be
+able to control even if he wished. Taking these things into consideration,
+the re-nomination of Governor Wells for the governorship can certainly not
+be called a victory of that Union sentiment to which he owed his first
+election. While I was in New Orleans an occurrence took place which may be
+quoted as an illustration of the sweep of what I might call the
+_reactionary movement_. When General Shepley was military governor of
+Louisiana, under General Butler's regime, a school board was appointed for
+the purpose of reorganizing the public schools of New Orleans. A corps of
+loyal teachers was appointed, and the education of the children was
+conducted with a view to make them loyal citizens. The national airs were
+frequently sung in the schools, and other exercises introduced, calculated
+to impregnate the youthful minds of the pupils with affection for their
+country. It appears that this feature of the public schools was
+distasteful to that class of people with whose feelings they did not
+accord.
+
+Mr. H. Kennedy, acting mayor of New Orleans, early in September last,
+disbanded the school board which so far had conducted the educational
+affairs of the city, and appointed a new one. The composition of this new
+school board was such as to induce General Canby to suspend its functions
+until he could inquire into the loyalty of its members. The report of the
+officer intrusted with the investigation is among the documents annexed
+hereto. (Accompanying document No. 16.) It shows that a large majority of
+the members had sympathized with the rebellion, and aided the confederate
+government in a variety of ways. But as no evidence was elicited proving
+the members legally incapable of holding office, General Canby considered
+himself obliged to remove the prohibition, and the new school board
+entered upon its functions.
+
+Without offering any comment of my own, I annex an editorial taken from
+the "New Orleans Times," of September 12, evidently written in defence of
+the measure. (Accompanying document No. 17.) Its real substance, stripped
+of all circumlocutions, can be expressed in a few words: "The schools of
+New Orleans have been institutions so intensely and demonstratively loyal
+as to become unpopular with those of our fellow-citizens to whom such
+demonstrations are distasteful, and they must be brought back under
+'popular control' so as to make them cease to be obnoxious in that
+particular." It was generally understood, when the new school board was
+appointed, that a Mr. Rodgers was to be made superintendent of public
+schools. In Major Lowell's report to General Canby (Accompanying document
+No. 16) this Mr. Rodgers figures as follows: "Mr. Rodgers, the candidate
+for the position of superintendent of public schools, held the same office
+at the commencement of the war. His conduct at that time was imbued with
+extreme bitterness and hate towards the United States, and, in his
+capacity as superintendent, he introduced the 'Bonnie Blue Flag' and other
+rebel songs into the exercises of the schools under his charge. In
+histories and other books where the initials 'U.S.' occurred he had the
+same erased, and 'C.S.' substituted. He used all means in his power to
+imbue the minds of the youth intrusted to his care with hate and malignity
+towards the Union. He has just returned from the late confederacy, where
+he has resided during the war. At the time he left the city to join the
+army he left his property in the care of one Finley, who claims to be a
+British subject, but held the position of sergeant in a confederate
+regiment of militia." No sooner was the above-mentioned prohibition by
+General Canby removed when Mr. Rodgers was actually appointed, and he now
+presides over the educational interests of New Orleans. There is something
+like system in such proceedings.
+
+Similar occurrences, such as the filling with rebel officers of
+professorships in the Military Institute of Louisiana, where formerly
+General Sherman held a position, have already become known to the country,
+and it is unnecessary to go into further details. Many cases of this
+description are not of much importance in themselves, but serve as
+significant indications of the tendency of things in the south.
+
+It is easily understood that, under such circumstances, Unionists of the
+consistent, uncompromising kind do not play an enviable part. It is a sad
+fact that the victory of the national arms has, to a great extent,
+resulted in something like a political ostracism of the most loyal men in
+that part of the country. More than once have I heard some of them
+complain of having been taunted by late rebels with their ill fortune; and
+it is, indeed, melancholy for them to reflect that, if they had yielded to
+the current of public sentiment in the rebel States instead of resisting
+it, their present situation and prospects would be much more pleasing. Nor
+is such a reflection calculated to encourage them, or others, to follow a
+similar course if similar emergencies should again arise.
+
+WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
+
+While the generosity and toleration shown by the government to the people
+lately in rebellion has not met with a corresponding generosity shown by
+those people to the government's friends, it has brought forth some
+results which, if properly developed, will become of value. It has
+facilitated the re-establishment of the forms of civil government, and led
+many of those who had been active in the rebellion to take part in the act
+of bringing back the States to their constitutional relations; and if
+nothing else were necessary than the mere putting in operation of the mere
+machinery of government in point of form, and not also the acceptance of
+the results of the war and their development in point of spirit, these
+results, although as yet incomplete, might be called a satisfactory
+advance in the right direction. There is, at present, no danger of another
+insurrection against the authority of the United States on a large scale,
+and the people are willing to reconstruct their State governments, and to
+send their senators and representatives to Congress.
+
+But as to the moral value of these results, we must not indulge in any
+delusions. There are two principal points to which I beg to call your
+attention. In the first place, the rapid return to power and influence of
+so many of those who but recently were engaged in a bitter war against the
+Union, has had one effect which was certainly not originally contemplated
+by the government. Treason does, under existing circumstances, not appear
+odious in the south. The people are not impressed with any sense of its
+criminality. And, secondly, there is, as yet, among the southern people an
+_utter absence of national feeling_. I made it a business, while in the
+south, to watch the symptoms of "returning loyalty" as they appeared not
+only in private conversation, but in the public press and in the speeches
+delivered and the resolutions passed at Union meetings. Hardly ever was
+there an expression of hearty attachment to the great republic, or an
+appeal to the impulses of patriotism; but whenever submission to the
+national authority was declared and advocated, it was almost uniformly
+placed upon two principal grounds: That, under present circumstances, the
+southern people could "do no better;" and then that submission was the
+only means by which they could rid themselves of the federal soldiers and
+obtain once more control of their own affairs. Some of the speakers may
+have been inspired by higher motives, but upon these two arguments they
+had principally to rely whenever they wanted to make an impression upon
+the popular mind. If any exception is to be made to this rule it is
+Louisiana, in whose metropolis a different spirit was cultivated for some
+time; but even there, the return in mass of those who followed the
+fortunes of the confederate flag during the war does not appear to have a
+favorable influence upon the growth of that sentiment. (See Gen. Canby's
+letter, accompanying document No. 8.) While admitting that, at present, we
+have perhaps no right to expect anything better than this
+submission--loyalty which springs from necessity and calculation--I do not
+consider it safe for the government to base expectations upon it, which
+the manner in which it manifests itself does not justify.
+
+The reorganization of civil government is relieving the military, to a
+great extent, of its police duties and judicial functions; but at the time
+I left the south it was still very far from showing a satisfactory
+efficiency in the maintenance of order and security.--In many districts
+robbing and plundering was going on with perfect impunity; the roads were
+infested by bands of highwaymen; numerous assaults occurred, and several
+stage lines were considered unsafe. The statements of Major General Woods,
+Brigadier General Kilby Smith and Colonel Gilchrist, (accompanying
+documents Nos. 11, 9 and 18,) give a terrible picture of the state of
+things in the localities they refer to. It is stated that civil officers
+are either unwilling or unable to enforce the laws; that one man does not
+dare to testify against another for fear of being murdered, and that the
+better elements of society are kept down by lawless characters under a
+system of terrorism. From my own observation I know that these things are
+not confined to the districts mentioned in the documents above referred
+to. Both the governors of Alabama and Mississippi complained of it in
+official proclamations. Cotton, horse and cattle stealing was going on in
+all the States I visited on an extensive scale. Such a state of
+demoralization would call for extraordinary measures in any country, and
+it is difficult to conceive how, in the face of the inefficiency of the
+civil authorities, the removal of the troops can be thought of.
+
+In speaking above of the improbability of an insurrectionary movement on a
+large scale, I did not mean to say that I considered resistance in detail
+to the execution of the laws of Congress and the measures of the
+government impossible. Of all subjects connected with the negro question I
+shall speak in another part of this report. But there is another matter
+claiming the attention and foresight of the government. It is well known
+that the levying of taxes for the payment of the interest on our national
+debt is, and will continue to be, very unpopular in the south. It is true,
+no striking demonstrations have as yet been made of any decided
+unwillingness on the part of the people to contribute to the discharge of
+our national obligations. But most of the conversations I had with
+southerners upon this subject led me to apprehend that they, politicians
+and people, are rather inclined to ask money of the government as
+compensation for their emancipated slaves, for the rebuilding of the
+levees on the Mississippi, and various kinds of damage done by our armies
+for military purposes, than, as the current expression is, to "help paying
+the expenses of the whipping they have received." In fact, there are
+abundant indications in newspaper articles, public speeches, and
+electioneering documents of candidates, which render it eminently probable
+that on the claim of compensation for their emancipated slaves the
+southern States, as soon as readmitted to representation in Congress, will
+be almost a unit. In the Mississippi convention the idea was broached by
+Mr. Potter, in an elaborate speech, to have the late slave States relieved
+from taxation "for years to come," in consideration of "debt due them" for
+the emancipated slaves; and this plea I have frequently heard advocated in
+private conversations. I need not go into details as to the efforts made
+in some of the southern States in favor of the assumption by those States
+of their debts contracted during the rebellion. It may be assumed with
+certainty that those who want to have the southern people, poor as they
+are, taxed for the payment of rebel debts, do not mean to have them taxed
+for the purpose of meeting our national obligations. But whatever devices
+may be resorted to, present indications justify the apprehension that the
+enforcement of our revenue laws will meet with a refractory spirit, and
+may require sterner measures than the mere sending of revenue officers
+into that part of the country.
+
+I have annexed to this report numerous letters addressed to me by
+gentlemen whose views on the loyalty of the southern people and kindred
+topics, formed as they are upon an extended observation and long
+experience, are entitled to consideration. (Letter of General Gillmore,
+accompanying document No. 1; letter of Dr. Mackey, No. 2; letter of Mr.
+Sawyer, No. 3; letter of General Hatch, No. 4; letter of Mr. Pilsbury, No.
+5; statement of General Steedman, No. 6; letter of General Croxton, No. 7;
+letter of General Canby, No. 8; letter of General Kirby Smith, No. 9, &c.)
+In these papers a variety of opinions is expressed, some to a certain
+extent sanguine, others based upon a less favorable experience. I offer
+them to you, without exception, as they came to me. Many of the gentlemen
+who wrote them have never been in any way connected with party politics,
+and their utterances may be looked upon as coming from unbiassed and
+impartial observers.
+
+THE NEGRO QUESTION--FIRST ASPECTS.
+
+The principal cause of that want of national spirit which has existed in
+the south so long, and at last gave birth to the rebellion, was, that the
+southern people cherished, cultivated, idolized their peculiar interests
+and institutions in preference to those which they had in common with the
+rest of the American people. Hence the importance of the negro question as
+an integral part of the question of union in general, and the question of
+reconstruction in particular.
+
+When the war came to a close, the labor system of the south was already
+much disturbed. During the progress of military operations large numbers
+of slaves had left their masters and followed the columns of our armies;
+others had taken refuge in our camps; many thousands had enlisted in the
+service of the national government. Extensive settlements of negroes had
+been formed along the seaboard and the banks of the Mississippi, under the
+supervision of army officers and treasury agents, and the government was
+feeding the colored refugees, who could not be advantageously employed, in
+the so-called contraband camps. Many slaves had also been removed by their
+masters, as our armies penetrated the country, either to Texas or to the
+interior of Georgia and Alabama. Thus a considerable portion of the
+laboring force had been withdrawn from its former employments. But a
+majority of the slaves remained on the plantations to which they belonged,
+especially in those parts of the country which were not touched by the
+war, and where, consequently, the emancipation proclamation was not
+enforced by the military power. Although not ignorant of the stake they
+had in the result of the contest, the patient bondmen waited quietly for
+the development of things. But as soon as the struggle was finally
+decided, and our forces were scattered about in detachments to occupy the
+country, the so far unmoved masses began to stir. The report went among
+them that their liberation was no longer a mere contingency, but a fixed
+fact. Large numbers of colored people left the plantations; many flocked
+to our military posts and camps to obtain the certainty of their freedom,
+and others walked away merely for the purpose of leaving the places on
+which they had been held in slavery, and because they could now go with
+impunity. Still others, and their number was by no means inconsiderable,
+remained with their former masters and continued their work on the field,
+but under new and as yet unsettled conditions, and under the agitating
+influence of a feeling of restlessness. In some localities, however, where
+our troops had not yet penetrated and where no military post was within
+reach, planters endeavored and partially succeeded in maintaining between
+themselves and the negroes the relation of master and slave, partly by
+concealing from them the great changes that had taken place, and partly by
+terrorizing them into submission to their behests. But aside from these
+exceptions, the country found itself thrown into that confusion which is
+naturally inseparable from a change so great and so sudden. The white
+people were afraid of the negroes, and the negroes did not trust the white
+people; the military power of the national government stood there, and was
+looked up to, as the protector of both.
+
+Upon this power devolved the task to bring order into that chaos. But the
+order to be introduced was a new order, of which neither the late masters
+nor the late slaves had an adequate conception. All the elements of
+society being afloat, the difficulties were immense. The military officers
+and agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, to whom the negroes applied for
+advice and guidance, either procured them such employment as could be
+found, or persuaded them to return to their plantations and to continue in
+the cultivation of the crops, promising them that their liberty, rights,
+and interests should be protected. Upon the planters they urged the
+necessity of making fair and equitable contracts with the freedmen,
+admonishing them to treat their laborers as free men ought to be treated.
+These efforts met with such success as the difficulties surrounding the
+problem permitted to expect. Large numbers of negroes went back to the
+fields, according to the advice they had received, but considerable
+accumulations still remained in and around the towns and along the
+seaboard, where there was no adequate amount of profitable employment for
+them. The making and approving of contracts progressed as rapidly as the
+small number of officers engaged in that line of duty made it possible,
+but not rapidly in proportion to the vast amount of work to be
+accomplished. The business experience of many of the officers was but
+limited; here and there experiments were tried which had to be given up.
+In numerous cases contracts were made and then broken, either by the
+employers or the laborers, and the officers in charge were overwhelmed
+with complaints from both sides. While many planters wanted to have the
+laborers who had left them back on their plantations, others drove those
+that had remained away, and thus increased the number of the unemployed.
+Moreover, the great change had burst upon the country in the midst of the
+agricultural labor season when the crops that were in the ground required
+steady work to make them produce a satisfactory yield, and the
+interruption of labor, which could not but be very extensive, caused
+considerable damage. In one word, the efforts made could not prevent or
+remedy, in so short a time, the serious disorders which are always
+connected with a period of precipitous transition, and which, although
+natural, are exceedingly embarrassing to those who have to deal with them.
+
+The solution of the social problem in the south, if left to the free
+action of the southern people, will depend upon two things: 1, upon the
+ideas entertained by the whites, the "ruling class," of the problem, and
+the manner in which they act upon their ideas; and 2, upon the capacity
+and conduct of the colored people.
+
+OPTIONS OF THE WHITES.
+
+That the result of the free labor experiment made under circumstances so
+extremely unfavorable should at once be a perfect success, no reasonable
+person would expect. Nevertheless, a large majority of the southern men
+with whom I came into contact announced their opinions with so positive an
+assurance as to produce the impression that their minds were fully made
+up. In at least nineteen cases of twenty the reply I received to my
+inquiry about their views on the new system was uniformly this: "You
+cannot make the negro work, without physical compulsion." I heard this
+hundreds of times, heard it wherever I went, heard it in nearly the same
+words from so many different persons, that at last I came to the
+conclusion that this is the prevailing sentiment among the southern
+people. There are exceptions to this rule, but, as far as my information
+extends, far from enough to affect the rule. In the accompanying documents
+you will find an abundance of proof in support of this statement. There is
+hardly a paper relative to the negro question annexed to this report which
+does not, in some direct or indirect way, corroborate it.
+
+Unfortunately the disorders necessarily growing out of the transition
+state continually furnished food for argument. I found but few people who
+were willing to make due allowance for the adverse influence of
+exceptional circumstances. By a large majority of those I came in contact
+with, and they mostly belonged to the more intelligent class, every
+irregularity that occurred was directly charged against the system of free
+labor. If negroes walked away from the plantations, it was conclusive
+proof of the incorrigible instability of the negro, and the
+impracticability of free negro labor. If some individual negroes violated
+the terms of their contract, it proved unanswerably that no negro had, or
+ever would have, a just conception of the binding force of a contract, and
+that this system of free negro labor was bound to be a failure. If some
+negroes shirked, or did not perform their task with sufficient alacrity,
+it was produced as irrefutable evidence to show that physical compulsion
+was actually indispensable to make the negro work. If negroes, idlers or
+refugees crawling about the towns, applied to the authorities for
+subsistence, it was quoted as incontestably establishing the point that
+the negro was too improvident to take care of himself, and must
+necessarily be consigned to the care of a master. I heard a Georgia
+planter argue most seriously that one of his negroes had shown himself
+certainly unfit for freedom because he impudently refused to submit to a
+whipping. I frequently went into an argument with those putting forth such
+general assertions, quoting instances in which negro laborers were working
+faithfully, and to the entire satisfaction of their employers, as the
+employers themselves had informed me. In a majority of cases the reply was
+that we northern people did not understand the negro, but that they (the
+southerners) did; that as to the particular instances I quoted I was
+probably mistaken; that I had not closely investigated the cases, or had
+been deceived by my informants; that they _knew_ the negro would not work
+without compulsion, and that nobody could make them believe he would.
+Arguments like these naturally finished such discussions. It frequently
+struck me that persons who conversed about every other subject calmly and
+sensibly would lose their temper as soon as the negro question was
+touched.
+
+EFFECTS OF SUCH OPINIONS, AND GENERAL TREATMENT OF THE NEGRO.
+
+A belief, conviction, or prejudice, or whatever you may call it, so widely
+spread and apparently so deeply rooted as this, that the negro will not
+work without physical compulsion, is certainly calculated to have a very
+serious influence upon the conduct of the people entertaining it. It
+naturally produced a desire to preserve slavery in its original form as
+much and as long as possible--and you may, perhaps, remember the admission
+made by one of the provisional governors, over two months after the close
+of the war, that the people of his State still indulged in a lingering
+hope slavery might yet be preserved--or to introduce into the new system
+that element of physical compulsion which would make the negro work.
+Efforts were, indeed, made to hold the negro in his old state of
+subjection, especially in such localities where our military forces had
+not yet penetrated, or where the country was not garrisoned in detail.
+Here and there planters succeeded for a limited period to keep their
+former slaves in ignorance, or at least doubt, about their new rights; but
+the main agency employed for that purpose was force and intimidation. In
+many instances negroes who walked away from the plantations, or were found
+upon the roads, were shot or otherwise severely punished, which was
+calculated to produce the impression among those remaining with their
+masters that an attempt to escape from slavery would result in certain
+destruction. A large proportion of the many acts of violence committed is
+undoubtedly attributable to this motive. The documents attached to this
+report abound in testimony to this effect. For the sake of illustration I
+will give some instances:
+
+Brigadier General Fessenden reported to Major General Gillmore from
+Winnsboro, South Carolina, July 19, as follows: "The spirit of the people,
+especially in those districts not subject to the salutary influence of
+General Sherman's army, is that of concealed and, in some instances, of
+open hostility, though there are some who strive with honorable good faith
+to promote a thorough reconciliation between the government and their
+people. A spirit of bitterness and persecution manifests itself towards
+the negroes. They are shot and abused outside the immediate protection of
+our forces _by men who announce their determination to take the law into
+their own hands, in defiance of our authority_. To protect the negro and
+punish these still rebellious individuals it will be necessary to have
+this country pretty thickly settled with soldiers." I received similar
+verbal reports from other parts of South Carolina. To show the hopes still
+indulged in by some, I may mention that one of the sub-district
+commanders, as he himself informed me, knew planters within the limits of
+his command who had made contracts with their former slaves _avowedly_ for
+the object of keeping them together on their plantations, so that they
+might have them near at hand, and thus more easily reduce them to their
+former condition, when, after the restoration of the civil power, the
+"unconstitutional emancipation proclamation" would be set aside.
+
+Cases in which negroes were kept on the plantations, either by ruse or
+violence, were frequent enough in South Carolina and Georgia to call forth
+from General Saxton a circular threatening planters who persisted in this
+practice with loss of their property, and from Major General Steedman,
+commander of the department of Georgia, an order bearing upon the same
+subject. At Atlanta, Georgia, I had an opportunity to examine some cases
+of the nature above described myself. While I was there, 9th and 10th of
+August, several negroes came into town with bullet and buckshot wounds in
+their bodies. From their statements, which, however, were only
+corroborating information previously received, it appeared that the
+reckless and restless characters of that region had combined to keep the
+negroes where they belonged. Several freedmen were shot in the attempt to
+escape, others succeeded in eluding the vigilance of their persecutors;
+large numbers, terrified by what they saw and heard, quietly remained
+under the restraint imposed upon them, waiting for better opportunities.
+The commander of the sub-district and post informed me that bands of
+guerillas were prowling about within a few miles of the city, making it
+dangerous for soldiers and freedmen to show themselves outside of the
+immediate reach of the garrison, and that but a few days previous to my
+arrival a small squad of men he had sent out to serve an order upon a
+planter, concerning the treatment of freedmen, had been driven back by an
+armed band of over twenty men, headed by an individual in the uniform of a
+rebel officer.
+
+As our troops in Georgia were at that time mostly concentrated at a number
+of central points, and not scattered over the State in small detachments,
+but little information was obtained of what was going on in the interior
+of the country. A similar system was followed in Alabama, but enough has
+become known to indicate the condition of things in localities not
+immediately under the eye of the military. In that State the efforts made
+to hold the negro in a state of subjection appear to have been of a
+particularly atrocious nature. Rumors to that effect which reached me at
+Montgomery induced me to make inquiries at the post hospital. The records
+of that institution showed a number of rather startling cases which had
+occurred immediately after the close of the war, and some of a more recent
+date; all of which proved that negroes leaving the plantations, and found
+on the roads, were exposed to the savagest treatment. An extract from the
+records of the hospital is appended, (accompanying document No. 20;) also
+a statement signed by the provost marshal at Selma, Alabama, Major J.P.
+Houston, (accompanying document No. 21.) He says: "There have come to my
+notice officially twelve cases, in which I am morally certain the trials
+have not been had yet, that negroes were killed by whites. In a majority
+of cases the provocation consisted in the negroes' trying to come to town
+or to return to the plantation after having been sent away. The cases
+above enumerated, I am convinced, are but a small part of those that have
+actually been perpetrated." In a report to General Swayne, assistant
+commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, in Alabama, communicated to me by
+the general, Captain Poillon, agent of the bureau at Mobile, says of the
+condition of things in the southwestern part of the State, July 29: "There
+are regular patrols posted on the rivers, who board some of the boats;
+after the boats leave they hang, shoot, or drown the victims they may find
+on them, and all those found on the roads or coming down the rivers are
+almost invariably murdered. The bewildered and terrified freedmen know not
+what to do--to leave is death; to remain is to suffer the increased burden
+imposed upon them by the cruel taskmaster, whose only interest is their
+labor, wrung from them by every device an inhuman ingenuity can devise;
+hence the lash and murder is resorted to to intimidate those whom fear of
+an awful death alone cause to remain, while patrols, negro dogs and spies,
+disguised as Yankees, keep constant guard over these unfortunate people."
+In a letter addressed to myself, September 9, Captain Poillon says:
+"Organized patrols, with negro hounds, keep guard over the thoroughfares;
+bands of lawless robbers traverse the country, and the unfortunate who
+attempts to escape, or he who returns for his wife or child, is waylaid or
+pursued with hounds, and shot or hung." (Accompanying document No. 22.)
+
+In Mississippi I received information of a similar character. I would
+respectfully invite your attention to two letters--one by Colonel Hayne,
+1st Texas cavalry, and one by Colonel Brinkerhoff--giving interesting
+descriptions of the condition of the freedmen, and the spirit of the
+whites shortly after the close of the war. (Accompanying documents Nos. 23
+and 24.) Lieutenant Colonel P.J. Yorke, post commander at port Gibson,
+Mississippi, reported to General Davidson, on August 26, that a "county
+patrol" had been organized by citizens of his sub-district, which, for
+reasons given, he had been obliged to disband; one of these reasons was,
+in his own language, that: "The company was formed out of what they called
+picked men, _i.e._, those only who had been actually engaged in the war,
+and were known as strong disunionists. The negroes in the sections of
+country these men controlled were kept in the most abject slavery, and
+treated in every way contrary to the requirements of General Orders No.
+129, from the War Department." (Accompanying document No. 25.) As late as
+September 29, Captain J.H. Weber, agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, reported
+to Colonel Thomas, assistant commissioner of the bureau, in the State of
+Mississippi, as follows: "In many cases negroes who left their homes
+during the war, and have been within our military lines, and having
+provided homes here for their families, going back to get their wives and
+children, have been driven off, and told that they could not have them. In
+several cases guards have been sent to aid people in getting their
+families; in many others it has been impracticable, as the distance was
+too great. In portions of the northern part of this district the colored
+people are kept in slavery still. The white people tell them that they
+were free during the war, but the war is now over, and they must go to
+work again as before. The reports from sub-commissioners nearest that
+locality show that the blacks are in a much worse state than ever before,
+the able-bodied being kept at work under the lash, and the young and
+infirm driven off to care for themselves. As to protection from the civil
+authorities, there is no such thing outside of this city." (Accompanying
+document No. 26.)
+
+The conviction, however, that slavery in the old form cannot be maintained
+has forced itself upon the minds of many of those who ardently desired its
+preservation. But while the necessity of a new system was recognized as
+far as the right of property in the individual negro is concerned, many
+attempts were made to introduce into that new system the element of
+physical compulsion, which, as above stated, is so generally considered
+indispensable. This was done by simply adhering, as to the treatment of
+the laborers, as much as possible to the traditions of the old system,
+even where the relations between employers and laborers had been fixed by
+contract. The practice of corporal punishment was still continued to a
+great extent, although, perhaps, not in so regular a manner as it was
+practiced in times gone by. It is hardly necessary to quote any
+documentary evidence on this point; the papers appended to this report are
+full of testimony corroborating the statement. The habit is so inveterate
+with a great many persons as to render, on the least provocation, the
+impulse to whip a negro almost irresistible. It will continue to be so
+until the southern people will have learned, so as never to forget it,
+that a black man has rights which a white man is bound to respect.
+
+Here I will insert some remarks on the general treatment of the blacks as
+a class, from the whites as a class. It is not on the plantations and at
+the hands of the planters themselves that the negroes have to suffer the
+greatest hardships. Not only the former slaveholders, but the
+non-slaveholding whites, who, even previous to the war, seemed to be more
+ardent in their pro-slavery feelings than the planters themselves, are
+possessed by a singularly bitter and vindictive feeling against the
+colored race since the negro has ceased to be property. The pecuniary
+value which the individual negro formerly represented having disappeared,
+the maiming and killing of colored men seems to be looked upon by many as
+one of those venial offences which must be forgiven to the outraged
+feelings of a wronged and robbed people. Besides, the services rendered by
+the negro to the national cause during the war, which make him an object
+of special interest to the loyal people, make him an object of particular
+vindictiveness to those whose hearts were set upon the success of the
+rebellion. The number of murders and assaults perpetrated upon negroes is
+very great; we can form only an approximative estimate of what is going on
+in those parts of the south which are not closely garrisoned, and from
+which no regular reports are received, by what occurs under the very eyes
+of our military authorities. As to my personal experience, I will only
+mention that during my two days sojourn at Atlanta, one negro was stabbed
+with fatal effect on the street, and three were poisoned, one of whom
+died. While I was at Montgomery, one negro was cut across the throat
+evidently with intent to kill, and another was shot, but both escaped with
+their lives. Several papers attached to this report give an account of the
+number of capital cases that occurred at certain places during a certain
+period of time. It is a sad fact that the perpetration of those acts is
+not confined to that class of people which might be called the rabble.
+Several "gentlemen of standing" have been tried before military
+commissions for such offences.
+
+These statements are naturally not intended to apply to all the
+individuals composing the southern people. There are certainly many
+planters who, before the rebellion, treated their slaves with kindness,
+and who now continue to treat them as free laborers in the same manner.
+There are now undoubtedly many plantations in the south on which the
+relations between employers and employees are based upon mutual good will.
+There are certainly many people there who entertain the best wishes for
+the welfare of the negro race, and who not only never participated in any
+acts of violence, but who heartily disapprove them. I have no doubt, a
+large majority can, _as to actual participation_--not, however, as to the
+bitter spirit--I offer a good plea of not guilty. But however large or
+small a number of people may be guilty of complicity in such acts of
+persecution, those who are opposed to them have certainly not shown
+themselves strong enough to restrain those who perpetrate or favor them.
+So far, the _spirit of persecution_ has shown itself so strong as to make
+the protection of the freedman by the military arm of the government in
+many localities necessary--in almost all, desirable. It must not be
+forgotten that in a community a majority of whose members is peaceably
+disposed, but not willing or not able to enforce peace and order, a
+comparatively small number of bold and lawless men can determine the
+character of the whole. The rebellion itself, in some of the southern
+States, furnished a striking illustration of this truth.
+
+GENERAL IDEAS AND SCHEMES OF WHITES CONCERNING THE FREEDMEN.
+
+Some of the planters with whom I had occasion to converse expressed their
+determination to adopt the course which best accords with the spirit of
+free labor, to make the negro work by offering him fair inducements, to
+stimulate his ambition, and to extend to him those means of intellectual
+and moral improvement which are best calculated to make him an
+intelligent, reliable and efficient free laborer and a good and useful
+citizen. Those who expressed such ideas were almost invariably professed
+Union men, and far above the average in point of mental ability and
+culture. I found a very few instances of original secessionists also
+manifesting a willingness to give the free-labor experiment a fair trial.
+I can represent the sentiments of this small class in no better way than
+by quoting the language used by an Alabama judge in a conversation with
+me. "I am one of the most thoroughly whipped men in the south," said he;
+"I am a genuine old secessionist, and I believe now, as I always did, we
+had the constitutional right to secede. But the war has settled that
+matter, and it is all over now. As to this thing of free negro labor, I do
+not believe in it, but I will give it a fair trial. I have a plantation
+and am going to make contracts with my hands, and then I want a real
+Yankee to run the machine for me; not one of your New Yorkers or
+Pennsylvanians, but the genuine article from Massachusetts or Vermont--one
+who can not only farm, but sing psalms and pray, and teach school--a real
+abolitionist, who believes in the thing just as I don't believe in it. If
+he does not succeed, I shall consider it proof conclusive that you are
+wrong and I am right."
+
+I regret to say that views and intentions so reasonable I found confined
+to a small minority. Aside from the assumption that the negro will not
+work without physical compulsion, there appears to be another popular
+notion prevalent in the south, which stands as no less serious an obstacle
+in the way of a successful solution of the problem. It is that the negro
+exists for the special object of raising cotton, rice and sugar _for the
+whites_, and that it is illegitimate for him to indulge, like other
+people, in the pursuit of his own happiness in his own way. Although it is
+admitted that he has ceased to be the property of a master, it is not
+admitted that he has a right to become his own master. As Colonel Thomas,
+assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in Mississippi, in a
+letter addressed to me, very pungently expresses it: "The whites esteem
+the blacks their property by natural right, and, however much they may
+admit that the relations of masters and slaves have been destroyed by the
+war and by the President's emancipation proclamation, they still have an
+ingrained feeling that the blacks at large belong to the whites at large,
+and whenever opportunity serves, they treat the colored people just as
+their profit, caprice or passion may dictate." (Accompanying document No.
+27.) An ingrained feeling like this is apt to bring forth that sort of
+class legislation which produces laws to govern one class with no other
+view than to benefit another. This tendency can be distinctly traced in
+the various schemes for regulating labor which here and there see the
+light.
+
+Immediately after the emancipation of the slaves, when the general
+confusion was most perplexing, the prevalent desire among the whites
+seemed to be, if they could not retain their negroes as slaves, to get rid
+of them entirely. Wild speculations were indulged in, how to remove the
+colored population at once and to import white laborers to fill its place;
+how to obtain a sufficient supply of coolies, &c., &c. Even at the present
+moment the removal of the freedmen is strongly advocated by those who have
+the traditional horror of a free negro, and in some sections, especially
+where the soil is more adapted to the cultivation of cereals than the
+raising of the staples, planters appear to be inclined to drive the
+negroes away, at least from their plantations. I was informed by a
+prominent South Carolinian in July, that the planters in certain
+localities in the northwestern part of his State had been on the point of
+doing so, but better counsel had been made to prevail upon them; and
+Colonel Robinson, 97th United States Colored Infantry, who had been sent
+out to several counties in southern Alabama to administer the amnesty
+oath, reported a general disposition among the planters of that region to
+"set the colored people who had cultivated their crops during the summer,
+adrift as soon as the crops would be secured, and not to permit the negro
+to remain upon any footing of equality with the white man in that
+country." (Accompanying document No. 28.) The disposition to drive away
+all the negroes from the plantations was undoubtedly confined to a few
+districts; and as far as the scheme of wholesale deportation is concerned,
+practical men became aware, that if they wanted to have any labor done, it
+would have been bad policy to move away the laborers they now have before
+others were there to fill their places. All these devices promising at
+best only distant relief, and free negro labor being the only thing in
+immediate prospect, many ingenious heads set about to solve the problem,
+how to make free labor compulsory by permanent regulations.
+
+Shortly after the close of the war some South Carolina planters tried to
+solve this problem by introducing into the contracts provisions leaving
+only a small share of the crops to the freedmen, subject to all sorts of
+constructive charges, and then binding them to work off the indebtedness
+they might incur. It being to a great extent in the power of the employer
+to keep the laborer in debt to him, the employer might thus obtain a
+permanent hold upon the person of the laborer. It was something like the
+system of peonage existing in Mexico. When these contracts were submitted
+to the military authorities for ratification, General Hatch, commanding at
+Charleston, at once issued an order prohibiting such arrangements. I had
+an opportunity to examine one of these contracts, and found it drawn up
+with much care, and evidently with a knowledge of the full bearings of the
+provisions so inserted.
+
+Appended to this report is a memorandum of a conversation I had with Mr.
+W. King, of Georgia, a gentleman of good political sentiments and
+undoubtedly benevolent intentions. He recommends a kind of guardianship to
+be exercised by the employer over the freedman. He is a fair
+representative, not of the completely unprejudiced, but of the more
+liberal-minded class of planters, and his sayings show in what direction
+even those who are not actuated by any spirit of bitterness against the
+negro, seek a way out of their perplexities. (Accompanying document No.
+29.)
+
+I annex also two documents submitted to Mr. Benjamin F. Flanders, special
+treasury agent at New Orleans, who then had the management of freedmen's
+affairs in Louisiana, in November and December, 1864. They are not of a
+recent date, but may be taken as true representations of the ideas and
+sentiments entertained by large numbers to-day. The first (accompanying
+document No. 30) contains "suggestions on the wants of planters before
+embarking their capital in the cultivation of staple crops," and was
+submitted by a committee to a meeting of planters at New Orleans, November
+21, 1864. It speaks for itself. The others (accompanying document No. 31)
+is a letter addressed to Mr. Flanders by Mr. T. Gibson, a Louisiana
+planter, who is well known in New Orleans as professing much affection for
+the negro. It commences with the assertion that he "has no prejudices to
+overcome, and would do the black all the good in his power," and winds up
+with a postscript strongly insisting upon the necessity of corporal
+punishment, the "great desideratum in obtaining labor from free blacks
+being _its enforcement_."
+
+MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS.
+
+The motives and spirit bringing forth such ideas found a still clearer
+expression in some attempted municipal regulations. In no State within the
+range of my observation had, at the time of my visit, so much progress
+been made in the reorganization of local government as in Louisiana. In
+most of the parishes the parish authorities had exercised their functions
+for some time; in others the organization was less complete. Governor
+Wells informed me that he had filled the parish offices with men
+recommended to him by the people of the parishes, and it is fair to assume
+that in most cases the appointees represented the views and sentiments of
+the ruling class. Some of the local authorities so appointed furnished us
+an indication of the principles upon which they thought it best to
+regulate free labor within their jurisdiction.
+
+Mr. W.B. Stickney, agent of the Freedmen's Bureau at Shreveport,
+Louisiana, reported to the assistant commissioner of the bureau in
+Louisiana as follows: "August 1.--The following is a literal copy of a
+document brought to this office by a colored man, which is conclusive
+evidence that there are those who still claim the negro as their property:
+
+"'This boy Calvin has permit to hire to whom he pleases, but I shall hold
+him as my property until set free by Congress. July 7, 1865. (Signed.)
+E.V. TULLY.'"
+
+The spirit of the above also made its appearance in another form, in the
+action of the police board of the parish of Bossier, which was an attempt
+to revive at once the old slave laws, and to prevent the freedmen from
+obtaining employment (away) from their former masters. The gist of the
+enactment alluded to is contained in the paragraph directing the officers
+on patrol duty "to arrest and take up all idle and vagrant persons running
+at large without employment and carry them before the proper authorities,
+to be dealt with as the law directs." A regulation like this certainly
+would make it difficult for freedmen to leave their former masters for the
+purpose of seeking employment elsewhere. The matter was submitted to
+Brevet Major General Hawkins, commanding western district of Louisiana,
+who issued an order prohibiting the parish police forces from arresting
+freedmen unless for positive offence against the law.
+
+Clearer and more significant was the ordnance passed by the police board
+of the town of Opelousas, Louisiana. (Accompanying document No. 34.) It
+deserves careful perusal. Among a number of regulations applying
+exclusively to the negro, and depriving him of all liberty of locomotion,
+the following striking provisions are found:
+
+Section 3. No negro or freedman shall be permitted to rent or keep a house
+within the limits of the town _under any circumstances_, and any one thus
+offending shall be ejected and _compelled to find an employer_ or leave
+the town within twenty-four hours. The lessor or furnisher of the house
+leased or kept as above shall pay a fine of ten dollars for each offence.
+
+Section 4. No negro or freedman shall reside within the limits of the town
+of Opelousas _who is not in the regular service of some white person or
+former owner_.
+
+Section 8. No freedman shall sell, barter or exchange, any articles of
+merchandise or traffic within the limits of Opelousas without permission
+in writing from his employer, or the mayor, or president of the board.
+
+This ordinance was at first approved by a lieutenant colonel of the United
+States forces having local command there, and it is worthy of note that
+thereupon the infection spread at once, and similar ordinances were
+entertained by the police boards of the town of Franklin and of the parish
+of St. Landry. (Accompanying document No. 35). The parish ordinance of St.
+Landry differs from the town ordinances of Opelousas and Franklin in
+several points, and wherever there is any difference, it is in the
+direction of greater severity. It imposes heavier fines and penalties
+throughout, and provides, in addition, for a system of corporal
+punishment. It is also ordained "that the aforesaid penalties shall be
+_summarily enforced_, and that it shall be the duty of the _captain or
+chief of patrol_ to see that the aforesaid ordinances are promptly
+executed." While the town ordinances provide that a negro who does not
+find an employer shall be compelled to leave the town, the parish or
+county ordinance knows nothing of letting the negro go, but simply
+_compels_ him to find an employer. Finally, it is ordained "that it shall
+be the duty of every _citizen_ to act as a police officer for the
+detection of offences and the apprehension of offenders, who shall be
+immediately handed over to the proper captain or chief of patrol."
+
+It is true, an "organization of free labor" upon this plan would not be
+exactly the re-establishment of slavery in its old form, but as for the
+practical working of the system with regard to the welfare of the
+freedman, the difference would only be for the worse. The negro is not
+only not permitted to be idle, but he is positively prohibited from
+working or carrying on a business for himself; he is _compelled_ to be in
+the "regular service" of a white man, and if he has no employer he is
+_compelled_ to find one. It requires only a simple understanding among the
+employers, and the negro is just as much bound to his employer "for better
+and for worse" as he was when slavery existed in the old form. If he
+should attempt to leave his employer on account of non-payment of wages or
+bad treatment he is _compelled_ to find another one; and if no other will
+take him he will be _compelled_ to return to him from whom he wanted to
+escape. The employers, under such circumstances, are naturally at liberty
+to arrange the matter of compensation according to their tastes, for the
+negro will be compelled to be in the regular service of an employer,
+whether he receives wages or not. The negro may be permitted by his
+employer "to hire his own time," for in the spirit and intent of the
+ordinance his time never properly belongs to him. But even the old system
+of slavery was more liberal in this respect, for such "permission to hire
+his own time" "shall never extend over seven days at any one time." (Sec.
+4.) The sections providing for the "_summary_" enforcement of the
+penalties and placing their infliction into the hands of the "chief of
+patrol"--which, by the way, throws some light upon the objects for which
+the militia is to be reorganized--place the freedmen under a sort of
+permanent martial law, while the provision investing every white man with
+the power and authority of a police officer as against every black man
+subjects them to the control even of those individuals who in other
+communities are thought hardly fit to control themselves. On the whole,
+this piece of legislation is a striking embodiment of the idea that
+although the former owner has lost his individual right of property in the
+former slave, "the blacks at large belong to the whites at large."
+
+Such was the "organization of free labor" ordained by officials appointed
+by Governor Wells, and these ordinances were passed while both the
+emancipation proclamation and a provision in the new constitution of
+Louisiana abolishing slavery in that State forever were recognized as
+being in full force. It is needless to say that as soon as these
+proceedings came to the knowledge of the Freedmen's Bureau and the
+department commander they were promptly overruled. But Governor Wells did
+not remove the police boards that had thus attempted to revive slavery in
+a new form.
+
+The opposition to the negro's controlling his own labor, carrying on
+business independently on his own account--in one word, working for his
+own benefit--showed itself in a variety of ways. Here and there municipal
+regulations were gotten up heavily taxing or otherwise impeding those
+trades and employments in which colored people are most likely to engage.
+As an illustration, I annex an ordinance passed by the common council of
+Vicksburg, (accompanying document No. 36,) together with a letter from
+Colonel Thomas, in which he says: "You will see by the city ordinance that
+a drayman, or hackman, must file a bond of five hundred dollars, in
+addition to paying for his license. The mayor requires that the bondsmen
+must be freeholders. The laws of this State do not, and never did, allow a
+negro to own land or hold property; the white citizens refuse to sign any
+bonds for the freedmen. The white citizens and authorities say that it is
+for their interest to drive out all independent negro labor; that the
+freedmen must hire to white men if they want to do this kind of work." I
+found several instances of a similar character in the course of my
+observations, of which I neglected to procure the documentary evidence.
+
+It may be said that these are mere isolated cases; and so they are. But
+they are the local outcroppings of a spirit which I found to prevail
+everywhere. If there is any difference, it is in the degree of its
+intensity and the impatience or boldness with which it manifests itself.
+Of the agencies which so far restrained it from venturing more general
+demonstrations I shall speak in another part of this report.
+
+EDUCATION OF THE FREEDMEN.
+
+It would seem that all those who sincerely desire to make the freedman a
+freeman in the true sense of the word, must also be in favor of so
+educating him as to make him clearly understand and appreciate the
+position he is to occupy in life, with all its rights and corresponding
+duties, and to impart to him all the knowledge necessary for enabling him
+to become an intelligent co-operator in the general movements of society.
+As popular education is the true ground upon which the efficiency and the
+successes of free-labor society grow, no man who rejects the former can be
+accounted a consistent friend of the latter. It is also evident that the
+education of the negro, to become general and effective after the full
+restoration of local government in the south, must be protected and
+promoted as an integral part of the educational systems of the States.
+
+I made it a special point in most of the conversations I had with southern
+men to inquire into their views with regard to this subject. I found,
+indeed, some gentlemen of thought and liberal ideas who readily
+acknowledged the necessity of providing for the education of the colored
+people, and who declared themselves willing to co-operate to that end to
+the extent of their influence. Some planters thought of establishing
+schools on their estates, and others would have been glad to see measures
+taken to that effect by the people of the neighborhoods in which they
+lived. But whenever I asked the question whether it might be hoped that
+the legislatures of their States or their county authorities would make
+provisions for negro education, I never received an affirmative, and only
+in two or three instances feebly encouraging answers. At last I was forced
+to the conclusion that, aside from a small number of honorable exceptions,
+the popular prejudice is almost as bitterly set against the negro's having
+the advantage of education as it was when the negro was a slave. There may
+be an improvement in that respect, but it would prove only how universal
+the prejudice was in former days. Hundreds of times I heard the old
+assertion repeated, that "learning will spoil the nigger for work," and
+that "negro education will be the ruin of the south." Another most
+singular notion still holds a potent sway over the minds of the masses--it
+is, that the elevation of the blacks will be the degradation of the
+whites. They do not understand yet that the continual contact with an
+ignorant and degraded population must necessarily lower the mental and
+moral tone of the other classes of society. This they might have learned
+from actual experience, as we in the north have been taught, also by
+actual experience, that the education of the lower orders is the only
+reliable basis of the civilization as well as of the prosperity of a
+people.
+
+The consequence of the prejudice prevailing in the southern States is that
+colored schools can be established and carried on with safety only under
+the protection of our military forces, and that where the latter are
+withdrawn the former have to go with them. There may be a few localities
+forming exceptions, but their number is certainly very small. I annex a
+few papers bearing upon this subject. One is a letter addressed to me by
+Chaplain Joseph Warren, superintendent of education under the Freedmen's
+Bureau in Mississippi. (Accompanying document No. 37.) The long and
+extensive experience of the writer gives the views he expresses more than
+ordinary weight. After describing the general spirit of opposition to the
+education of the negroes exhibited in Mississippi, and enumerating the
+reasons assigned for it, he says: "In view of these things I have no doubt
+but that, if our protection be withdrawn, negro education will be hindered
+in every possible way, including obstructions by fraud and violence. I
+have not the smallest expectation that, with the State authorities in full
+power, a northern citizen would be protected in the exercise of his
+constitutional right to teach and preach to the colored people, and shall
+look for a renewal of the fearful scenes in which northerners were
+whipped, tarred and feathered, warned off, and murdered, before the war."
+The letter gives many details in support of this conclusion, and is in
+every respect worth perusing.
+
+In the letter of General Kirby Smith (Accompanying document No. 9) occurs
+the following statement referring to the condition of things in Mobile,
+Alabama: "Threats were made to destroy all school-houses in which colored
+children were taught, and in two instances they were fired. The same
+threats were made against all churches in which colored people assembled
+to worship, and one of them burned. Continued threats of assassination
+were made against the colored preachers, and one of them is now under
+special guard by order of Major General Woods."
+
+While I was in Louisiana General Canby received a petition, signed by a
+number of prominent citizens of New Orleans, praying him "to annul Order
+No. 38, which authorizes a board of officers to levy a tax on the
+taxpayers of the parish of Orleans to defray the expense of educating the
+freedmen." The reasons given for making this request are as follows: "Most
+of those who have lost their slaves by the rebellion, and whose lands are
+in the course of confiscation, being thus deprived of the means of raising
+corn for their hungry children, have not anything left wherewith to pay
+such a tax. The order in question, they consider, violates that sacred
+principle which requires taxation to be equal throughout the United
+States. _If the freedmen are to be educated at public expense, let it be
+done from the treasury of the United States_." (Accompanying document No.
+38.) Many of the signers of this petition, who wanted to be relieved of
+the school tax on the ground of poverty, were counted among the wealthy
+men of New Orleans, and they forgot to state that the free colored element
+of Louisiana, which represents a capital of at least thirteen millions and
+pays a not inconsiderable proportion of the taxes, contributes at the same
+time for the support of the schools for whites, from which their children
+are excluded. I would also invite attention to some statements concerning
+this matter contained in the memorandum of my conversation with Mr. King,
+of Georgia. (Accompanying document No. 29.)
+
+While travelling in the south I found in the newspapers an account of an
+interview between General Howard and some gentlemen from Mississippi, in
+which a Dr. Murdoch, from Columbus, Mississippi, figured somewhat
+conspicuously. He was reported to have described public sentiment in
+Mississippi as quite loyal, and especially in favor of giving the colored
+race a good education. I inquired at the Freedmen's Bureau whether
+anything was known there of a feeling so favorable to negro education
+among Dr. Murdoch's neighbors. The information I received is contained in
+a letter from the assistant commissioner, Colonel Thomas. (Accompanying
+document No. 39.) It appears that the feeling of Dr. Murdoch's neighbors
+at Columbus was not only not in favor of negro education, but that,
+according to the report of the agent of the Freedmen's Bureau at that
+place, "the citizens of the town are so prejudiced against the negroes
+that they are opposed to all efforts being made for their education or
+elevation;" that "the people will not give rooms or allow the children of
+their hired freedmen to attend the schools," and that the citizens of the
+place have written a letter to the officers, saying "that they would
+respectfully ask that no freedmen's schools be established under the
+auspices of the bureau, as it would tend to disturb the present labor
+system, and take from the fields labor that is so necessary to restore the
+wealth of the State." It seems Dr. Murdoch's neighbors do not form an
+exception to the general rule. In this connexion I may add that several
+instances have come to my notice of statements about the condition of
+things in the late rebel States, being set afloat by southerners visiting
+the north, which would not bear close investigation. The reason, probably,
+is that gentlemen are attributing their own good intentions to the rest of
+their people with too great a liberality.
+
+Having thus given my experience and impressions with regard to the spirit
+actuating the southern people concerning the freedman and the free-labor
+problem, and before inquiring into their prospective action, I beg leave
+to submit a few remarks on the conduct of the negro.
+
+THE FREEDMAN.
+
+The first southern men with whom I came into contact after my arrival at
+Charleston designated the general conduct of the emancipated slaves as
+surprisingly good. Some went even so far as to call it admirable. The
+connexion in which they used these laudatory terms was this: A great many
+colored people while in slavery had undoubtedly suffered much hardship
+and submitted to great wrongs, partly inseparably connected with
+the condition of servitude, and partly aggravated by the individual
+wilfulness and cruelty of their masters and overseers. They were suddenly
+set free; and not only that: their masters but a short time ago almost
+omnipotent on their domains, found themselves, after their defeat in the
+war, all at once face to face with their former slaves as a conquered and
+powerless class. Never was the temptation to indulge in acts of vengeance
+for wrongs suffered more strongly presented than to the colored people of
+the south; but no instance of such individual revenge was then on record,
+nor have I since heard of any case of violence that could be traced
+to such motives. The transition of the southern negro from slavery to
+freedom was untarnished by any deeds of blood, and the apprehension so
+extensively entertained and so pathetically declaimed upon by many, that
+the sudden and general emancipation of the slaves would at once result in
+"all the horrors of St. Domingo," proved utterly groundless. This was the
+first impression I received after my arrival in the south, and I received
+it from the mouths of late slaveholders. Nor do I think the praise was
+unjustly bestowed. In this respect the emancipated slaves of the south
+can challenge comparison with any race long held in servitude and
+suddenly set free. As to the dangers of the future, I shall speak of them
+in another connexion.
+
+But at that point the unqualified praise stopped and the complaints began:
+the negroes would not work; they left their plantations and went wandering
+from place to place, stealing by the way; they preferred a life of
+idleness and vagrancy to that of honest and industrious labor; they either
+did not show any willingness to enter into contracts, or, if they did,
+showed a stronger disposition to break them than to keep them; they were
+becoming insubordinate and insolent to their former owners; they indulged
+in extravagant ideas about their rights and relied upon the government to
+support them without work; in one word, they had no conception of the
+rights freedom gave, and of the obligations freedom imposed upon them.
+These complaints I heard repeated with endless variations wherever I went.
+Nor were they made without some show of reason. I will review them one
+after another.
+
+_Unwillingness to work_.--That there are among the negroes a good many
+constitutionally lazy individuals is certainly true. The propensity to
+idleness seems to be rather strongly developed in the south generally,
+without being confined to any particular race. It is also true that the
+alacrity negroes put into their work depends in a majority of cases upon
+certain combinations of circumstances. It is asserted that the negroes
+have a prejudice against working in the cultivation of cotton, rice, and
+sugar. Although this prejudice, probably arising from the fact that the
+cotton, rice, and sugar fields remind the former slave of the worst
+experiences of his past life, exists to some extent, it has not made the
+freedmen now on the plantations unwilling to cultivate such crops as the
+planters may have seen fit to raise. A few cases of refusal may have
+occurred. But there is another fact of which I have become satisfied in
+the course of my observations, and which is of great significance: while
+most of the old slaveholders complain of the laziness and instability of
+their negro laborers, the northern men engaged in planting, with whom I
+have come into contact, almost uniformly speak of their negro laborers
+with satisfaction, and these northern men almost exclusively devote
+themselves to the cultivation of cotton. A good many southern planters, in
+view of the fact, expressed to me their intention to engage northern men
+for the management of their plantations. This circumstance would seem to
+prove that under certain conditions the negro may be expected to work
+well. There are two reasons by which it may be explained: first, that a
+northern man knows from actual experience what free labor is, and
+understands its management, which the late slaveholder, still clinging to
+the traditions of the old system, does not; and then, that the negro has
+more confidence in a northern man than in his former master. When a
+northern man discovers among his laboring force an individual that does
+not do his duty, his first impulse is to discharge him, and he acts
+accordingly. When a late slaveholder discovers such an individual among
+his laborers, his first impulse is to whip him, and he is very apt to suit
+the act to the impulse. Ill treatment is a doubtful encouragement for free
+laborers, and it proves more apt to drive those that are still at work
+away than to make the plantation attractive to others. But if the reasons
+above stated are sufficient to explain why the negroes work better for
+northern than for southern men, it will follow that a general improvement
+will take place as soon as the latter fulfil the same conditions--that is,
+as soon as southern men learn what free labor is and how to manage it in
+accordance with its principles, and as soon as they succeed in gaining the
+confidence of the colored people.
+
+In the reports of officers of the Freedmen's Bureau, among the documents
+annexed to this, you will find frequent repetitions of the statement that
+the negro generally works well where he is decently treated and well
+compensated. Nor do the officers of the Freedmen's Bureau alone think and
+say so. Southern men, who were experimenting in the right direction,
+expressed to me their opinion to the same effect. Some of them told me
+that the negroes on their plantations worked "as well as ever," or even
+"far better than they had expected." It is true the number of planters who
+made that admission was small, but it nearly corresponded with the number
+of those who, according to their own statements, gave free negro labor a
+perfectly fair trial, while all those who prefaced everything they said
+with the assertion that "the negro will not work without physical
+compulsion," could find no end to their complaints. There are undoubtedly
+negroes who will not do well under the best circumstances, just as there
+are others who will do well under the worst.
+
+In another part of this report I have already set forth the exceptional
+difficulties weighing upon the free-labor experiment in the south during
+this period of transition. The sudden leap from slavery to freedom is an
+exciting event in a man's life, and somewhat calculated to disturb his
+equanimity for a moment. People are on such occasions disposed to indulge
+themselves a little. It would have shown much more wisdom in the negroes
+if all of them had quietly gone to work again the next day. But it is not
+reasonable to expect the negroes to possess more wisdom than other races
+would exhibit under the same circumstances. Besides, the willingness to
+work depends, with whites as well as blacks, somewhat upon the nature of
+the inducements held out, and the unsatisfactory regulation of the matter
+of wages has certainly something to do with the instability of negro labor
+which is complained of. Northern men engaged in planting almost uniformly
+pay wages in money, while southern planters, almost uniformly, have
+contracted with their laborers for a share in the crop. In many instances
+the shares are allotted between employers and laborers with great
+fairness; but in others the share promised to the laborers is so small as
+to leave them in the end very little or nothing. Moreover, the crops in
+the south looked generally very unpromising from the beginning, which
+naturally reduced the value falling to the lot of the laborer. I have
+heard a good many freedmen complain that, taking all things into
+consideration, they really did not know what they were working for except
+food, which in many instances was bad and scanty; and such complaints were
+frequently well founded. In a large number of cases the planters were not
+to blame for this; they had no available pecuniary means, and in many
+localities found it difficult to procure provisions. But these unfavorable
+circumstances, combined with the want of confidence in northern men, were
+well calculated to have an influence upon the conduct of the negro as a
+laborer.
+
+I have heard it said that money is no inducement which will make a negro
+work. It is certain that many of them, immediately after emancipation, had
+but a crude conception of the value of money and the uses it can be put
+to. It may, however, be stated as the general rule, that whenever they are
+at liberty to choose between wages in money and a share in the crop, they
+will choose the former and work better. Many cases of negroes engaged in
+little industrial pursuits came to my notice, in which they showed
+considerable aptness not only for gaining money, but also for saving and
+judiciously employing it. Some were even surprisingly successful. I
+visited some of the plantations divided up among freedmen and cultivated
+by them independently without the supervision of white men. In some
+instances I found very good crops and indications of general thrift and
+good management; in others the corn and cotton crops were in a neglected
+and unpromising state. The excuse made was in most cases that they had
+obtained possession of the ground too late in the season, and that, until
+the regular crops could be harvested, they were obliged to devote much of
+their time to the raising and sale of vegetables, watermelons, &c., for
+the purpose of making a living in the meantime.
+
+On the whole I feel warranted in making the following statement: Many
+freedmen--not single individuals, but whole "plantation gangs"--are
+working well; others do not. The difference in their efficiency coincides
+in a great measure with a certain difference in the conditions under which
+they live. The conclusion lies near, that if the conditions under which
+they work well become general, their efficiency as free laborers will
+become general also, aside from individual exceptions. Certain it is, that
+by far the larger portion of the work done in the south is done by
+freedmen.
+
+_Vagrancy_.--Large numbers of colored people left the plantations as soon
+as they became aware that they could do so with impunity. That they could
+so leave their former masters was for them the first test of the reality
+of their freedom. A great many flocked to the military posts and towns to
+obtain from the "Yankees" reliable information as to their new rights.
+Others were afraid lest by staying on the plantations where they had been
+held as slaves they might again endanger their freedom. Still others went
+to the cities, thinking that there the sweets of liberty could best be
+enjoyed. In some places they crowded together in large numbers, causing
+serious inconvenience. But a great many, probably a very large majority,
+remained on the plantations and made contracts with their former masters.
+The military authorities, and especially the agents of the Freedmen's
+Bureau, succeeded by continued exertions in returning most of those who
+were adrift to the plantations, or in finding other employment for them.
+After the first rush was over the number of vagrants grew visibly less.
+
+It may be said that where the Freedmen's Bureau is best organized
+there is least vagrancy among the negroes. Here and there they show
+considerable restlessness, partly owing to local, partly to general
+causes. Among the former, bad treatment is probably the most
+prominent; among the latter, a feeling of distrust, uneasiness,
+anxiety about their future, which arises from their present unsettled
+condition. It is true, some are going from place to place because they
+are fond of it. The statistics of the Freedmen's Bureau show that the
+whole number of colored people supported by the government since the
+close of the war was remarkably small and continually decreasing.
+This seems to show that the southern negro, when thrown out of his
+accustomed employment, possesses considerable ability to support
+himself. It is possible, however, that in consequence of short crops,
+the destitution of the country, and other disturbing influences, there
+may be more restlessness among the negroes next winter than there
+is at present. Where the results of this year's labor were very
+unsatisfactory, there will be a floating about of the population when
+the contracts of this year expire. It is to be expected, however, that
+the Freedmen's Bureau will be able to remedy evils of that kind. Other
+emancipatory movements, for instance the abolition of serfdom in
+Russia, have resulted in little or no vagrancy; but it must not be
+forgotten that the emancipated serfs were speedily endowed with the
+ownership of land, which gave them a permanent moral and material
+interest in the soil upon which they lived. A similar measure would do
+more to stop negro vagrancy in the south than the severest penal laws.
+In every country the number of vagrants stands in proportion to the
+number of people who have no permanent local interests, unless
+augmented by exceptional cases, such as war or famine.
+
+_Contracts_.--Freedmen frequently show great disinclination to make
+contracts with their former masters. They are afraid lest in signing a
+paper they sign away their freedom, and in this respect they are
+distrustful of most southern men. It generally requires personal
+assurances from a United States officer to make them feel safe. But the
+advice of such an officer is almost uniformly followed. In this manner an
+immense number of contracts has been made, and it is daily increasing. A
+northern man has no difficulty in making contracts, and but little in
+enforcing them. The complaints of southern men that the contracts are not
+well observed by the freedmen are in many instances well founded. The same
+can be said of the complaints of freedmen with regard to the planters. The
+negro, fresh from slavery, has naturally but a crude idea of the binding
+force of a written agreement, and it is galling to many of the planters to
+stand in such relations as a contract establishes to those who formerly
+were their slaves. I was, however, informed by officers of the Freedmen's
+Bureau, and by planters also, that things were improving in that respect.
+Contracts will be more readily entered into and more strictly kept as soon
+as the intimate relations between labor and compensation are better
+understood and appreciated on both sides.
+
+_Insolence and insubordination_.--The new spirit which emancipation has
+awakened in the colored people has undoubtedly developed itself in some
+individuals, especially young men, to an offensive degree. Hence cases of
+insolence on the part of freedmen occur. But such occurrences are
+comparatively rare. On the whole, the conduct of the colored people is far
+more submissive than anybody had a right to expect. The acts of violence
+perpetrated by freedmen against white persons do not stand in any
+proportion to those committed by whites against negroes. Every such
+occurrence is sure to be noticed in the southern papers and we have heard
+of but very few.
+
+When Southern people speak of the insolence of the negro, they generally
+mean something which persons who never lived under the system of slavery
+are not apt to appreciate. It is but very rarely what would be called
+insolence among equals. But, as an old planter said to me, "our people
+cannot realize yet that the negro is free." A negro is called insolent
+whenever his conduct varies in any manner from what a southern man was
+accustomed to when slavery existed.
+
+The complaints made about the insubordination of the negro laborers on
+plantations have to be taken with the same allowance. There have been, no
+doubt, many cases in which freedmen showed a refractory spirit, where
+orders were disobeyed, and instructions disregarded. There have been some
+instances of positive resistance. But when inquiring into particulars, I
+found not unfrequently that the employer had adhered too strictly to his
+old way of doing things. I hardly heard any such complaints from Northern
+men. I have heard planters complain very earnestly of the insubordinate
+spirit of their colored laborers because they remonstrated against the
+practice of corporeal punishment. This was looked upon as a symptom of an
+impending insurrection. A great many things are regarded in the old slave
+States as acts of insubordination on the part of the laborer which, in the
+free States, would be taken as perfectly natural and harmless. The fact
+is, a good many planters are at present more nervously jealous of their
+authority than before, while the freedmen are not always inclined to
+forget that they are free men.
+
+_Extravagant notions_.--In many localities I found an impression
+prevailing among the negroes that some great change was going to take
+place about Christmas. Feeling uneasy in their present condition, they
+indulged in the expectation that government intended to make some further
+provision for their future welfare, especially by ordering distributions
+of land among them. To counteract this expectation, which had a tendency
+to interfere seriously with the making of contracts for the next season,
+it was considered necessary to send military officers, and especially
+agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, among them, who, by administering sound
+advice and spreading correct information, would induce them to suit their
+conduct to their actual circumstances. While in the south I heard of many
+instances in which this measure had the desired effect, and it is to be
+expected that the effect was uniformly good wherever judicious officers
+were so employed.
+
+Impressions like the above are very apt to spread among the negroes, for
+the reason that they ardently desire to become freeholders. In the
+independent possession of landed property they see the consummation of
+their deliverance. However mistaken their notions may be in other
+respects, it must be admitted that this instinct is correct.
+
+_Relations between the two races_.--There are whites in the south who
+profess great kindness for the negro. Many of them are, no doubt, sincere
+in what they say. But as to the feelings of the masses, it is hardly
+necessary to add anything to what I have already stated. I have heard it
+asserted that the negroes also cherish feelings of hostility to the
+whites. Taking this as a general assertion, I am satisfied that it is
+incorrect. The negroes do not trust their late masters because they do not
+feel their freedom sufficiently assured. Many of them may harbor feelings
+of resentment towards those who now ill-treat and persecute them, but as
+they practiced no revenge after their emancipation for wrongs suffered
+while in slavery, so their present resentments are likely to cease as soon
+as the persecution ceases. If the persecution and the denial of their
+rights as freemen continue, the resentments growing out of them will
+continue and spread. The negro is constitutionally docile and eminently
+good-natured. Instances of the most touching attachment of freedmen to
+their old masters and mistresses have come to my notice. To a white man
+whom they believe to be sincerely their friend they cling with greater
+affection even than to one of their own race. By some northern speculators
+their confidence has been sadly abused. Nevertheless, the trust they place
+in persons coming from the north, or in any way connected with the
+government, is most childlike and unbounded. There may be individual
+exceptions, but I am sure they are not numerous. Those who enjoy their
+confidence enjoy also their affection. Centuries of slavery have not been
+sufficient to make them the enemies of the white race. If in the future a
+feeling of mutual hostility should develop itself between the races, it
+will probably not be the fault of those who have shown such an
+inexhaustible patience under the most adverse and trying circumstances.
+
+In some places that I visited I found apprehensions entertained by whites
+of impending negro insurrections. Whenever our military commanders found
+it expedient to subject the statements made to that effect by whites to
+close investigation, they uniformly found them unwarranted by fact. In
+many instances there were just reasons for supposing that such
+apprehensions were industriously spread for the purpose of serving as an
+excuse for further persecution. In the papers annexed to this report you
+will find testimony supporting this statement. The negro is easily led; he
+is always inclined to follow the advice of those he trusts. I do,
+therefore, not consider a negro insurrection probable as long as the
+freedmen are under the direct protection of the government, and may hope
+to see their grievances redressed without resorting to the extreme means
+of self-protection. There would, perhaps, be danger of insurrections if
+the government should withdraw its protection from them, and if, against
+an attempt on the part of the whites to reduce them to something like
+their former condition, they should find themselves thrown back upon their
+own resources. Of this contingency I shall speak below.
+
+_Education_.--That the negroes should have come out of slavery as an
+ignorant class is not surprising when we consider that it was a penal
+offence to teach them while they were in slavery; but their eager desire
+to learn, and the alacrity and success with which they avail themselves of
+every facility offered to them in that respect, has become a matter of
+notoriety. The statistics of the Freedmen's Bureau show to what extent
+such facilities have been offered and what results have been attained. As
+far as my information goes, these results are most encouraging for the
+future.
+
+PROSPECTIVE--THE REACTIONARY TENDENCY.
+
+I stated above that, in my opinion, the solution of the social problem in
+the south did not depend upon the capacity and conduct of the negro alone,
+but in the same measure upon the ideas and feelings entertained and acted
+upon by the whites. What their ideas and feelings were while under my
+observation, and how they affected the contact of the two races, I have
+already set forth. The question arises, what policy will be adopted by the
+"ruling class" when all restraint imposed upon them by the military power
+of the national government is withdrawn, and they are left free to
+regulate matters according to their own tastes? It would be presumptuous
+to speak of the future with absolute certainty; but it may safely be
+assumed that the same causes will always tend to produce the same effects.
+As long as a majority of the southern people believe that "the negro will
+not work without physical compulsion," and that "the blacks at large
+belong to the whites at large," that belief will tend to produce a system
+of coercion, the enforcement of which will be aided by the hostile feeling
+against the negro now prevailing among the whites, and by the general
+spirit of violence which in the south was fostered by the influence
+slavery exercised upon the popular character. It is, indeed, not probable
+that a general attempt will be made to restore slavery in its old form, on
+account of the barriers which such an attempt would find in its way; but
+there are systems intermediate between slavery as it formerly existed in
+the south, and free labor as it exists in the north, but more nearly
+related to the former than to the latter, _the introduction of which will
+be attempted_. I have already noticed some movements in that direction,
+which were made under the very eyes of our military authorities, and of
+which the Opelousas and St. Landry ordinances were the most significant.
+Other things of more recent date, such as the new negro code submitted by
+a committee to the legislature of South Carolina, are before the country.
+They have all the same tendency, because they all spring from the same
+cause.
+
+It may be objected that evidence has been given of a contrary spirit by
+the State conventions which passed ordinances abolishing slavery in their
+States, and making it obligatory upon the legislatures to enact laws for
+the protection of the freedmen. While acknowledging the fact, I deem it
+dangerous to be led by it into any delusions. As to the motives upon which
+they acted when abolishing slavery, and their understanding of the
+bearings of such an act, we may safely accept the standard they have set
+up for themselves. When speaking of popular demonstrations in the south in
+favor of submission to the government, I stated that the principal and
+almost the only argument used was, that they found themselves in a
+situation in which "they could do no better." It was the same thing with
+regard to the abolition of slavery; wherever abolition was publicly
+advocated, whether in popular meetings or in State conventions, it was on
+the ground of necessity--not unfrequently with the significant addition
+that, as soon as they had once more control of their own State affairs,
+they could settle the labor question to suit themselves, whatever they
+might have to submit to for the present. Not only did I find this to be
+the common talk among the people, but the same sentiment was openly avowed
+by public men in speech and print. Some declarations of that kind, made by
+men of great prominence, have passed into the newspapers and are
+undoubtedly known to you. I append to this report a specimen,
+(accompanying document, No. 40,) not as something particularly remarkable,
+but in order to represent the current sentiment as expressed in the
+language of a candidate for a seat in the State convention of Mississippi.
+It is a card addressed to the voters of Wilkinson county, Mississippi, by
+General W.L. Brandon. The general complains of having been called "an
+unconditional, immediate emancipationist--an abolitionist." He indignantly
+repels the charge and avows himself a good pro-slavery man. "But,
+fellow-citizens," says he, "what I may in common with you have to submit
+to, is a very different thing. Slavery has been taken from us; the power
+that has already practically abolished it threatens totally and forever to
+abolish it. _But does it follow that I am in favor of this thing? By no
+means_. My honest conviction is, we must accept the situation as it is,
+_until we can get control once more of our own State affairs. We cannot do
+otherwise and get our place again in the Union, and occupy a position,
+exert an influence that will protect us against greater evils which
+threaten us_. I must, as any other man who votes or holds an office, submit
+_for the time_ to evils I cannot remedy."
+
+General Brandon was elected on that platform, and in the convention voted
+for the ordinance abolishing slavery, and imposing upon the legislature
+the duty to pass laws for the protection of the freedmen. And General
+Brandon is certainly looked upon in Mississippi as an honorable man, and
+an honest politician. What he will vote for when his people have got once
+more control of their own State affairs, and his State has regained its
+position and influence in the Union, it is needless to ask. I repeat, his
+case is not an isolated one. He has only put in print what, as my
+observations lead me to believe, a majority of the people say even in more
+emphatic language; and the deliberations of several legislatures in that
+part of the country show what it means. I deem it unnecessary to go into
+further particulars.
+
+It is worthy of note that the convention of Mississippi--and the
+conventions of other States have followed its example--imposed upon
+subsequent legislatures the obligation not only to pass laws for the
+protection of the freedmen in person and property, but also _to guard
+against the dangers arising from sudden emancipation_. This language is
+not without significance; not the blessings of a full development of free
+labor, but only the dangers of emancipation are spoken of. It will be
+observed that this clause is so vaguely worded as to authorize the
+legislatures to place any restriction they may see fit upon the
+emancipated negro, in perfect consistency with the amended State
+constitutions; for it rests with them to define what the dangers of sudden
+emancipation consist in, and what measures may be required to guard
+against them. It is true, the clause does not authorize the legislatures
+to re-establish slavery in the old form; but they may pass whatever laws
+they see fit, stopping short only one step of what may strictly be defined
+as "slavery." Peonage of the Mexican pattern, or serfdom of some European
+pattern, may under that clause be considered admissible; and looking at
+the legislative attempts already made, especially the labor code now under
+consideration in the legislature of South Carolina, it appears not only
+possible, but eminently probable, that the laws which will be passed to
+guard against the dangers arising from emancipation will be directed
+against the spirit of emancipation itself.
+
+A more tangible evidence of good intentions would seem to have been
+furnished by the admission of negro testimony in the courts of justice,
+which has been conceded in some of the southern States, at least in point
+of form. This being a matter of vital interest to the colored man, I
+inquired into the feelings of people concerning it with particular care.
+At first I found hardly any southern man that favored it. Even persons of
+some liberality of mind saw seemingly insurmountable objections. The
+appearance of a general order issued by General Swayne in Alabama, which
+made it optional for the civil authorities either to admit negro testimony
+in the State courts or to have all cases in which colored people were
+concerned tried by officers of the bureau or military commissions, seemed
+to be the signal for a change of position on the part of the politicians.
+A great many of them, seeing a chance for getting rid of the jurisdiction
+of the Freedmen's Bureau, dropped their opposition somewhat suddenly and
+endeavored to make the admission of negro testimony in the State courts
+palatable to the masses by assuring them that at all events it would rest
+with the judges and juries to determine in each case before them whether
+the testimony of negro witnesses was worth anything or not. One of the
+speeches delivered at Vicksburg, already referred to in another connexion,
+and a card published by a candidate for office, (accompanying document No.
+14,) furnish specimens of that line of argument.
+
+In my despatch from Montgomery, Alabama, I suggested to you that
+instructions be issued making it part of the duty of agents of the
+Freedmen's Bureau to appear in the State courts as the freedmen's next
+friend, and to forward reports of the proceedings had in the principal
+cases to the headquarters of the bureau. In this manner it would have been
+possible to ascertain to what extent the admission of negro testimony
+secured to the colored man justice in the State courts. As the plan does
+not seem to have been adopted, we must form our conclusions from evidence
+less complete. Among the annexed documents there are several statements
+concerning its results, made by gentlemen whose business it was to
+observe. I would invite your attention to the letters of Captain Paillon,
+agent of the Freedmen's Bureau at Mobile; Major Reynolds, assistant
+commissioner of the bureau at Natchez; and Colonel Thomas, assistant
+commissioner for the State of Mississippi. (Accompanying documents Nos. 41
+and 27.) The opinions expressed in these papers are uniformly unfavorable.
+It is to be hoped that at other places better results have been attained.
+But I may state that even by prominent southern men, who were anxious to
+have the jurisdiction of the State courts extended over the freedmen, the
+admission was made to me that the testimony of a negro would have but
+little weight with a southern jury. I frequently asked the question, "Do
+you think a jury of your people would be apt to find a planter who has
+whipped one of his negro laborers guilty of assault and battery?" The
+answer almost invariably was, "You must make some allowance for the
+prejudices of our people."
+
+It is probable that the laws excluding negro testimony from the courts
+will be repealed in all the States lately in rebellion if it is believed
+that a satisfactory arrangement of this matter may in any way facilitate
+the "readmission" of the States, but I apprehend such arrangements will
+hardly be sufficient to secure to the colored man impartial justice as
+long as the feelings of the whites are against him and they think that his
+rights are less entitled to respect than their own. More potent certainly
+than the laws of a country are the opinions of right and wrong entertained
+by its people. When the spirit of a law is in conflict with such opinions,
+there is but little prospect of its being faithfully put in execution,
+especially where those who hold such opinions are the same who have to
+administer the laws.
+
+The facility with which southern politicians acquiesce in the admission of
+negro testimony is not surprising when we consider that the practical
+management of the matter will rest with their own people. I found them
+less accommodating with regard to "constitutional amendment." Nine-tenths
+of the intelligent men with whom I had any conversation upon that subject
+expressed their willingness to ratify the first section, abolishing
+slavery throughout the United States, but not the second section,
+empowering Congress "to enforce the foregoing by appropriate legislation."
+I feel warranted in saying that, while I was in the south, this was
+the prevailing sentiment. Nevertheless, I deem it probable that the
+"constitutional amendment" will be ratified by every State legislature,
+provided the government insists upon such ratification as a _conditio sine
+qua non_ of readmission. It is instructive to observe how powerful and
+immediate an effect the announcement of such a condition by the government
+produces in southern conventions and legislatures. It would be idle to
+assume, however, that a telegraphic despatch, while it may beat down all
+parliamentary opposition to this or that measure, will at the same time
+obliterate the prejudices of the people; nor will it prevent those
+prejudices from making themselves seriously felt in the future. It will
+require measures of a more practical character to prevent the dangers
+which, as everybody that reads the signs of the times must see, are now
+impending.
+
+THE MILITIA.
+
+I do not mean to say that the southern people intend to retrace the steps
+they have made as soon as they have resumed control of their State
+affairs. Although they regret the abolition of slavery, they certainly do
+not intend to re-establish it in its old form. Although they are at heart
+opposed to the admission of negro testimony in the courts of justice, they
+probably will not re-enact the laws excluding it. But while accepting the
+"abolition of slavery," they think that some species of serfdom, peonage,
+or some other form of compulsory labor is not slavery, and may be
+introduced without a violation of their pledge. Although formally
+admitting negro testimony, they think that negro testimony will be taken
+practically for what they themselves consider it "worth." What particular
+shape the reactionary movement will assume it is at present unnecessary to
+inquire. There are a hundred ways of framing apprenticeship, vagrancy, or
+contract laws, which will serve the purpose. Even the mere reorganization
+of the militia upon the old footing will go far towards accomplishing the
+object. To this point I beg leave to invite your special attention.
+
+The people of the southern States show great anxiety to have their militia
+reorganized, and in some instances permission has been given. In the case
+of Mississippi I gave you my reasons for opposing the measure under
+existing circumstances. They were, first, that county patrols had already
+been in existence, and had to be disbanded on account of their open
+hostility to Union people and freedmen. (See Colonel Yorke's report,
+accompanying document No. 25.) Second, that the governor proposed to arm
+the people upon the ground that the inhabitants refused to assist the
+military authorities in the suppression of crime, and that the call was
+addressed, not to the loyal citizens of the United States, but expressly
+to the "young men who had so distinguished themselves for gallantry" in
+the rebel service. (See correspondence between Governor Sharkey and
+General Osterhaus, accompanying document No. 42.) And third, because the
+State was still under martial law, and the existence of organized and
+armed bodies not under the control of the military commander was
+inconsistent with that state of things.
+
+But there are other more general points of view from which this question
+must be looked at in order to be appreciated in its most important
+bearings. I may state, without fear of contradiction, that, in every case,
+where permission was asked for reorganizing the militia, the privilege or
+duty of serving in that armed organization was intended to be confined to
+the whites. In the conversations I had with southern men about this
+matter, the idea of admitting colored people to the privilege of bearing
+arms as a part of the militia was uniformly treated by them as a thing not
+to be thought of. The militia, whenever organized, will thus be composed
+of men belonging to one class, to the total exclusion of another. This
+concentration of organized physical power in the hands of one class will
+necessarily tend, and is undoubtedly designed, to give that class absolute
+physical control of the other. The specific purpose for which the militia
+is to be reorganized appears clearly from the uses it was put to whenever
+a local organization was effected. It is the restoration of the old patrol
+system which was one of the characteristic features of the regime of
+slavery. The services which such patrols are expected to perform consist
+in maintaining what southern people understand to be the order of society.
+Indications are given in several of the accompanying documents. Among
+others, the St. Landry and Bossier ordinances define with some precision
+what the authority and duties of the "chief patrols" are to be. The
+militia, organized for the distinct purpose of enforcing the authority of
+the whites over the blacks, is in itself practically sufficient to
+establish and enforce a system of compulsory labor without there being any
+explicit laws for it; and, being sustained and encouraged by public
+opinion, the chief and members of "county patrols" are not likely to be
+over-nice in the construction of their orders. This is not a mere
+supposition, but an opinion based upon experience already gathered. As I
+stated above, the reorganization of the county patrol system upon the
+basis here described will result in the establishment of a sort of
+permanent martial law over the negro.
+
+It is, therefore, not even necessary that the reaction against that result
+of the war, which consists in emancipation, should manifest itself by very
+obnoxious legislative enactments, just as in some of the slave States
+slavery did not exist by virtue of the State constitution. It may be
+practically accomplished, and is, in fact, practically accomplished
+whenever the freed man is not protected by the federal authorities,
+without displaying its character and aims upon the statute book.
+
+NEGRO INSURRECTIONS AND ANARCHY.
+
+That in times like ours, and in a country like this, a reaction in favor
+of compulsory labor cannot be ultimately successful, is as certain as it
+was that slavery could not last forever. But a movement in that direction
+can prevent much good that might be accomplished, and produce much evil
+that might be avoided. Not only will such a movement seriously interfere
+with all efforts to organize an efficient system of free labor, and thus
+very materially retard the return of prosperity in the south, but it may
+bring on a crisis as dangerous and destructive as the war of the rebellion
+itself.
+
+I stated above that I did not deem a negro insurrection probable as long
+as the freedmen were assured of the direct protection of the national
+government. Whenever they are in trouble, they raise their eyes up to that
+power, and although they may suffer, yet, as long as that power is visibly
+present, they continue to hope. But when State authority in the south is
+fully restored, the federal forces withdrawn, and the Freedmen's Bureau
+abolished, the colored man will find himself turned over to the mercies of
+those whom he does not trust. If then an attempt, is made to strip him
+again of those rights which he justly thought he possessed, he will be apt
+to feel that he can hope for no redress unless he procure it himself. If
+ever the negro is capable of rising, he will rise then. Men who never
+struck a blow for the purpose of gaining their liberty, when they were
+slaves, are apt to strike when, their liberty once gained, they see it
+again in danger. However great the patience and submissiveness of the
+colored race may be, it cannot be presumed that its active participation
+in a war against the very men with whom it again stands face to face, has
+remained entirely without influence upon its spirit.
+
+What a general insurrection of the negroes would result in, whether it
+would be easy or difficult to suppress it, whether the struggle would be
+long or short, what race would suffer most, are questions which will not
+be asked by those who understand the problem to be, not how to suppress a
+negro insurrection, but how to prevent it. Certain it is, it would inflict
+terrible calamities upon both whites and blacks, and present to the world
+the spectacle of atrocities which ought to be foreign to civilized
+nations. The negro, in his ordinary state, is docile and good-natured; but
+when once engaged in a bloody business, it is difficult to say how far his
+hot impulses would carry him; and as to the southern whites, the barbarous
+scenes the country has witnessed since the close of the rebellion,
+indicate the temper with which they would fight the negro as an insurgent.
+It would be a war of extermination, revolting in its incidents, and with
+ruin and desolation in its train. There may be different means by which it
+can be prevented, but there is only one certain of effect: it is, that the
+provocations be avoided which may call it forth.
+
+But even if it be prevented by other means, it is not the only danger
+which a reactionary movement will bring upon the south. Nothing renders
+society more restless than a social revolution but half accomplished. It
+naturally tends to develop its logical consequences, but is hindered by
+adverse agencies which work in another direction; nor can it return to the
+point from which it started. There are, then, continual vibrations and
+fluctuations between two opposites which keep society in the nervous
+uneasiness and excitement growing from the lingering strife between the
+antagonistic tendencies. All classes of society are intensely dissatisfied
+with things as they are. General explosions may be prevented, but they are
+always imminent. This state of uncertainty impedes all successful working
+of the social forces; people, instead of devoting themselves with
+confidence and steadiness to solid pursuits, are apt to live from hand to
+mouth, or to indulge in fitful experiments; capital ventures out but with
+great timity; the lawless elements of the community take advantage of the
+general confusion and dissatisfaction, and society drifts into anarchy.
+There is probably at the present moment no country in the civilized world
+which contains such an accumulation of anarchical elements as the south.
+The strife of the antagonistic tendencies here described is aggravated by
+the passions inflamed and the general impoverishment brought about by a
+long and exhaustive war, and the south will have to suffer the evils of
+anarchical disorder until means are found to effect a final settlement of
+the labor question in accordance with the logic of the great revolution.
+
+
+THE TRUE PROBLEM.--DIFFICULTIES AND REMEDIES.
+
+In seeking remedies for such disorders, we ought to keep in view, above
+all, the nature of the problem which is to be solved. As to what is
+commonly termed "reconstruction," it is not only the political machinery
+of the States and their constitutional relations to the general
+government, but the whole organism of southern society that must be
+reconstructed, or rather constructed anew, so as to bring it in harmony
+with the rest of American society. The difficulties of this task are not
+to be considered overcome when the people of the south take the oath of
+allegiance and elect governors and legislatures and members of Congress,
+and militia captains. That this would be done had become Certain as soon
+as the surrenders of the southern armies had made further resistance
+impossible, and nothing in the world was left, even to the most
+uncompromising rebel, but to submit or to emigrate. It was also natural
+that they should avail themselves of every chance offered them to resume
+control of their home affairs and to regain their influence in the Union.
+But this can hardly be called the first step towards the solution of the
+true problem, and it is a fair question to ask, whether the hasty
+gratification of their desire to resume such control would not create new
+embarrassments.
+
+The true nature of the difficulties of the situation is this: The general
+government of the republic has, by proclaiming the emancipation of the
+slaves, commenced a great social revolution in the south, but has, as yet,
+not completed it. Only the negative part of it is accomplished. The slaves
+are emancipated in point of form, but free labor has not yet been put in
+the place of slavery in point of fact. And now, in the midst of this
+critical period of transition, the power which originated the revolution
+is expected to turn over its whole future development to another power
+which from the beginning was hostile to it and has never yet entered into
+its spirit, leaving the class in whose favor it was made completely
+without power to protect itself and to take an influential part in that
+development. The history of the world will be searched in vain for a
+proceeding similar to this which did not lead either to a rapid and
+violent reaction, or to the most serious trouble and civil disorder. It
+cannot be said that the conduct of the southern people since the close of
+the war has exhibited such extraordinary wisdom and self-abnegation as to
+make them an exception to the rule.
+
+In my despatches from the south I repeatedly expressed the opinion that
+the people were not yet in a frame of mind to legislate calmly and
+understandingly upon the subject of free negro labor. And this I reported
+to be the opinion of some of our most prominent military commanders and
+other observing men. It is, indeed, difficult to imagine circumstances
+more unfavorable for the development of a calm and unprejudiced public
+opinion than those under which the southern people are at present
+laboring. The war has not only defeated their political aspirations, but
+it has broken up their whole social organization. When the rebellion was
+put down they found themselves not only conquered in a political and
+military sense, but economically ruined. The planters, who represented the
+wealth of the southern country, are partly laboring under the severest
+embarrassments, partly reduced to absolute poverty. Many who are stripped
+of all available means, and have nothing but their land, cross their arms
+in gloomy despondency, incapable of rising to a manly resolution. Others,
+who still possess means, are at a loss how to use them, as their old way
+of doing things is, by the abolition of slavery, rendered impracticable,
+at least where the military arm of the government has enforced
+emancipation. Others are still trying to go on in the old way, and that
+old way is in fact the only one they understand, and in which they have
+any confidence. Only a minority is trying to adopt the new order of
+things. A large number of the plantations, probably a considerable
+majority of the more valuable estates, is under heavy mortgages, and the
+owners know that, unless they retrieve their fortunes in a comparatively
+short space of time, their property will pass out of their hands. Almost
+all are, to some extent, embarrassed. The nervous anxiety which such a
+state of things produces extends also to those classes of society which,
+although not composed of planters, were always in close business connexion
+with the planting interest, and there was hardly a branch of commerce or
+industry in the south which was not directly or indirectly so connected.
+Besides, the southern soldiers, when returning from the war, did not, like
+the northern soldiers, find a prosperous community which merely waited for
+their arrival to give them remunerative employment. They found, many of
+them, their homesteads destroyed, their farms devastated, their families
+in distress; and those that were less unfortunate found, at all events, an
+impoverished and exhausted community which had but little to offer them.
+Thus a great many have been thrown upon the world to shift as best they
+can. They must do something honest or dishonest, and must do it soon, to
+make a living, and their prospects are, at present, not very bright. Thus
+that nervous anxiety to hastily repair broken fortunes, and to prevent
+still greater ruin and distress, embraces nearly all classes, and imprints
+upon all the movements of the social body a morbid character.
+
+In which direction will these people be most apt to turn their eyes?
+Leaving the prejudice of race out of the question, from early youth they
+have been acquainted with but one system of labor, and with that one
+system they have been in the habit of identifying all their interests.
+They know of no way to help themselves but the one they are accustomed to.
+Another system of labor is presented to them, which, however, owing to
+circumstances which they do not appreciate, appears at first in an
+unpromising light. To try it they consider an experiment which they cannot
+afford to make while their wants are urgent. They have not reasoned calmly
+enough to convince themselves that the trial must be made. It is, indeed,
+not wonderful that, under such circumstances, they should study, not how
+to introduce and develop free labor, but how to avoid its introduction,
+and how to return as much and as quickly as possible to something like the
+old order of things. Nor is it wonderful that such studies should find an
+expression in their attempts at legislation. But the circumstance that
+this tendency is natural does not render it less dangerous and
+objectionable. The practical question presents itself: Is the immediate
+restoration of the late rebel States to absolute self-control so necessary
+that it must be done even at the risk of endangering one of the great
+results of the war, and of bringing on in those States insurrection or
+anarchy, or would it not be better to postpone that restoration until such
+dangers are passed? If, as long as the change from slavery to free labor
+is known to the southern people only by its destructive results, these
+people must be expected to throw obstacles in its way, would it not seem
+necessary that the movement of social "reconstruction" be kept in the
+right channel by the hand of the power which originated the change, until
+that change can have disclosed some of its beneficial effects?
+
+It is certain that every success of free negro labor will augment the
+number of its friends, and disarm some of the prejudices and assumptions
+of its opponents. I am convinced one good harvest made by unadulterated
+free labor in the south would have a far better effect than all the oaths
+that have been taken, and all the ordinances that have as yet been passed
+by southern conventions. But how can such a result be attained? The facts
+enumerated in this report, as well as the news we receive from the south
+from day to day, must make it evident to every unbiased observer that
+unadulterated free labor cannot be had at present, unless the national
+government holds its protective and controlling hand over it. It appears,
+also, that the more efficient this protection of free labor against all
+disturbing and reactionary influences, the sooner may such a satisfactory
+result be looked for. One reason why the southern people are so slow in
+accommodating themselves to the new order of things is, that they
+confidently expect soon to be permitted to regulate matters according to
+their own notions. Every concession made to them by the government has
+been taken as an encouragement to persevere in this hope, and,
+unfortunately for them, this hope is nourished by influences from other
+parts of the country. Hence their anxiety to have their State governments
+restored _at once_, to have the troops withdrawn, and the Freedmen's
+Bureau abolished, although a good many discerning men know well that, in
+view of the lawless spirit still prevailing, it would be far better for
+them to have the general order of society firmly maintained by the federal
+power until things have arrived at a final settlement. Had, from the
+beginning, the conviction been forced upon them that the adulteration of
+the new order of things by the admixture of elements belonging to the
+system of slavery would under no circumstances be permitted, a much larger
+number would have launched their energies into the new channel, and,
+seeing that they could do "no better," faithfully co-operated with the
+government. It is hope which fixes them in their perverse notions. That
+hope nourished or fully gratified, they will persevere in the same
+direction. That hope destroyed, a great many will, by the force of
+necessity, at once accommodate themselves to the logic of the change. If,
+therefore, the national government firmly and unequivocally announces its
+policy not to give up the control of the free-labor reform until it is
+finally accomplished, the progress of that reform will undoubtedly be far
+more rapid and far less difficult than it will be if the attitude of the
+government is such as to permit contrary hopes to be indulged in.
+
+The machinery by which the government has so far exercised its protection
+of the negro and of free labor in the south--the Freedmen's Bureau--is
+very unpopular in that part of the country, as every institution placed
+there as a barrier to reactionary aspirations would be. That abuses were
+committed with the management of freedmen's affairs; that some of the
+officers of the bureau were men of more enthusiasm than discretion, and in
+many cases went beyond their authority: all this is certainly true. But,
+while the southern people are always ready to expatiate upon the
+shortcomings of the Freedmen's Bureau, they are not so ready to recognize
+the services it has rendered. I feel warranted in saying that not half of
+the labor that has been done in the south this year, or will be done there
+next year, would have been or would be done but for the exertions of the
+Freedmen's Bureau. The confusion and disorder of the transition period
+would have been infinitely greater had not an agency interfered which
+possessed the confidence of the emancipated slaves; which could disabuse
+them of any extravagant notions and expectations and be trusted; which
+could administer to them good advice and be voluntarily obeyed. No other
+agency, except one placed there by the national government, could have
+wielded that moral power whose interposition was so necessary to prevent
+southern society from falling at once into the chaos of a general
+collision between its different elements. That the success achieved by the
+Freedmen's Bureau is as yet very incomplete cannot be disputed. A more
+perfect organization and a more carefully selected personnel may be
+desirable; but it is doubtful whether a more suitable machinery can be
+devised to secure to free labor in the south that protection against
+disturbing influences which the nature of the situation still imperatively
+demands.
+
+IMMIGRATION.
+
+A temporary continuation of national control in the southern States would
+also have a most beneficial effect as regards the immigration of northern
+people and Europeans into that country; and such immigration would, in its
+turn, contribute much to the solution of the labor problem. Nothing is
+more desirable for the south than the importation of new men and new
+ideas. One of the greatest drawbacks under which the southern people are
+laboring is, that for fifty years they have been in no sympathetic
+communion with the progressive ideas of the times. While professing to be
+in favor of free trade, they adopted and enforced a system of prohibition,
+as far as those ideas were concerned, which was in conflict with their
+cherished institution of slavery; and, as almost all the progressive ideas
+of our days were in conflict with slavery, the prohibition was sweeping.
+It had one peculiar effect, which we also notice with some Asiatic nations
+which follow a similar course. The southern people honestly maintained and
+believed, not only that as a people they were highly civilized, but that
+their civilization was the highest that could be attained, and ought to
+serve as a model to other nations the world over. The more enlightened
+individuals among them felt sometimes a vague impression of the barrenness
+of their mental life, and the barbarous peculiarities of their social
+organization; but very few ever dared to investigate and to expose the
+true cause of these evils. Thus the people were so wrapt up in
+self-admiration as to be inaccessible to the voice even of the
+best-intentioned criticism. Hence the delusion they indulged in as to the
+absolute superiority of their race--a delusion which, in spite of the
+severe test it has lately undergone, is not yet given up; and will, as
+every traveller in the south can testify from experience, sometimes
+express itself in singular manifestations. This spirit, which for so long
+a time has kept the southern people back while the world besides was
+moving, is even at this moment still standing as a serious obstacle in the
+way of progress.
+
+Nothing can, therefore, be more desirable than that the contact between
+the southern people and the outside world should be as strong and intimate
+as possible; and in no better way can this end be subserved than by
+immigration in mass. Of the economical benefits which such immigration
+would confer upon the owners of the soil it is hardly necessary to speak.
+
+Immigration wants encouragement. As far as this encouragement consists in
+the promise of material advantage, it is already given. There are large
+districts in the south in which an industrious and enterprising man, with
+some capital, and acting upon correct principles, cannot fail to
+accumulate large gains in a comparatively short time, as long as the
+prices of the staples do not fall below what they may reasonably be
+expected to be for some time to come. A northern man has, besides, the
+advantage of being served by the laboring population of that region with
+greater willingness.
+
+But among the principal requisites for the success of the immigrant are
+personal security and a settled condition of things. Personal security is
+honestly promised by the thinking men of the south; but another question
+is, whether the promise and good intentions of the thinking men will be
+sufficient to restrain and control the populace, whose animosity against
+"Yankee interlopers" is only second to their hostile feeling against the
+negro. If the military forces of the government should be soon and
+completely withdrawn, I see reasons to fear that in many localities
+immigrants would enjoy the necessary security only when settling down
+together in numbers strong enough to provide for their own protection. On
+the whole, no better encouragement can be given to immigration, as far as
+individual security is concerned, than the assurance that the national
+government will be near to protect them until such protection is no longer
+needed.
+
+The south needs capital. But capital is notoriously timid and averse to
+risk itself, not only where there actually is trouble, but where there is
+serious and continual danger of trouble. Capitalists will be apt to
+consider--and they are by no means wrong in doing so--that no safe
+investments can be made in the south as long as southern society is liable
+to be convulsed by anarchical disorders. No greater encouragement can,
+therefore, be given to capital to transfer itself to the south than the
+assurance that the government will continue to control the development of
+the new social system in the late rebel States until such dangers are
+averted by a final settlement of things upon a thorough free-labor basis.
+
+How long the national government should continue that control depends upon
+contingencies. It ought to cease as soon as its objects are attained; and
+its objects will be attained sooner and with less difficulty if nobody is
+permitted to indulge in the delusion that it will cease _before_ they are
+attained. This is one of the cases in which a determined policy can
+accomplish much, while a half-way policy is liable to spoil things already
+accomplished. The continuance of the national control in the south,
+although it may be for a short period only, will cause some inconvenience
+and expense; but if thereby destructive collisions and anarchical
+disorders can be prevented, justice secured to all men, and the return of
+peace and prosperity to all parts of this country hastened, it will be a
+paying investment. For the future of the republic, it is far less
+important that this business of reconstruction be done quickly than that
+it be well done. The matter well taken in hand, there is reason for hope
+that it will be well done, and quickly too. In days like these great
+changes are apt to operate themselves rapidly. At present the southern
+people assume that free negro labor will not work, and therefore they are
+not inclined to give it a fair trial. As soon as they find out that they
+must give it a fair trial, and that their whole future power and
+prosperity depend upon its success, they will also find out that it will
+work, at least far better than they have anticipated. Then their hostility
+to it will gradually disappear. This great result accomplished, posterity
+will not find fault with this administration for having delayed complete
+"reconstruction" one, two, or more years.
+
+Although I am not called upon to discuss in this report the constitutional
+aspects of this question, I may be pardoned for one remark. The
+interference of the national government in the local concerns of the
+States lately in rebellion is argued against by many as inconsistent with
+the spirit of our federal institutions. Nothing is more foreign to my ways
+of thinking in political matters than a fondness for centralization or
+military government. Nobody can value the blessings of local
+self-government more highly than I do. But we are living under exceptional
+circumstances which require us, above all, to look at things from a
+practical point of view; and I believe it will prove far more dangerous
+for the integrity of local self-government if the national control in the
+south be discontinued--while by discontinuing it too soon, it may be
+rendered necessary again in the future--than if it be continued, when by
+continuing it but a limited time all such future necessity may be
+obviated. At present these acts of interference are but a part of that
+exceptional policy brought forth by the necessities into which the
+rebellion has plunged us. Although there will be some modifications in the
+relations between the States and the national government, yet these acts
+of direct interference in the details of State concerns will pass away
+with the exceptional circumstances which called them forth. But if the
+social revolution in the south be now abandoned in an unfinished state,
+and at some future period produce events provoking new and repeated acts
+of direct practical interference--and the contingency would by no means be
+unlikely to arise--such new and repeated acts would not pass over without
+most seriously affecting the political organism of the republic.
+
+NEGRO SUFFRAGE.
+
+It would seem that the interference of the national authority in the home
+concerns of the southern States would be rendered less necessary, and the
+whole problem of political and social reconstruction be much simplified,
+if, while the masses lately arrayed against the government are permitted
+to vote, the large majority of those who were always loyal, and are
+naturally anxious to see the free labor problem successfully solved, were
+not excluded from all influence upon legislation. In all questions
+concerning the Union, the national debt, and the future social
+organization of the south, the feelings of the colored man are naturally
+in sympathy with the views and aims of the national government. While the
+southern white fought against the Union, the negro did all he could to aid
+it; while the southern white sees in the national government his
+conqueror, the negro sees in it his protector; while the white owes to the
+national debt his defeat, the negro owes to it his deliverance; while the
+white considers himself robbed and ruined by the emancipation of the
+slaves, the negro finds in it the assurance of future prosperity and
+happiness. In all the important issues the negro would be led by natural
+impulse to forward the ends of the government, and by making his
+influence, as part of the voting body, tell upon the legislation of the
+States, render the interference of the national authority less necessary.
+
+As the most difficult of the pending questions are intimately connected
+with the status of the negro in southern society, it is obvious that a
+correct solution can be more easily obtained if he has a voice in the
+matter. In the right to vote he would find the best permanent protection
+against oppressive class-legislation, as well as against individual
+persecution. The relations between the white and black races, even if
+improved by the gradual wearing off of the present animosities, are likely
+to remain long under the troubling influence of prejudice. It is a
+notorious fact that the rights of a man of some political power are far
+less exposed to violation than those of one who is, in matters of public
+interest, completely subject to the will of others. A voter is a man of
+influence; small as that influence may be in the single individual, it
+becomes larger when that individual belongs to a numerous class of voters
+who are ready to make common cause with him for the protection of his
+rights. Such an individual is an object of interest to the political
+parties that desire to have the benefit of his ballot. It is true, the
+bringing face to face at the ballot-box of the white and black races may
+here and there lead to an outbreak of feeling, and the first trials ought
+certainly to be made while the national power is still there to prevent or
+repress disturbances; but the practice once successfully inaugurated under
+the protection of that power, it would probably be more apt than anything
+else to obliterate old antagonisms, especially if the colored
+people--which is probable, as soon as their own rights are sufficiently
+secured--divide their votes between the different political parties.
+
+The effect of the extension of the franchise to the colored people upon
+the development of free labor and upon the security of human rights in the
+south being the principal object in view, the objections raised on the
+ground of the ignorance of the freedmen become unimportant. Practical
+liberty is a good school, and, besides, if any qualification can be found,
+applicable to both races, which does not interfere with the attainment of
+the main object, such qualification would in that respect be
+unobjectionable. But it is idle to say that it will be time to speak of
+negro suffrage when the whole colored race will be educated, for the
+ballot may be necessary to him to secure his education. It is also idle to
+say that ignorance is the principal ground upon which southern men object
+to negro suffrage, for if it were, that numerous class of colored people
+in Louisiana who are as highly educated, as intelligent, and as wealthy as
+any corresponding class of whites, would have been enfranchised long ago.
+
+It has been asserted that the negro would be but a voting machine in the
+hand of his employer. On this point opinions seem to differ. I have heard
+it said in the south that the freedmen are more likely to be influenced by
+their schoolmasters and preachers. But even if we suppose the employer to
+control to a certain extent the negro laborer's vote, two things are to be
+taken into consideration: 1. The class of employers, of landed
+proprietors, will in a few years be very different from what it was
+heretofore in consequence of the general breaking up, a great many of the
+old slaveholders will be obliged to give up their lands and new men will
+step into their places; and 2. The employer will hardly control the vote
+of the negro laborer so far as to make him vote against his own liberty.
+The beneficial effect of an extension of suffrage does not always depend
+upon the intelligence with which the newly admitted voters exercise their
+right, but sometimes upon the circumstances in which they are placed; and
+the circumstances in which the freedmen of the south are placed are such
+that, when they only vote for their own liberty and rights, they vote for
+the rights of free labor, for the success of an immediate important
+reform, for the prosperity of the country, and for the general interests
+of mankind. If, therefore, in order to control the colored vote, the
+employer, or whoever he may be, is first obliged to concede to the
+freedman the great point of his own rights as a man and a free laborer,
+the great social reform is completed, the most difficult problem is
+solved, and all other questions it will be comparatively easy to settle.
+
+In discussing the matter of negro suffrage I deemed it my duty to confine
+myself strictly to the practical aspects of the subject. I have,
+therefore, not touched its moral merits nor discussed the question whether
+the national government is competent to enlarge the elective franchise in
+the States lately in rebellion by its own act; I deem it proper, however,
+to offer a few remarks on the assertion frequently put forth, that the
+franchise is likely to be extended to the colored man by the voluntary
+action of the southern whites themselves. My observation leads me to a
+contrary opinion. Aside from a very few enlightened men, I found but one
+class of people in favor of the enfranchisement of the blacks: it was the
+class of Unionists who found themselves politically ostracised and looked
+upon the enfranchisement of the loyal negroes as the salvation of the
+whole loyal element. But their numbers and influence are sadly
+insufficient to secure such a result. The masses are strongly opposed to
+colored suffrage; anybody that dares to advocate it is stigmatized as a
+dangerous fanatic; nor do I deem it probable that in the ordinary course
+of things prejudices will wear off to such an extent as to make it a
+popular measure. Outside of Louisiana only one gentleman who occupied a
+prominent political position in the south expressed to me an opinion
+favorable to it. He declared himself ready to vote for an amendment to the
+constitution of his State bestowing the right of suffrage upon all male
+citizens without distinction of color who could furnish evidence of their
+ability to read and write, without, however, disfranchising those who are
+now voters and are not able to fulfil that condition. This gentleman is
+now a member of one of the State conventions, but I presume he will not
+risk his political standing in the south by moving such an amendment in
+that body.
+
+The only manner in which, in my opinion, the southern people can be
+induced to grant to the freedman some measure of self-protecting power in
+the form of suffrage, is to make it a condition precedent to
+"readmission."
+
+DEPORTATION OF THE FREEDMEN.
+
+I have to notice one pretended remedy for the disorders now agitating the
+south, which seems to have become the favorite plan of some prominent
+public men. It is that the whole colored population of the south should be
+transported to some place where they could live completely separated from
+the whites. It is hardly necessary to discuss, not only the question of
+right and justice, but the difficulties and expense necessarily attending
+the deportation of nearly four millions of people. But it may be asked,
+what would become of the industry of the south for many years, if the bulk
+of its laboring population were taken away? The south stands in need of an
+increase and not of a diminution of its laboring force to repair the
+losses and disasters of the last four years. Much is said of importing
+European laborers and northern men; this is the favorite idea of many
+planters who want such immigrants to work on their plantations. But they
+forget that European and northern men will not come to the south to serve
+as hired hands on the plantations, but to acquire property for themselves,
+and that even if the whole European immigration at the rate of 200,000 a
+year were turned into the south, leaving not a single man for the north
+and west, it would require between fifteen and twenty years to fill the
+vacuum caused by the deportation of the freedmen. Aside from this, the
+influx of northern men or Europeans will not diminish the demand for hired
+negro labor; it will, on the contrary, increase it. As Europeans and
+northern people come in, not only vast quantities of land will pass from
+the hands of their former owners into those of the immigrants, but a large
+area of new land will be brought under cultivation; and as the area of
+cultivation expands, hired labor, such as furnished by the colored people,
+will be demanded in large quantities. The deportation of the labor so
+demanded would, therefore, be a very serious injury to the economical
+interests of the south, and if an attempt were made, this effect would
+soon be felt.
+
+It is, however, a question worthy of consideration whether it would not be
+wise to offer attractive inducements and facilities for the voluntary
+migration of freedmen to some suitable district on the line of the Pacific
+railroad. It would answer a double object: 1. It would aid in the
+construction of that road, and 2. If this migration be effected on a large
+scale it would cause a drain upon the laboring force of the south; it
+would make the people affected by that drain feel the value of the
+freedmen's labor, and show them the necessity of keeping that labor at
+home by treating the laborer well, and by offering him inducements as fair
+as can be offered elsewhere.
+
+But whatever the efficiency of such expedients may be, the true problem
+remains, not how to remove the colored man from his present field of
+labor, but how to make him, where he is, a true freeman and an intelligent
+and useful citizen. The means are simple: protection by the government
+until his political and social status enables him to protect himself,
+offering to his legitimate ambition the stimulant of a perfectly fair
+chance in life, and granting to him the rights which in every just
+organization of society are coupled with corresponding duties.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+I may sum up all I have said in a few words. If nothing were necessary but
+to restore the machinery of government in the States lately in rebellion
+in point of form, the movements made to that end by the people of the
+south might be considered satisfactory. But if it is required that the
+southern people should also accommodate themselves to the results of the
+war in point of spirit, those movements fall far short of what must be
+insisted upon.
+
+The loyalty of the masses and most of the leaders of the southern people,
+consists in submission to necessity. There is, except in individual
+instances, an entire absence of that national spirit which forms the basis
+of true loyalty and patriotism.
+
+The emancipation of the slaves is submitted to only in so far as chattel
+slavery in the old form could not be kept up. But although the freedman is
+no longer considered the property of the individual master, he is
+considered the slave of society, and all independent State legislation
+will share the tendency to make him such. The ordinances abolishing
+slavery passed by the conventions under the pressure of circumstances,
+will not be looked upon as barring the establishment of a new form of
+servitude.
+
+Practical attempts on the part of the southern people to deprive the negro
+of his rights as a freeman may result in bloody collisions, and will
+certainly plunge southern society into restless fluctuations and
+anarchical confusion. Such evils can be prevented only by continuing the
+control of the national government in the States lately in rebellion until
+free labor is fully developed and firmly established, and the advantages
+and blessings of the new order of things have disclosed themselves. This
+desirable result will be hastened by a firm declaration on the part of the
+government, that national control in the south will not cease until such
+results are secured. Only in this way can that security be established in
+the south which will render numerous immigration possible, and such
+immigration would materially aid a favorable development of things.
+
+The solution of the problem would be very much facilitated by enabling all
+the loyal and free-labor elements in the south to exercise a healthy
+influence upon legislation. It will hardly be possible to secure the
+freedman against oppressive class legislation and private persecution,
+unless he be endowed with a certain measure of political power.
+
+As to the future peace and harmony of the Union, it is of the highest
+importance that the people lately in rebellion be not permitted to build
+up another "peculiar institution" whose spirit is in conflict with the
+fundamental principles of our political system; for as long as they
+cherish interests peculiar to them in preference to those they have in
+common with the rest of the American people, their loyalty to the Union
+will always be uncertain.
+
+I desire not to be understood as saying that there are no well-meaning men
+among those who were compromised in the rebellion. There are many, but
+neither their number nor their influence is strong enough to control the
+manifest tendency of the popular spirit. There are great reasons for hope
+that a determined policy on the part of the national government will
+produce innumerable and valuable conversions. This consideration counsels
+lenity as to persons, such as is demanded by the humane and enlightened
+spirit of our times, and vigor and firmness in the carrying out of
+principles, such as is demanded by the national sense of justice and the
+exigencies of our situation.
+
+In submitting this report I desire to say that I have conscientiously
+endeavored to see things as they were, and to represent them as I saw
+them: I have been careful not to use stronger language than was warranted
+by the thoughts I intended to express. A comparison of the tenor of the
+annexed documents with that of my report, will convince you that I have
+studiously avoided overstatements. Certain legislative attempts at present
+made in the south, and especially in South Carolina, seem to be more than
+justifying the apprehensions I have expressed.
+
+Conscious though I am of having used my best endeavors to draw, from what
+I saw and learned, correct general conclusions, yet I am far from placing
+too great a trust in my own judgment, when interests of such magnitude are
+at stake. I know that this report is incomplete, although as complete as
+an observation of a few months could enable me to make it. Additional
+facts might be elicited, calculated to throw new light upon the subject.
+Although I see no reason for believing that things have changed for the
+better since I left for the south, yet such may be the case. Admitting all
+these possibilities, I would entreat you to take no irretraceable step
+towards relieving the States lately in rebellion from all national
+control, until such favorable changes are clearly and unmistakably
+ascertained.
+
+To that end, and by virtue of the permission you honored me with when
+sending me out to communicate to you freely and unreservedly my views as
+to measures of policy proper to be adopted, I would now respectfully
+suggest that you advise Congress to send one or more "investigating
+committees" into the southern States, to inquire for themselves into the
+actual condition of things, before final action is taken upon the
+readmission of such States to their representation in the legislative
+branch of the government, and the withdrawal of the national control from
+that section of the country.
+
+I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+CARL SCHURZ.
+
+His Excellency ANDREW JOHNSON,
+_President of the United States_.
+
+
+
+DOCUMENTS ACCOMPANYING THE REPORT OF MAJOR GENERAL CARL SCHURZ.
+
+No. 1.
+
+HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA,
+
+_Hilton Head, S.C., July_ 27, 1865.
+
+Dear Sir: I have received your letter of the 17th instant, from
+Charleston, propounding to me three questions, as follows:
+
+1st. Do you think that there are a number of _bona fide_ loyal persons
+in this State large enough to warrant the early establishment of civil
+government?
+
+2d. Do you think that the white population of South Carolina, if restored
+to the possession of political power in this State, would carry out the
+spirit of the emancipation proclamation, and go to work in a _bona fide_
+manner to organize free labor?
+
+3d. What measures do you think necessary to insure such a result in this
+State?
+
+The first of these questions I am forced to answer in the negative,
+provided that white persons only are referred to in the expression "_bona
+fide loyal persons_," and provided that "the early establishment of civil
+government" means the early withdrawal of the general control of affairs
+from the United States authorities.
+
+To the second question, I answer that I do not think that the white
+inhabitants of South Carolina, if left to themselves, are yet prepared
+to carry out the spirit of the emancipation proclamation; neither do I
+think that they would organize free labor upon any plan that would be
+of advantage to both whites and blacks until the mutual distrust and
+prejudice now existing between the races are in a measure removed.
+
+To the third question I answer, that, in order to secure the carrying out
+of the "spirit of the emancipation proclamation," and the organization of
+really free labor in good faith, it appears to me necessary that the
+military, or some other authority derived from the national government,
+should retain a supervisory control over the civil affairs in this State
+until the next season's crops are harvested and secured.
+
+The reasons which have dictated my replies I shall notice quite briefly.
+
+Loyalty in South Carolina--such loyalty as is secured by the taking of the
+amnesty oath and by the reception of Executive clemency--does not approach
+the standard of loyalty in the north. It is not the golden fruit of
+conviction, but the stern and unpromising result of necessity, arising
+from unsuccessful insurrection. The white population of the State accept
+the condition which has been imposed upon them, simply because there is no
+alternative.
+
+They entered upon the war in the spring of 1861 and arrayed themselves on
+the side of treason with a unanimity of purpose and a malignity of feeling
+not equalled by that displayed in any other State.
+
+The individual exceptions to this rule were too few in numbers and were
+possessed of too little power to be taken into account at all. Although
+the overt treason then inaugurated has been overcome by superior force,
+few will claim that it has been transformed into loyalty toward the
+national government. I am clearly of the opinion that it has not, and that
+time and experience will be necessary to effect such a change.
+
+All intelligent whites admit that the "abolition of slavery" and the
+"impracticability of secession" are the plain and unmistakable verdicts of
+the war. Their convictions as yet go no further. Their preference for the
+"divine institution," and their intellectual belief in the right of a
+State to secede, are as much articles of faith in their creed at the
+present moment as they were on the day when the ordinance of secession was
+unanimously adopted. When the rebel armies ceased to exist, and there was
+no longer any force that could be invoked for waging war against the
+nation, the insurgents accepted that fact simply as proof of the
+impossibility of their establishing an independent government. This
+sentiment was almost immediately followed by a general desire to save as
+much property as possible from the general wreck. To this state of the
+public mind, which succeeded the surrender of the rebel armies with
+noteworthy rapidity, I am forced to attribute the prevailing willingness
+and desire of the people to "return" to their allegiance, and resume the
+avocations of peace.
+
+I do not regard this condition of things as at all discouraging. It is,
+indeed, better than I expected to see or dared to hope for in so short a
+time. One good result of it is, that guerilla warfare, which was so very
+generally apprehended, has never been resorted to in this State. There was
+a sudden and general change from a state of war to a state of peace, and,
+with the exception of frequent individual conflicts, mostly between the
+whites and blacks, and often, it is true, resulting in loss of life, that
+peace has rarely been disturbed.
+
+It is, however, a peace resulting from a cool and dispassionate appeal to
+reason, and not from any convictions of right or wrong; it has its origin
+in the head, and not in the heart. Impotency and policy gave it birth, and
+impotency, policy and hope keep it alive. It is not inspired by any higher
+motives than these, and higher motives could hardly be expected to follow
+immediately in the footsteps of armed insurrection. The hopes of the
+people are fixed, as a matter of course, upon the President. The whites
+hope and expect to recover the preponderating influence which they have
+lost by the war, and which has been temporarily replaced by the military
+authority throughout the State, and they receive with general satisfaction
+the appointment of Mr. Perry as provisional governor of the State, and
+regard it as a step toward their restoration to civil and political power.
+Even those men who have taken the lead during the war, not only in the
+heartiness and liberality of their support of the rebel cause, but also in
+the bitterness of their denunciation of the national government and the
+loyal people of the northern States, express themselves as entirely
+satisfied with the shape which events are taking.
+
+The colored population, on the contrary, or that portion of it which
+moulds the feelings and directs the passions of the mass, look with
+growing suspicion upon this state of affairs, and entertain the most
+lively apprehensions with regard to their future welfare. They have no
+fears of being returned to slavery, having the most implicit faith in our
+assurance of its abolition for all time to come, but they think they see
+the power which has held the lash over them through many generations again
+being restored to their former masters, and they are impressed with a
+greater or less degree of alarm.
+
+Thus the "irrepressible conflict," the antagonism of interest, thought,
+and sentiment between the races is perpetuated. The immediate resumption
+by the whites of the civil and political power of the State would have a
+tendency to augment this evil. At the present time all differences between
+the whites and blacks, but more especially those growing out of agreements
+for compensated labor, are promptly and willingly referred to the nearest
+military authority for adjustment; the whites well knowing that simple
+justice will be administered, and the blacks inspired by the belief that
+we are their friends. This plan works smoothly and satisfactorily. Many of
+the labor contracts upon the largest plantations have been made with
+special reference to the planting and harvesting of the next year's crops;
+others expire with the present year. The immediate restoration of the
+civil power by removing military restraint from those planters who are not
+entirely sincere in their allegiance, and have not made their pledges and
+especially their labor contracts in good faith, and by withdrawing from
+the blacks that source of protection to which alone they look for justice
+with any degree of confidence, would, by engendering new suspicions, and
+new prejudices between the races, work disadvantageously to both in a
+pecuniary sense, while the successful solution of the important question
+of free black labor would be embarrassed, deferred, and possibly defeated,
+inasmuch as it would be placed thereby in the hands of men who are
+avowedly suspicious of the negro, and have no confidence in his fitness
+for freedom, or his willingness to work; who regard the abolition of
+slavery as a great sectional calamity, and who, under the semblance and
+even the protection of the law, and without violating the letter of the
+emancipation proclamation, would have it in their power to impose burdens
+upon the negro race scarcely less irksome than those from which it has
+theoretically escaped. Indeed, the ordinary vagrancy and apprenticeship
+laws now in force in some of the New England States (slightly modified
+perhaps) could be so administered and enforced upon the blacks in South
+Carolina as to keep them in practical slavery. They could, while bearing
+the name of freeman, be legally subjected to all the oppressive features
+of serfdom, peonage, and feudalism combined, without possessing the right
+to claim, much less the power to exact, any of the prerogatives and
+amenities belonging to either of those systems of human bondage. All this
+could be done without violating the letter of the emancipation
+proclamation; no argument is necessary to prove that it would be a total
+submission of its spirit. Even upon the presumption that the whites, when
+again clothed with civil authority, would be influenced by a sincere
+desire to enforce the emancipation proclamation, and organize free labor
+upon a wise and just basis, it would seem injudicious to intrust them with
+unlimited power, which might be wielded to the injury of both races until
+the prejudices and animosities which generated the rebellion and gave it
+life and vigor have had time to subside. Few men have any clear conception
+of what the general good at the present time requires in the way of State
+legislation. A thousand vague theories are floating upon the public mind.
+
+The evils which we would have to fear from an immediate re-establishment
+of civil government would be not only hasty and ignorant but excessive
+legislation. While there may be wide differences of opinion as to which is
+the greater of these two evils _per se_, I am free to express my belief
+that one or the other of them would be very likely to follow the immediate
+restoration of civil government, and that it would be not only injudicious
+in itself but productive of prospective harm, to whites as well as blacks,
+to place the former in a position where a community of feeling, the
+promptings of traditional teachings, and the instincts of self-interest
+and self-preservation, would so strongly tempt them to make a choice. I
+believe that a respectable majority of the most intelligent whites would
+cordially aid any policy calculated, in their opinion, to secure the
+greatest good of the greatest number, blacks included, but I do not regard
+them as yet in a condition to exercise an unbiassed judgment in this
+matter. Inasmuch as very few of them are yet ready to admit the
+practicability of ameliorating the condition of the black race to any
+considerable extent, they would not be likely at the present time to
+devise a wise system of free black labor. Neither would they be zealous
+and hopeful co-laborers in such a system if desired by others.
+
+I have spoken of the contract system which has been inaugurated by the
+military authorities throughout the State as working smoothly and
+satisfactorily. This statement should, of course, be taken with some
+limitation. It was inaugurated as an expedient under the pressure of
+stringent necessity at a time when labor was in a greatly disorganized
+state, and there was manifest danger that the crops, already planted,
+would be lost for want of cultivation. Many of the negroes, but more
+especially the able-bodied ones and those possessing no strong family
+ties, had, under the novel impulses of freedom, left the plantation where
+they had been laboring through the planting season, and flocked to the
+nearest military post, becoming a useless and expensive burden upon our
+hands. Very many plantations, under extensive cultivation, were entirely
+abandoned. At places remote from military posts, and that had never been
+visited by our troops, this exodus did not take place so extensively or to
+a degree threatening a very general loss of crops. The negroes were
+retained partly through ignorance or uncertainty of their rights and
+partly through fear of their former masters and the severe discipline
+unlawfully enforced by them.
+
+Under the assurance that they were free, that they would be protected in
+the enjoyment of their freedom and the fruits of their labor, but would
+not be supported in idleness by the government so long as labor could be
+procured, the flow of negroes into the towns and military posts was
+stopped, and most of them already accumulated there were induced to return
+to the plantations and resume work under contracts to be approved and
+enforced by the military authorities. Both planters and negroes very
+generally, and apparently quite willingly, fell into this plan as the
+best that could be improvised. Although there have been many instances
+of violation of contracts, (more frequently, I think, by the black than by
+the white,) and although the plan possesses many defects, and is not
+calculated to develop all the advantages and benefits of a wise free-labor
+system. I am not prepared to recommend any material modification of it, or
+anything to replace it, at least for several months to come.
+
+For reasons already suggested I believe that the restoration of civil
+power that would take the control of this question out of the hands of the
+United States authorities (whether exercised through the military
+authorities or through the Freedmen's Bureau) would, instead of removing
+existing evils, be almost certain to augment them.
+
+Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+Q.A. GILLMORE,
+_Major General_.
+
+General CARL SCHURZ, _Charleston, S.C._
+
+
+
+No. 4.
+
+Charleston, South Carolina, _July_ 25, 1865.
+
+General: Since handing you my letter of yesterday I have read a speech
+reported to have been delivered in Greenville, South Carolina, on the 3d
+instant.
+
+I have judged of Mr. Perry by reports of others, but as I now have an
+opportunity from his own lips of knowing his opinions, I must request that
+you will cross out that portion of my letter referring to him.
+
+Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+JOHN P. HATCH,
+_Brevet Major General, Commanding_.
+
+Major General CARL SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DISTRICT OF CHARLESTON,
+
+_Charleston, South Carolina, July_ 24, 1865.
+
+General: In answer to your question as to the disposition of the people
+being such as to justify their speedy return to the control of political
+power, I would say no.
+
+Many portions of the State have not yet been visited by our troops, and in
+other parts not long enough occupied to encourage the formation of a new
+party, disposed to throw off the old party rulers, who, after thirty years
+preaching sedition, succeeded in carrying their point and forcing the
+people into rebellion.
+
+Were elections to be held now, the old leaders already organized would
+carry everything by the force of their organization. I would say delay
+action, pardon only such as the governor can recommend, and let him only
+recommend such as he feels confident will support the views of the
+government. Men who supported nullification in thirty-two, and have upheld
+the doctrine of States' rights since, should not be pardoned; they cannot
+learn new ways. I have read with care the published proceedings of every
+public meeting held in this State, and have observed that not one single
+resolution has yet been passed in which the absolute freedom of the
+colored man was recognized, or the doctrine of the right of secession
+disavowed. Why is this? Because the old leaders have managed the meetings,
+and they cannot see that a new order of things exists. They still hope to
+obtain control of the State, and then to pass laws with reference to the
+colored people which shall virtually re-establish slavery; and although
+they look upon secession as at present hopeless, a future war may enable
+them to again raise the standard.
+
+You ask what signs do they show of a disposition to educate the blacks for
+the new position they are to occupy? This is a question that has so far
+been but little discussed. No education, except as to their religious
+duties, was formerly allowed, and this only to make them contented in
+their position of servitude. Whilst thoroughly instructed in the
+injunction, "servants obey your masters," adultery was not only winked at,
+but, unfortunately, in too many cases practically recommended. A few
+gentlemen have said to me that they were willing to have the blacks taught
+to read and write, but little interest appears to be felt on the subject.
+
+With reference to the benefit to be derived by the general government by
+delaying the formation for the present of a State government, I will be
+brief. It will discourage the old leaders who are anxious to seize
+immediately the reins of power. It will, by allowing time for discussion,
+give the people an opportunity to become acquainted with subjects they
+have heretofore trusted to their leaders. Wherever our troops go,
+discussion follows, and it would be best that the people should not commit
+themselves to a line of policy, they have not had time to examine and
+decide upon coolly. It will give the young men ambitious of rising
+opportunity for organizing on a new platform a party which, assisted by
+the government, can quiet forever the questions which have made the State
+of South Carolina a thorn in the side of the Union. These young men, many
+of whom have served in the army, take a practical view of their present
+condition that the old stay-at-homes cannot be brought to understand. Give
+them time and support and they will do the work required of them. Their
+long absence has made it necessary to become acquainted with the people;
+but they will be listened to as men who have honestly fought in a cause
+which has failed, and will be respected for as honestly coming out in
+support of the now only reasonable chance of a peaceful government for the
+future.
+
+Where our troops have been the longest time stationed we have the most
+friends; and were the people thoroughly convinced that the government
+(until they have shown a disposition to unite heartily in its support) is
+determined not to give them a State government, the change would go on
+much more rapidly.
+
+The selection of Governor Perry was most fortunate. I know of no other man
+in South Carolina who could have filled the position.
+
+I remain, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+JNO. P. HATCH,
+_Brevet Major General Commanding_.
+
+General CARL SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+No. 5.
+
+Charleston, S.C., _July_ 24, 1865.
+
+General: In compliance with your verbal request, made at our interview
+this a.m., to express to you my opinions and impressions regarding the
+status of the people of South Carolina, and of such others of the
+insurrectionary States with whom I have come in contact, respecting a
+return to their allegiance to the federal government, and a willingness on
+their part to sustain and support the same in its efforts to restore and
+accomplish the actual union of the States, and also their probable
+adhesion to the several acts and proclamations which have been enacted and
+promulgated by the legislative and executive branches of the government, I
+beg to reply, that, as an officer of one of the departments, I have been
+enabled by constant intercourse with large numbers of this people to form
+an approximate estimate of the nature of their loyalty, and also to gain a
+knowledge of the prejudices which remain with them towards the forces,
+military and political, which have prevailed against them after the
+struggle of the last four years, and established the integrity and power
+of the republic.
+
+Whatever may be said upon the abstract question of voluntary or forcible
+State secession, the defeat of the insurrectionary forces has been so
+perfect and complete, that the most defiant have already avowed their
+allegiance to the national government. The first experience of the
+insurgents is a complete submission, followed by a promise to abstain from
+all further acts of rebellion--in fact, the nucleus of their loyalty is
+necessity, while perhaps some with still a sentiment of loyalty in their
+hearts for the old flag turn back, like the prodigal, with tearful eyes,
+wasted means, and exhausted energies.
+
+At the present time there can be but few loyal men in the State of South
+Carolina who, through evil and good report, have withstood the wiles of
+secession. South Carolina has been sown broadcast for the last thirty
+years with every conceivable form of literature which taught her children
+the divine right of State sovereignty, carrying with it all its
+accompanying evils. The sovereign State of South Carolina in her imperial
+majesty looked down upon the republic itself, and only through a grand
+condescension, remained to supervise and balance the power which, when not
+controlling, she had sworn to destroy. The works of Calhoun were the
+necessary companion of every man of culture and education. They were by no
+means confined to the libraries of the economist and politician. When the
+national troops pillaged the houses and deserted buildings of Charleston,
+the streets were strewn with the pamphlets, sermons and essays of
+politicians, clergymen, and belles-lettres scholars, all promulgating,
+according to the ability and tastes of their several authors, the rights
+of the sovereign State. No public occasion passed by which did not witness
+an assertion of these rights, and the gauntlet of defiance was ever upon
+the ground.
+
+It is the loyalty of such a people that we have to consider. As a people
+the South Carolinians are brave and generous in certain directions. In
+their cities there is great culture, and many of the citizens are persons
+of refinement, education and taste. The educated classes are well versed
+in the history of our country, and many have an intimate knowledge of the
+varied story of political parties. But from the lowest to the highest
+classes of the white population there is an instinctive dread of the negro
+and an utter abhorrence of any doctrine which argues an ultimate
+improvement of his condition beyond that of the merest chattel laborer.
+
+The first proposition made by the southerner on all occasions of
+discussion is, that the emancipation proclamation of the President was a
+grievous error from every point of view; that in the settlement of the
+various questions arising from the insurrection, the national government
+assumes a responsibility which belongs to the several States, and now that
+the supremacy of the general government is established, and the prospect
+of a resuscitation, rehabilitation, reconstruction, or simple assertion of
+the legislative and executive powers of the separate States, a lingering
+hope yet remains with many, that although African slavery is abolished,
+the States may yet so legislate as to place the negro in a state of actual
+peonage and submission to the will of the employer. Therefore, we have
+combined with a forced and tardy loyalty a lingering hope that such State
+legislation can be resorted to as will restore the former slave to, as
+nearly as possible, the condition of involuntary servitude. And the
+question naturally arises, how long must we wait for a higher and purer
+expression of fealty to the Union, and for a more intelligent and just
+appreciation of the question of free colored, labor which the results of
+the contest have forced upon us?
+
+I am satisfied, that while no efforts must be spared to instil into the
+minds of the freedmen the necessity of patient labor and endeavor, and a
+practical knowledge of the responsibilities of their new condition, by a
+judicious system of education, the white southerner is really the most
+interesting pupil, and we must all feel a solicitude for his
+enlightenment.
+
+The principles of liberty have been working for a number of years in our
+republic, and have secured various great political results. Latterly they
+have worked with wonderful and rapid effect, and it has ever been by aid
+of all the forces of education and enlightened commerce between man and
+man that the progress of true freedom has been hastened and made secure.
+When the southern planter sees it demonstrated beyond a doubt that the
+free labor of the black man, properly remunerated, conduces to his
+pecuniary interests, at that moment he will accept the situation, and not
+before, unless it is forced upon him; therefore, it is the white
+southerner that must be educated into a realization of his responsibility
+in the settlement of these questions, and by a systematic and judicious
+education of the freedman a citizen will gradually be developed; and the
+two classes, finding their interests mutual, will soon settle the now
+vexed question of suffrage. I am firmly of opinion that the government
+cannot afford to relax its hold upon these States until a loyal press,
+representing the views of the government, shall disseminate its sentiments
+broadcast all over this southern land; and when all the avenues and
+channels of communication shall have been opened, and the policy of the
+government shall be more easily ascertained and promulgated, and the
+States, or the citizens thereof in sufficient numbers, shall have avowed
+by word and act their acceptance of the new order of things, we may then
+safely consider the expediency of surrendering to each State legislature
+the duty of framing its necessary constitution and code, and all other
+adjuncts of civil government. If the form of our government were
+monarchical, we might be more sanguine of the success of any proposed
+measure of amnesty, because of the immediate power of the government to
+suppress summarily any disorder arising from too great leniency; but to
+delegate to the States themselves the quelling of the tumult which they
+have themselves raised, is, to say the least, a doubtful experiment. Many
+thinking Carolinians have said that they preferred that the government
+should first itself demonstrate the system of free labor, to such an
+extent that the planter would gladly avail himself of the system and carry
+it on to its completion.
+
+The presence of a strong military force is still needed in the State of
+South Carolina to maintain order, and to see that the national laws are
+respected, as well as to enforce such municipal regulations as the
+occasion demands. For such service, officers of sound, practical sense
+should be chosen--men whose appreciation of strict justice both to
+employer and employee would compensate even for a lack of mere skilful
+military knowledge; men without the mean prejudices which are the bane of
+some who wear the insignia of the national service.
+
+I believe that affairs in South Carolina are yet in a very crude state;
+that outrages are being practiced upon the negro which the military arm
+should prevent. Doubtless many stories are fabricated or exaggerated, but
+a calm and candid citizen of Charleston has said: "Is it wonderful that
+this should be so; that men whose slaves have come at their call, but now
+demur, hesitate, and perhaps refuse labor or demand certain wages
+therefor--that such men, smarting under their losses and defeats, should
+vent their spite upon a race slipping from their power and asserting their
+newly acquired rights? Is abuse not a natural result?" But time,
+enlightenment, and the strenuous efforts of the government can prevent
+much of this.
+
+I am, therefore, convinced that the education of the white and black must
+go hand in hand together until the system of free labor is so absolutely
+demonstrated that the interest of the employer will be found in the
+intelligence, the well-being, and the comfort of the employed. I believe
+that the great sources of benevolence at the north should still flood this
+southern land with its bounty--that the national government should
+encourage each State to receive all the implements of labor, education and
+comfort which a generous people can bestow, not merely for the benefit of
+the black freedman, but for the disenthralled white who has grovelled in
+the darkness of a past age, and who has been, perhaps, the innocent
+oppressor of a people he may yet serve, and with them enter into the
+enjoyment of a more glorious freedom than either have ever conceived.
+
+With sentiments of respect and esteem, I beg to remain, general, your
+obedient servant,
+
+JOHN H. PILSBURY,
+_Deputy Supervising and Assistant Special Agent Treasury Department_.
+
+Major General CARL SCHURZ, &c., &c., &c.
+
+
+
+No. 6.
+
+_VIEWS EXPRESSED BY MAJOR GENERAL STEEDMAN IN CONVERSATION WITH CARL
+SCHURZ_.
+
+Augusta, Georgia, _August_ 7, 1864.
+
+I have been in command of this department only a month, and can,
+therefore, not pretend to have as perfect a knowledge of the condition of
+affairs, and the sentiments of the people of Georgia, as I may have after
+longer experience. But observations so far made lead me to the following
+conclusions:
+
+The people of this State, with only a few individual exceptions, are
+submissive but not loyal.
+
+If intrusted with political power at this time they will in all
+probability use it as much as possible to escape from the legitimate
+results of the war. Their political principles, as well as their views on
+the slavery question, are the same as before the war, and all that can be
+expected of them is that they will submit to actual necessities from which
+there is no escape.
+
+The State is quiet, in so far as there is no organised guerilla warfare.
+Conflicts between whites and blacks are not unfrequent, and in many
+instances result in bloodshed.
+
+As to the labor question, I believe that the planters of this region have
+absolutely no conception of what free labor is. I consider them entirely
+incapable of legislating understandingly upon the subject at the present
+time.
+
+The organization of labor in this State, especially in the interior, has
+so far, in most cases, been left to the planters and freedmen themselves,
+the organization of the Freedmen's Bureau being as yet quite imperfect. A
+great many contracts have been made between planters and freedmen, some of
+which were approved by the military authorities and some were not.
+
+General Wilde, the principal agent of the Freedmen's Bureau in this State,
+is, in my opinion, entirely unfit for the discharge of the duties
+incumbent upon him. He displays much vigor where it is not wanted, and
+shows but very little judgment where it is wanted. Until the Freedmen's
+Bureau will be sufficiently organized in this State I deem it necessary to
+temporarily intrust the provost marshals, now being stationed all over the
+State, one to every four counties, with the discharge of its functions,
+especially as concerns the making of contracts and the adjustment of
+difficulties between whites and blacks.
+
+I deem it impracticable to refer such difficulties for adjustment to such
+civil courts as can at present be organized in this State. It would be
+like leaving each party to decide the case for itself, and would
+undoubtedly at once result in a free fight. It will be so until the people
+of this State have a more accurate idea of the rights of the freedmen. The
+military power is, in my opinion, the only tribunal which, under existing
+circumstances, can decide difficulties between whites and blacks to the
+satisfaction of both parties and can make its decisions respected.
+
+As for the restoration of civil power in this State, I apprehend it cannot
+be done without leading to the necessity of frequent interference on the
+part of the military until the sentiments of the people of Georgia have
+undergone a very great change.
+
+This memorandum was read to General Steedman by me and he authorized me
+to submit it in this form to the President.
+
+C. SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+No. 7.
+
+HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF COLUMBUS,
+
+_Macon, Georgia, August_ 14, 1885.
+
+General: There are no loyal people in Georgia, except the negroes; nor are
+there any considerable number who would under any circumstances offer
+armed resistance to the national authority. An officer, without arms or
+escort, could arrest any man in the State. But, while their submission is
+thus complete and universal, it is not a matter of choice, but a stern
+necessity which they deplore.
+
+If allowed they will readily reorganize their State government and
+administer it upon correct principles, except in matters pertaining to
+their former slaves. On this subject they admit the abolition of the
+institution, and will so frame their constitution, hoping thereby to
+procure their recognition as a State government, when they will at once,
+by legislation, reduce the freedmen to a condition worse than slavery. Yet
+while they will not recognize the rights of their former slaves
+themselves, they will submit to its full recognition by the national
+government, which can do just as it pleases and no resistance will be
+offered. My own clear opinion is, it will have to do everything that may
+be necessary to secure real practical freedom to the former slaves.
+
+The disturbances at present are chiefly due, I think, to the swarm of
+vagrants thrown upon society by the disbanding of the rebel armies and the
+emancipation of the slaves at a season of the year when it is difficult
+for those who seek to find employment.
+
+After the 1st of January I apprehend no trouble, as the culture of the
+next crop will absorb all the labor of the country. In the interim a great
+deal of care and diligence will be required. Hence I recommend the
+importance of sending men of energy and business capacity to manage the
+affairs of the Freedmen's Bureau.
+
+I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+JOHN T. CROXTON,
+_Brigadier General United States_.
+
+General CARL SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+No. 8.
+
+HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
+
+_New Orleans, June_ 20, 1865.
+
+Sir: I have the honor to transmit for your consideration a copy of the
+correspondence between the governor of Louisiana and myself touching the
+relations between the State and the military authorities in this
+department.
+
+The instructions upon this subject are, and probably designedly,
+indefinite. They indicate, however, the acceptance by the President of the
+constitution of the State, adopted in September, 1864, as the means of
+re-establishing civil government in the State and the recognition of the
+governor as his agent in accomplishing this work. The same principle gives
+validity to such of the State laws as are not in conflict with this
+constitution, or repealed by congressional legislation, or abrogated by
+the President's proclamation or orders issued during the rebellion.
+
+This leaves many questions undetermined, except so far as they are settled
+by the law of nations and the laws of war, so far as my authority extends.
+I will turn over all such questions to the State government; and in cases
+that do not come within the legitimate authority of a military commander,
+will report them for such action as his excellency the President, or the
+War Department, may think proper to adopt.
+
+I have had a very free conference with the governor upon this subject, and
+I believe that he concurs with me that the course I have indicated in the
+correspondence with him is not only the legal but the only course that
+will avoid the appeals to the local courts by interested or designing men,
+which are now dividing those who profess to be working for the same
+object--the re-establishment of civil authority throughout the State.
+
+Then, in addition, many questions, in which the interests of the
+government are directly involved, or in which the relations of the general
+government to the States, as affected by the rebellion, are left unsettled
+by any adequate legislation. I do not think it will be wise to commit any
+of these questions, either directly or indirectly, to the jurisdiction of
+the State or other local courts, and will not so commit them unless
+instructed to do so.
+
+It is very possible that in the varied and complicated questions that will
+come up there may be differences of opinion between the governor and
+myself, but there shall be no discord of action, and I will give to his
+efforts the fullest support in my power.
+
+I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir,
+
+E.R.S. CANBY,
+_Major General Commanding_.
+
+The SECRETARY OF WAR, _Washington, D.C._
+
+Official copy:
+
+R. DES ANGES,
+_Major, A.A.G._
+
+
+
+STATE OF LOUISIANA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
+
+_New Orleans, June_ 10, 1865.
+
+General: There is a class of officers holding and exercising the duties of
+civil officers in this State who claim to hold their right to the same by
+virtue of deriving their appointment from military authority exercised
+either by General Shepley as military governor, or Michael Hahn, and in
+some cases by Major General Banks, commander of the department of the
+Gulf. These men resist my power to remove on the ground that I am not
+clothed with military power, although the offices they fill are strictly
+civil offices, and the power of appointing to the same to fill vacancies
+(which constructively exist until the office is filled according to law)
+is one of my prerogatives as civil governor. To dispossess these men by
+legal process involves delay and trouble. Many of the persons so holding
+office are obnoxious to the charges of official misconduct and of
+obstructing my efforts to re-establish civil government.
+
+For the purpose, therefore, of settling the question, and relieving the
+civil government of the State from the obstructions to its progress caused
+by the opposition of these men, I would respectfully suggest to you,
+general, the expediency of your issuing an order revoking all appointments
+made by military or semi-military authority to civil offices in this State
+prior to the 4th of March, 1865, the date on which I assumed the duties of
+governor. I fix that date because it is only since that period the
+governor has been confined to strictly civil powers, and what military
+power has been exercised since in appointments to office has been from
+necessity and was unavoidable.
+
+I throw out these suggestions, general, for your consideration. On my
+recent visit to the capital I had full and free conversation with
+President Johnson on the subject of reorganizing civil government in
+Louisiana, and while deprecating the interference of military power in
+civil government beyond the point of actual necessity, yet he fully
+appreciated the difficulties of my position, and assured me that I should
+be sustained by him in all necessary and legal measures to organize and
+uphold civil government.
+
+I have the honor to be, very respectfully, &c.,
+
+J. MADISON WELLS,
+_Governor of Louisiana_.
+
+Major General E.R.S. CANBY, _Commanding Department of the Gulf_.
+
+Official copy:
+
+R. DES ANGES,
+_Major, A.A.G._
+
+
+
+HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
+
+_New Orleans, June_ 19, 1865.
+
+Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of
+the 10th instant, asking me to revoke all appointments made by military or
+semi-military authority to civil offices in the State prior to the 4th of
+March, 1865.
+
+I have given this subject the attention and serious consideration which
+its importance demands, and I find it complicated not only with the
+private and public interests of the people and State of Louisiana, but
+also with the direct interests of the government of the United States, or
+with the obligations imposed upon the government by the condition of the
+country or by the antecedent exercise of lawful military authority. To the
+extent that these considerations obtain they are controlling
+considerations, and I cannot find that I have any authority to delegate
+the duties devolved upon me by my official position, or to evade the
+responsibilities which it imposes. I venture the suggestion, also, that
+the evils complained of, and which are so apparent and painful to all who
+are interested in the restoration of civil authority, will scarcely be
+obtained by the course you recommend, but will, in my judgment, give rise
+to complications that will embarrass not only the State but the general
+government.
+
+All officers who hold their offices by the tenure of military appointment
+are subject to military authority and control, and will not be permitted
+to interfere in any manner whatever with the exercise of functions that
+have been committed to you as governor of Louisiana. If they are obnoxious
+to the charge of misconduct in office, or of obstructing you in your
+efforts to re-establish civil government, they will, upon your
+recommendation, be removed. If, under the constitution and laws of the
+State, the power of appointment resides in the governor, my duty will be
+ended by vacating the appointment. If the office is elective, the military
+appointment will be cancelled so soon as the successor is elected and
+qualified. In the alternative cases the removal will be made, and
+successors recommended by you, and against whom there are no disqualifying
+charges, will be appointed.
+
+This, in my judgment, is the only course which will remove all legal
+objections, or even legal quibbles.
+
+I desire to divest myself as soon as possible of all questions of civil
+administration, and will separate, as soon and as far as I can, all such
+questions from those that are purely military in their character, and
+commit them to the care of the proper officers of the civil government.
+
+Some of these questions are complicated in their character, and involve
+not only private and public interests, but the faith of the national
+government; originating in the legal exercise of military authority, they
+can only be determined by the same authority.
+
+There is another consideration, not directly but incidentally involved in
+the subject of your communication, to which I have the honor to invite
+your attention. The results of the past four years have worked many
+changes both as to institutions and individuals within the insurrectionary
+States, giving to some of the interests involved an absolutely national
+character, and in others leaving the relations between the general
+government and the States undetermined. So far as Congress has legislated
+upon these subjects, it has placed them under the direct control of the
+general government, and under the laws of nations and laws of war the same
+principle applies to the other subject. Until Congress has legislated upon
+this subject, or until Executive authority sanctions it, no questions of
+this character will be committed to the jurisdiction of the local courts.
+
+I make these suggestions to you for the reason that I have already found a
+strong disposition in some sections of the country to forestall the action
+of the general government by bringing these subjects more or less directly
+under the control of the local courts; and I have neither the authority
+nor the disposition to establish precedents that may possibly embarrass
+the future action of the government.
+
+I take this occasion to assure your excellency of my hearty co-operation
+in your efforts to re-establish civil government, and in any measures that
+may be undertaken for the benefit of the State or people of Louisiana.
+
+I shall be happy at all times to confer with you upon any of these
+subjects, and to give you, whenever necessary, any assistance that you may
+require.
+
+I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+E.R.S. CANBY,
+_Major General, Commanding_.
+
+His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA, _New Orleans, La_.
+
+Official copy:
+
+R. DES ANGES,
+_Major, A.A.G._
+
+
+
+STATE OF LOUISIANA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
+
+_New Orleans, June_ 23, 1865.
+
+General: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication
+of the 16th instant, in answer to mine of the 13th, relating to the
+expediency of your revoking the appointment of all civil officers in the
+State made by military or semi-military authority. I desire to state that
+your views and suggestions, as regards your duty and proper course of
+action in the premises, are entirely satisfactory to me. For the care you
+have bestowed on the subject, and the earnest disposition you evince to do
+all in your power to promote the interests of civil government in this
+unfortunate State, by co-operating with and sustaining me in all
+legitimate measures to that end, I beg to return you, not only my own
+thanks, but I feel authorized to speak for the great mass of our
+fellow-citizens, and to include them in the same category.
+
+With high respect, I subscribe myself, your obedient servant,
+
+J. MADISON WELLS,
+_Governor of Louisiana_.
+
+Major General E.R.S. CANBY,
+_Commanding Department of the Gulf_.
+
+Official copy:
+
+R. DES ANGES,
+_Major, A.A.G._
+
+
+
+HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF LOUISIANA,
+
+_New Orleans, September_ 8, 1865.
+
+Sir: In compliance with your request, I have the honor to submit some
+remarks upon the civil government of Louisiana, and its relation to the
+military administration of this department. These relations are more
+anomalous and complicated, probably, than in any other insurrectionary
+State, and it will be useful in considering these questions to bear in
+mind the changes that have occurred since the occupation of this city by
+the Union forces. These are, briefly--
+
+1. The military administration of the commander of the department of the
+Gulf, Major General Butler.
+
+2. The military government, of which Brigadier General Shepley was the
+executive, by appointment of the President.
+
+3. The provisional government, of which the Hon. M. Hahn was the executive,
+by appointment of the President, upon nomination by the people at an
+election held under military authority.
+
+4. The constitutional government, organized under the constitution adopted
+by the convention in July, 1864, and ratified by the people at an election
+held in September of that year. Of this government the Hon. J.M. Wells is
+the present executive.
+
+This government has not yet been recognized by Congress, and its relation
+to the military authority of the department has never been clearly
+defined. Being restrained by constitutional limitations, its powers are
+necessarily imperfect, and it is frequently necessary to supplant them by
+military authority. Many of the civil officers still hold their positions
+by the tenure of military appointments holding over until elections can be
+held under the constitution. These appointments may be vacated by the
+commander of the department, and, if under the constitution the power of
+appointment reside in the governor, be filled by him: if it does not, the
+appointment must be filled by the military commander. Very few removals
+and no appointments have been made by me during my command of the
+department; but the governor has been advised that all persons holding
+office by the tenure of military appointment were subject to military
+supervision and control, and would not be permitted to interfere in the
+duties committed to him by the President of restoring "civil authority in
+the State of Louisiana;" that upon his recommendation, and for _cause_,
+such officers would be removed; and if the power of appointment was not
+under the constitution vested in him, the appointment would be made by the
+department commander, if, upon his recommendation, there was no
+disqualifying exception.
+
+The instructions to the military commanders, in relation to the previous
+governments, were general, and I believe explicit; but, as their
+application passed away with the existence of these governments, it is not
+necessary to refer to them here. Those that relate to the constitutional
+government are very brief, so far, at least, as they have reached me. In a
+confidential communication from his excellency to the late President, in
+which he deprecated, in strong terms, any military interferences, and
+expressed very freely his own views and wishes, he concluded by saying
+that "the military must be judge and master so long as the necessity for
+the military remains;" and, in my instructions from the War Department, of
+May 28, 1865, the Secretary of War says: "The President directs me to
+express his wish that the military authorities render all proper
+assistance to the civil authorities in control in the State of Louisiana,
+and not to interfere with its action further than it may be necessary for
+the peace and security of the department."
+
+These directions and wishes have been conclusive, and I have given to the
+civil authorities whatever support and assistance they required, and have
+abstained from any interference with questions of civil or local State
+administration, except when it was necessary to protect the freedmen in
+their newly acquired rights, and to prevent the local courts from assuming
+jurisdiction in cases where, of law and of right, the jurisdiction belongs
+inclusively to the United States courts or United States authorities. With
+the appointments made by the governor I have no right to interfere unless
+the appointees are disqualified by coming under some one of the exceptions
+made by the President in his proclamation of May 29, 1865, or, (as in one
+or two instances that have occurred,) in the case of double appointments
+to the same office, when a conflict might endanger the peace and security
+of the department.
+
+My personal and official intercourse with the governor has been of the
+most cordial character. I have had no reason to distrust his wish and
+intention to carry out the views of the President. I do distrust both the
+loyalty and the honesty (political) of some of his advisers, and I look
+with apprehension upon many of the appointments made under these
+influences during the past two months. The feeling and temper of that part
+of the population of Louisiana which was actively engaged in or
+sympathized with the rebellion have also materially changed within that
+period.
+
+The political and commercial combinations against the north are gaining
+in strength and confidence every day. Political, sectional, and local
+questions, that I had hoped were buried with the dead of the past four
+years, are revived. Independent sovereignty, State rights, and
+nullification, where the power to nullify is revoked, are openly
+discussed. It may be that these are only ordinary political discussions,
+and that I attach undue importance to them from the fact that I have never
+before been so intimately in contact with them; but, to my judgment, they
+indicate very clearly that it will not be wise or prudent to commit any
+question involving the paramount supremacy of the government of the United
+States to the States that have been in insurrection until the whole
+subject of restoration has been definitively and satisfactorily adjusted.
+
+Before leaving this subject I think it proper to invite your attention to
+the position of a part of the colored population of this State. By the
+President's proclamation of January 1, 1863, certain parishes in this
+State (thirteen in number) were excepted from its provisions--the
+condition of the negroes as to slavery remaining unchanged until they
+were emancipated by the constitution of 1864. If this constitution should
+be rejected (the State of Louisiana not admitted under it) the legal
+condition of these people will be that of slavery until this defect can
+be cured by future action.
+
+The government of the city of New Orleans, although administered by
+citizens, derives its authority from military orders, and its offices
+have always been under the supervision and control of the commander of the
+department, or of the military governor of the State. The present mayor
+was appointed by Major General Hurlbut, removed by Major General Banks,
+and reinstated by myself. Under the constitution and laws of the State
+the principal city offices are elective, but the time has not yet been
+reached when an election for these offices should be held. Although
+standing in very different relations from the State government, I have
+thought it proper to apply the same rule, and have not interfered with
+its administration except so far as might be necessary to protect the
+interests of the government, or to prevent the appointment to offices of
+persons excepted by the President's proclamation.
+
+Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+ED. R.S. CANBY,
+_Major General, Commanding_.
+
+Major General CARL SCHURZ
+_United States Volunteers, New Orleans_.
+
+
+
+No. 9.
+
+_STATEMENT OF GENERAL THOMAS KILBY SMITH_.
+
+New Orleans, _September_ 14, 1865.
+
+I have been in command of the southern district of Alabama since the
+commencement of General Canby's expedition against Mobile, and have been
+in command of the district and post of Mobile, with headquarters at
+Mobile, from June until the 25th of August, and relinquished command of
+the post on September 4. During my sojourn I have become familiar with the
+character and temper of the people of all of southern Alabama.
+
+It is my opinion that with the exception of a small minority, the people
+of Mobile and southern Alabama are disloyal in their sentiments and
+hostile to what they call the United States, and that a great many of them
+are still inspired with a hope that at some future time the "confederacy,"
+as they style it, will be restored to independence.
+
+In corroboration of this assertion, I might state that in conversation
+with me Bishop Wilmer, of the diocese of Alabama, (Episcopal), stated that
+to be his belief; that when I urged upon him the propriety of restoring to
+the litany of his church that prayer which includes the prayer for the
+President of the United States, the whole of which he had ordered his
+rectors to expunge, he refused, first, upon the ground that he could not
+pray for a continuance of martial law; and secondly, that he would
+stultify himself in the event of Alabama and the southern confederacy
+regaining their independence. This was on the 17th of June. This man
+exercises a widespread influence in the State, and his sentiments are
+those of a large proportion of what is called the better class of people,
+and particularly the women. Hence the representatives of the United States
+flag are barely tolerated. They are not welcome among the people in any
+classes of society. There is always a smothered hatred of the uniform and
+the flag. Nor is this confined to the military, but extends to all classes
+who, representing northern interests, seek advancement in trade, commerce,
+and the liberal professions, or who, coming from the North, propose to
+locate in the South.
+
+The men who compose the convention do, in my opinion, not represent the
+people of Alabama, because the people had no voice in their election.
+I speak with assurance on this subject, because I have witnessed the
+proceedings in my district. I do not desire to reflect upon the personnel
+of the delegation from Mobile, which is composed of clever and honorable
+men, but whatever may be their political course, they will not act as the
+true representatives of the sentiments and feelings of the people.
+
+I desire in this connexion to refer to the statements of Captain Poillon,
+which you have submitted to me, and to indorse the entire truthfulness
+thereof. I have known Captain Poillon intimately, and have been intimately
+acquainted with the proceedings of the Freedmen's Bureau. Many of the
+facts stated by Captain Poillon I know of my own personal knowledge, and
+all I have examined into and believe.
+
+On the 4th of July I permitted in Mobile a procession of the freedmen,
+the only class of people in Mobile who craved of me the privilege of
+celebrating the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Six
+thousand well-dressed and orderly colored people, escorted by two
+regiments of colored troops, paraded the streets, assembled in the public
+squares, and were addressed in patriotic speeches by orators of their own
+race and color. These orators counselled them to labor and to wait. This
+procession and these orations were the signal for a storm of abuse upon
+the military and the freedmen and their friends, fulminated from the
+street corners by the then mayor of the city and his common council and in
+the daily newspapers, and was the signal for the hirelings of the former
+slave power to hound down, persecute, and destroy the industrious and
+inoffensive negro. These men were found for the most part in the police of
+the city, acting under the direction of the mayor, R.H. Hough, since
+removed. The enormities committed by these policemen were fearful. Within
+my own knowledge colored girls seized upon the streets had to take their
+choice between submitting to outrage on the part of the policemen or
+incarceration in the guard-house. These men, having mostly been negro
+drivers and professional negro whippers, were fitting tools for the work
+in hand. Threats of and attempts at assassination were made against
+myself. Threats were made to destroy all school-houses in which colored
+children were taught, and in two instances they were fired. The same
+threats were made against all churches in which colored people assembled
+to worship, and one of them burned. Continued threats of assassination
+were made against the colored preachers, and one of them is now under
+special guard by order of Major General Wood. When Mayor Hough was
+appealed to by this man for protection, he was heard to say that no one
+connected with the procession of the 4th of July need to come into his
+court, and that their complaints would not be considered. Although Mayor
+Hough has been removed, a large majority of these policemen are still in
+office. Mayor Forsyth has promised to reform this matter. It is proper to
+state that he was put in office by order of Governor Parsons, having twice
+been beaten at popular elections for the mayoralty by Mr. Hough. This
+gives an indication of what will result when the office will again be
+filled by a popular election.
+
+The freedmen and colored people of Mobile are, as a general thing,
+orderly, quiet, industrious, and well dressed, with an earnest desire to
+learn and to fit themselves for their new status. My last report from the
+school commissioners of the colored schools of Mobile, made on the 28th of
+July, showed 986 pupils in daily attendance. They give no cause for the
+wholesale charges made against them of insurrection, lawlessness, and
+hostility against their former masters or the whites generally. On the
+contrary, they are perfectly docile and amenable to the laws, and their
+leaders and popular teachers of their own color continually counsel them
+to industry and effort to secure their living in an honorable way. They
+had collected from themselves up to the 1st of August upwards of $5,000
+for their own eleemosynary institutions, and I know of many noble
+instances where the former slave has devoted the proceeds of his own
+industry to the maintenance of his former master or mistress in distress.
+Yet, in the face of these facts, one of the most intelligent and high-bred
+ladies of Mobile, having had silver plate stolen from her more than two
+years ago, and having, upon affidavit, secured the incarceration of two
+of her former slaves whom she suspected of the theft, came to me in my
+official capacity, and asked my order to have them whipped and tortured
+into a confession of the crime charged and the participants in it. This
+lady was surprised when I informed her that the days of the rack and the
+thumbscrew were passed, and, though pious, well bred, and a member of
+the church, thought it a hardship that a negro might not be whipped or
+tortured till he would confess what he _might_ know about a robbery,
+although not even a _prima facie_ case existed against him, or that sort
+of evidence that would induce a grand jury to indict. I offer this as an
+instance of the feeling that exists in all classes against the negro, and
+their inability to realize that he is a free man and entitled to the
+rights of citizenship.
+
+With regard to municipal law in the State of Alabama, its administration
+is a farce. The ministers of the law themselves are too often desperadoes
+and engaged in the perpetration of the very crime they are sent forth to
+prohibit or to punish. Without the aid of the bayonets of the United
+States Alabama is an anarchy. The best men of Alabama have either shed
+their blood in the late war, emigrated, or become wholly incapacitated by
+their former action from now taking part in the government of the State.
+The more sensible portion of the people tremble at the idea of the
+military force being eliminated, for, whatever may be their hatred of
+the United States soldier, in him they find their safety.
+
+It has not been my lot to command to any great extent colored troops. I
+have had ample opportunity, however, of observing them in Tennessee,
+Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, and, comparing them with white
+troops, I unhesitatingly say that they make as good soldiers. The two
+colored regiments under my command in Mobile were noted for their
+discipline and perfection of drill, and between those troops and the
+citizens of Mobile no trouble arose until after the proclamation of the
+provisional governor, when it became necessary to arm them going to and
+from their fatigue duty, because they were hustled from the sidewalk by
+infuriated citizens, who, carrying out the principles enunciated by Mayor
+Hough and the common council and the newspapers heretofore alluded to,
+sought to incite mob. I have said that a great deal of the trouble alluded
+to in the government of the State has arisen since the appointment and
+proclamation of the provisional governor. The people of Alabama then
+believed they were relieved from coercion of the United States and
+restored to State government, and that having rid themselves of the
+bayonets, they might assume the reins, which they attempted to do in the
+manner above described. When I speak of the people I mean the masses,
+those that we call the populace. There are thinking, intelligent men in
+Alabama, as elsewhere, who understand and appreciate the true condition of
+affairs. But these men, for the most part, are timid and retiring,
+unwilling to take the lead, and even when subjected to outrage, robbery,
+and pillage by their fellow-citizens, refrain from testifying, and prefer
+to put up with the indignity rather than incur an unpopularity that may
+cost their lives. Hence there is danger of the mob spirit running riot and
+rampant through the land, only kept under by our forces.
+
+That there are organized bands throughout the country who, as guerillas or
+banditti, now still keep up their organization, with a view to further
+troubles in a larger arena, I have no doubt, though, of course, I have no
+positive testimony. But this I know, that agents in Mobile have been
+employed to transmit ammunition in large packages to the interior. One man
+by the name of Dieterich is now incarcerated in the military prison at
+Mobile charged with this offence. A detective was sent to purchase powder
+of him, who represented himself to be a guerilla, and that he proposed to
+take it out to his band. He bought $25 worth the first, and $25 worth the
+second day, and made a contract for larger quantities. Deputations of
+citizens waited upon me from time to time to advise me that these bands
+were in being, and that they were in imminent peril upon their avowing
+their intentions to take the oath of allegiance, or evincing in any other
+way their loyalty to the government; and yet these men, while they claimed
+the protection of the military, were unwilling to reveal the names of the
+conspirators. I have seen General Wood's statement, which is true in all
+particulars so far as my own observation goes, and I have had even far
+better opportunities than General Wood of knowing the character of the
+people he now protects, and while protecting, is ignored socially and
+damned politically; for it is a noticeable fact that, after a sojourn in
+Mobile of upwards of six weeks in command of the State, during part of
+which time he was ill and suffering, he received but one call socially out
+of a community heretofore considered one of the most opulent, refined, and
+hospitable of all the maritime cities of the South, the favorite home of
+the officers of the army and the navy in by-gone days; and that one call
+from General Longstreet, who was simply in transitu.
+
+THOMAS KILBY SMITH,
+_Brigadier General United States Volunteers_.
+
+
+
+No. 10.
+
+HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Jackson, Mississippi, August_ 27, 1865.
+
+General: The northern district of Mississippi embraces that portion of the
+State north of southern boundary lines of Clark, Jasper, Smith, Simpson,
+and Hinds counties, except the six counties (Warren, Yazoo, Issaquena,
+Washington, Sunflower, and Bolivar) constituting the western district.
+
+The entire railroad system of the State is within my district, and
+although these lines of communication were seriously injured during the
+war, steps are being taken everywhere to repair them as fast as means can
+be procured. The break of thirty-five miles on the Southern (Vicksburg
+Mendrain) railroad, between Big Black and Jackson, is, by authority of the
+department commander, being repaired by my troops, and will be ready for
+operation in a few days.
+
+The thirty-six counties under my military control constitute the richest
+portion of the State, the soil being the most available for agricultural
+purposes, cotton (Upland) being the great staple, while in the eastern
+counties, in the valley of the upper Tombigbee, corn was grown very
+extensively, the largest proportion of the usual demand in the State for
+this cereal being supplied from that section.
+
+The war and its consequences have laid waste nearly all the old fields,
+only a few acres were cultivated this year to raise sufficient corn for
+the immediate use of the respective families and the small amount of stock
+they succeeded in retaining after the many raids and campaigns which took
+place in the State of Mississippi. Even these attempts will only prove
+partially successful, for, although the final suppression of the rebellion
+was evident for the past two years, the collapse which followed the
+surrender of the rebel armies brought with it all the consequences of an
+unforeseen surprise. The people had in no way provided for this
+contingency, and of course became very restive, when all property which
+they had so long been accustomed to look upon as their own suddenly
+assumed a doubtful character. Their "slaves" began to wander off and left
+their masters, and those growing crops, which could only be matured and
+gathered by the labor of the former slaves. For the first time the people
+saw and appreciated the extreme poverty into which they were thrown by the
+consequences of the rebellion, and it will hardly surprise any one
+familiar with human nature, that people in good standing before the war
+should resort to all kinds of schemes, even disresputable ones, to retrieve
+their broken fortunes.
+
+Theft and every species of crime became matters of every-day occurrence.
+The large amount of government cotton in all parts of the State proved a
+welcome objective point for every description of lawlessness. Absent
+owners of cotton were looked upon by these people as public enemies and
+became the victims of their (mostly illegal) speculations during the
+rebellion. This state of affairs continued for some time in all portions
+of the district not occupied by United States troops, and were in most
+instances accompanied by outrages and even murder perpetrated on the
+persons of the late "slaves."
+
+As soon as a sufficient number of troops could be brought into the
+district, I placed garrisons at such points as would, as far as my means
+permitted, give me control of almost every county. By the adoption of this
+system I succeeded in preventing this wholesale system of thieving, and a
+portion of the stolen goods was recovered and returned to the owners,
+while the outrages on negroes and Union men sensibly diminished.
+
+From the beginning of the occupation until a recent period only five (5)
+cases of murder or attempted murder occurred in my whole district, and I
+had no apprehension but what I would be able to stop the recurrence of
+such crimes effectually. The troops at my disposal were, however, sadly
+reduced by the recent muster-out of cavalry and infantry regiments.
+
+Attala and Holmes counties were, on my arrival, the theatre of the
+greatest outrages; the interior of these counties was garrisoned by
+cavalry detachments, which communicated with the infantry posts along the
+railroad, and they (the cavalry) were most effective in preventing crime
+and arresting malefactors, thus affording the much needed protection to
+peaceable inhabitants. The cavalry garrisons, however, were withdrawn
+about two (2) weeks ago for muster-out, and since that time four (4)
+murders, two of white Union men and two of negroes, have been reported to
+me from Attala county. The infantry garrisons along the railroad are
+actively endeavoring to effect the arrest of the suspected parties, but
+the chances of success are exceedingly doubtful, as only mounted troops
+can be successfully used for that purpose.
+
+There is no doubt whatever that the state of affairs would be intolerable
+for all Union men, all recent immigrants from the north; and all negroes,
+the moment the protection of the United States troops was withdrawn.
+
+In support of this opinion permit me to make a few remarks about the
+citizens. Although the people, as a general thing, are very anxious for
+peace, and for the restoration of law and order, they hardly realize the
+great social change brought about by the war. They all know that slavery,
+in the form in which it existed before the war, and in which they idolized
+it, is at an end; but these former slave owners are very loth to realize
+the new relative positions of employer and employee, and all kinds of plans
+for "new systems of labor" are under constant discussion. The principal
+feature of all plans proposed is that the labor of the nominally freedmen
+should be secured to their old masters without risk of interruption or
+change. This desire is very natural in an agricultural community, which
+has been left for generations in the undisturbed enjoyment of all the
+comforts and independent luxuries induced by a system where the laborer
+and not the labor was a marketable commodity. It is, however, just as
+natural that those most interested should differ essentially with the
+slaveholder on that point. They naturally claim that they (the laborers)
+have by the war and its consequences gained the right to hire out their
+labor to whomsoever they please, and to change their relations so as to
+insure for themselves the best possible remuneration. The defenders and
+protectors of this last position are principally the agents of the
+Freedmen's Bureau and the co-operating military forces, and of course they
+are not liked. Their decisions and rules are looked upon by former
+slaveholders, and late rebels generally, as the commands of a usurper and
+a tyrant, and they will continue to be so regarded until a general
+resumption of agricultural pursuits shall have brought about a practical
+solution o this much vexed question, which, "in abstracts," is rather
+perplexing. I think that if each party is compelled to remain within the
+bounds of justice and equity by the presence of a neutral force, _i.e._
+United States troops, one year's experience will assign to both employers
+and employees their respective relative positions.
+
+As soon as this most desirable end is attained, and the labor of the
+southern States regenerated on a real free labor basis, and thus brought
+into harmony with the other portions of the Union, the exclusive and
+peculiar notions of the southern gentlemen, so much at variance with the
+views of the North, will have no longer any cause to exist, and the
+southern people will be glad to recognize the American nationality without
+reserve, and without the sectional limitation of geographical linos.
+
+I desire to affirm that loyalty and patriotism have not as yet gained any
+solid foundation among the white population of the States, and such cannot
+be expected until the relations between employers and laborers have become
+a fixed and acknowledged fact; then, and not before, will a feeling of
+contentment and loyalty replace the now prevalent bitterness and
+recriminations.
+
+The taking of the amnesty oath has not changed the late rebels (and there
+are hardly any white people here who have not been rebels) into loyal
+citizens. It was considered and looked upon as an act of expediency and
+necessity to enable them to build their shattered and broken fortunes up
+again.
+
+The elevating feeling of true patriotism will return with the smile of
+prosperity, and it should be the duty of all men to co-operate together in
+securing that end. This can only be done by securing for the black race
+also a state of prosperity. This race, which at present furnishes the only
+labor in the State, must be prevented from becoming a wandering and
+restless people, and they must be taught to become steady citizens. This
+will best be accomplished by guaranteeing them the right to acquire
+property and to become freeholders, with protection in the undisturbed
+possession of their property. This and a general system of education will
+work a quicker and more satisfactory change than the most stringent police
+regulations could ever achieve.
+
+At present the occupancy of the State by the United States troops is the
+only safeguard for the preservation of peace between the different
+classes.
+
+I am, general, with great respect, your obedient servant,
+
+P. JOS. OSTERHAUS,
+_Major General U.S. Vols_.
+
+Major General CARL SCHURZ, _Present_.
+
+
+
+No. 11.
+
+_STATEMENT OF MAJOR GENERAL CHARLES R. WOODS, COMMANDING DEPARTMENT OF
+ALABAMA_.
+
+Mobile, Ala., _September_ 9, 1865.
+
+I do not interfere with civil affairs at all, unless called upon by the
+governor of the State to assist the civil authorities. There are troops
+within reach of every county ready to respond to the call of the civil
+authorities, but there are some counties where the sheriffs and other
+officers of the law appear to be afraid to execute their warrants, even
+with the aid of my troops, because the protection the troops might give
+them is liable to be withdrawn as soon as the duties for which they are
+called upon are fulfilled, although the troops are continually ready to
+aid them at short notice.
+
+In many of the counties, where there are no garrisons stationed, the civil
+authorities are unable or unwilling to carry out the laws. One case has
+come to my official notice where persons had been arrested on the
+complaint of citizens living in the country, for stealing, marauding, &c.,
+but when called upon to come down to testify, the complainants declared
+that they did not know anything about the matter. There being no
+testimony, the accused parties had to be released. One of those who, by
+the offenders, was supposed to have made complaint, was, shortly after the
+release of the accused, found with his throat cut. It appears that in that
+locality the lawless element predominates, and keeps the rest of the
+community in fear of having their houses burnt, and of losing their lives.
+The case mentioned happened in Washington county, about forty miles from
+this city, up the Alabama river. There is a garrison of four companies at
+Mount Vernon arsenal, not far from that place, which at all times are
+ready to render aid to the civil authorities.
+
+I have sent a detachment of troops with an officer of the Freedmen's
+Bureau into Clark, Washington, Choctaw, and Marengo counties to
+investigate the reports of harsh treatment of the negroes that had come
+into the Freedmen's Bureau.
+
+Cotton-stealing is going on quite generally, and on a large scale,
+wherever there is any cotton, and the civil authorities have completely
+failed in stopping it. It has been reported to me by citizens that armed
+bands attack and drive away the watchmen, load the cotton upon wagons, and
+thus haul it away. No case has come to my knowledge in which such
+offenders have been brought to punishment. Horse, mule, and cattle
+stealing is likewise going on on a large scale.
+
+In compliance with instructions from General Thomas, I have issued orders
+to arrest, and try by military commission, all citizens who are charged
+with stealing government horses, mules, or other property. No such cases
+had been taken cognizance of by civil authorities within my knowledge.
+
+As to the treatment of negroes by whites, I would refer to the reports of
+the Freedmen's Bureau.
+
+I sent out officers to every point in the State designated by the
+governor, on an average at least two officers to a county, for the purpose
+of administering the amnesty oath, but owing to a misapprehension on the
+part of the people, but few were taken before these officers until the
+governor's second proclamation came out, requiring them to do so, when the
+oath was administered to a great many.
+
+I have found myself compelled to give one of the papers appearing in this
+city (the Mobile Daily News) a warning, on account of its publishing
+sensational articles about impending negro insurrections, believing that
+they are gotten up without any foundation at all, for the purpose of
+keeping up an excitement.
+
+CHAS. R. WOODS,
+_Brevet Major General, Commanding Department of Alabama_.
+
+
+
+No. 12.
+
+[General Orders No. 22.]
+
+HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Vicksburg, Miss., August_ 24, 1865.
+
+The attention of district commanders is called to a proclamation of the
+provisional governor of the State of Mississippi, of the 19th instant,
+which provides for the organization of a military force in each county of
+the State.
+
+While the general government deems it necessary to maintain its authority
+here by armed forces, it is important that the powers and duties of the
+officers commanding should be clearly defined.
+
+The State of Mississippi was one of the first that engaged in the recent
+rebellion. For more than four years all her energies have been devoted to
+a war upon our government. At length, from exhaustion, she has been
+compelled to lay down her arms; but no orders have as yet been received by
+the military authorities on duty here, indicating that the State has been
+relieved from the hostile position which she voluntarily assumed towards
+the United States.
+
+The general government, earnestly desiring to restore the State to its
+former position, has appointed a provisional governor, with power to call
+a convention for the accomplishment of that purpose. Upon the military
+forces devolve the duties of preserving order, and of executing the laws
+of Congress and the orders of the War Department. The orders defining the
+rights and privileges to be secured to freedmen meet with opposition in
+many parts of the State, and the duties devolving upon military officers,
+in the execution of these orders, are often of a delicate nature. It has
+certainly been the desire of the department commander, and, so far as he
+has observed, of all officers on duty in the State, to execute these
+orders in a spirit of conciliation and forbearance, and, while obeying
+implicitly all instructions of the President and the War Department, to
+make military rule as little odious as possible to the people. While the
+military authorities have acted in this spirit, and have been as
+successful as could have been anticipated, the provisional governor has
+thought proper, without consultation with the department commander or with
+any other officer of the United States on duty here, to organize and arm a
+force in every county, urging the "young men of the State who have so
+distinguished themselves for gallantry" to respond promptly to his call,
+meaning, thereby, that class of men who have as yet scarcely laid down the
+arms with which they have been opposing our government. Such force, if
+organized as proposed, is to be independent of the military authority now
+present, and superior in strength to the United States forces on duty in
+the State. To permit the young men, who have so distinguished themselves,
+to be armed and organized independently of United States military officers
+on duty here, and to allow them to operate in counties now garrisoned by
+colored troops, filled, as many of these men are, not only with prejudice
+against those troops and against the execution of the orders relative to
+freedmen, but even against our government itself, would bring about a
+collision at once, and increase in a ten-fold degree the difficulties that
+now beset the people. It is to be hoped that the day will soon come when
+the young men called upon by Governor Sharkey and the colored men now
+serving the United States will zealously co-operate for the preservation
+of order and the promotion of the interests of the State and nation. It
+will be gratifying to the friends of the colored race to have the
+assurance in an official proclamation from the provisional governor, that
+the day has already arrived when the experiment can be safely attempted.
+But as the questions on which these two classes will be called to
+co-operate are those with regard to which there would undoubtedly be some
+difference of opinion, particularly as to the construction of certain laws
+relative to freedmen, the commanding general prefers to postpone the trial
+for the present. It is the earnest desire of all military officers, as it
+must be of every good citizen, to hasten the day when the troops can with
+safety be withdrawn from this State, and the people be left to execute
+their own laws, but this will not be hastened by arming at this time the
+young men of the State.
+
+The proclamation of the provisional governor is based on the supposed
+necessity of increasing the military forces in the State to prevent the
+commission of crime by bad men. It is a remarkable fact that most of the
+outrages have been committed against northern men, government couriers,
+and colored people. Southern citizens have been halted by these outlaws,
+but at once released and informed that they had been stopped by mistake;
+and these citizens have refused to give information as to the parties by
+whom they were halted, although frankly acknowledging that they knew them.
+
+Governor Sharkey, in a communication written after his call for the
+organization of militia forces was made, setting forth the necessity for
+such organization, states that the people are unwilling to give
+information to the United States military authorities which will lead to
+the detection of these outlaws, and suggests as a remedy for these evils
+the arming of the very people who refuse to give such information.
+
+A better plan will be to disarm all such citizens, and make it for their
+interest to aid those who have been sent here to restore order and
+preserve peace.
+
+_It is therefore ordered_, that district commanders give notice at once to
+all persons within their respective districts that no military
+organizations, except those under the control of the United States
+authorities, will be permitted within their respective commands, and that
+if any attempt is made to organize after such notice, those engaged in it
+will be arrested. Whenever any outrages are committed upon either citizens
+or soldiers, the commander of the post nearest the point at which the
+offence is committed will report the fact at once to the district
+commander, who will forthwith send as strong a force to the locality as
+can be spared. The officer in command of such force will at once disarm
+every citizen within ten miles of the place where the offence was
+committed. If any citizen, possessing information which would lead to the
+capture of the outlaws, refuses to impart the same, he will be arrested
+and held for trial. The troops will be quartered on his premises, and he
+be compelled to provide for the support of men and animals. These villains
+can be arrested, unless they receive encouragement from some portion of
+the community in which they operate; and such communities must be held
+responsible for their acts, and must be made to realize the inevitable
+consequences of countenancing such outrages.
+
+By order of Major General SLOCUM:
+
+J. WARREN MILLER,
+_Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+
+
+No. 14.
+
+[Reported for the Vicksburg Journal.]
+
+_Speeches of Hon. Sylvanus Evans and Richard Cooper, candidates for
+Congress and attorney general, Vicksburg, September_ 19, 1865.
+
+Pursuant to a call published in our yesterday's issue, a large number of
+citizens assembled at Apollo Hall last evening to listen to addresses from
+prominent candidates for office at the ensuing election.
+
+Shortly after 8 o'clock Hon. A. Burwell introduced Hon. Richard Cooper to
+the meeting, who addressed them as follows:
+
+SPEECH OF MR. COOPER.
+
+Fellow-citizens: I present myself before you to-night as a candidate for
+the office of attorney general. I have not before spoken in public since
+announcing myself, relying wholly upon my friends and past record. I have
+resided in this State twenty-nine years, and have for twelve years been a
+prosecuting attorney.
+
+Soon after announcing myself I found I had an opponent, and I concluded to
+accompany my friend, Judge Evans, to Vicksburg, merely to make myself
+known, not intending to make a speech.
+
+I was born in Georgia. The first vote I ever cast was with the old-line
+Whig party. [Applause.] In 1850 I opposed an attempt to break up the
+United States government, and in, 1860 I did the same thing. I travelled
+in Alabama and Mississippi to oppose the measure. [Applause.] But after
+the State did secede I did all in my power to sustain it. [Heavy
+applause.] I never entered the army, having held a civil office, and was
+advised by my friends that I could do more good in that way than by
+entering the service. I believed in secession while it lasted, but am now
+as good a Union man as exists, and am in favor of breaking down old
+barriers, and making harmony and peace prevail.
+
+I was a delegate to the State convention lately in session at Jackson, and
+hope the legislature will carry out the suggestions of the convention. I
+believe the negro is entitled to the claims of a freeman, now that he is
+made free, and I hope he will have them secured to him. I am thankful that
+Mississippi has the right of jurisdiction, and I hope she will always have
+it. The office I am a candidate for is not a political, but strictly a
+judicial office. If elected I shall use my utmost endeavors to promote the
+interests of the State and country.
+
+Hon. Sylvanus Evans was then introduced to the audience by Mr. Cooper, who
+spoke substantially as follows:
+
+SPEECH OF JUDGE EVANS.
+
+FELLOW-CITIZENS OF WARREN COUNTY: I am grateful to meet you here this
+evening, although a stranger to most of you. Here you must judge of my
+standing, and I hope you will pardon me while I attempt to explain my
+position to you. I came to Mississippi in 1837, and moved to Lauderdale
+county in 1839; by profession, in early life, a blacksmith, latterly a
+lawyer, practicing in eastern Mississippi; to some extent a politician,
+always believing in the policy of the old-line Whigs, and always acting
+with them. In 1851 I was a delegate from Lauderdale county to the State
+convention, then, as in 1860, being opposed to the act of secession, and
+fought against it with all my powers. But after the State had seceded I
+went with it as a matter of duty, and I sustained it until the day of the
+surrender with all my body and heart and mind. [Great applause.] I
+believed that the majority of the people did not know what was to come,
+but, blending their interests with mine, I could not, with honor, keep
+from it.
+
+We are now emerging; now daylight is dawning upon us. But whether peace
+and prosperity shall return in its fulness is now a question with the
+people. I am a candidate before you for the United States Congress. Let me
+say to you, as wise men, that unless the people and the legislature do
+their duty, it is useless to send me or any one else to Washington, as we
+cannot there obtain seats in Congress.
+
+My opponent, Mr. West, was nominated at Jackson by a lot of unauthorized
+delegates, which nomination was, in my judgment, of no account. Were your
+delegates from this county authorized to nominate candidates for Congress?
+Ours were not. I am before the people at the urgent request of many
+friends; not by any nomination made at Jackson.
+
+I heartily approve of the action of the convention. But this action will
+be useless unless the legislature you elect meet and build the structure
+upon the foundation laid by the convention. The convention did not abolish
+slavery. The result of four and a half years of struggle determined
+whether it was abolished by the bayonet or by legislation. It remains for
+you to show by your action whether this was done to rid the State of
+bayonets, or to obtain your representation in Washington. It is not enough
+to say the negro is free. The convention requires the legislature to adopt
+such laws as will protect the negro in his rights of person and property.
+
+We are not willing that the negro shall testify in our courts. We all
+revolt at it, and it is natural that we should do so; but we must allow it
+as one of the requisites of our admission to our original standing in the
+Union. To-day the negro is as competent a witness in our State as the
+white man, made so by the action of the convention. The credibility of the
+witness is to be determined by the jurors and justices. If you refuse his
+testimony, as is being done, the result will be the military courts and
+Freedmen's Bureau will take it up, and jurisdiction is lost, and those who
+best know the negro will be denied the privilege of passing judgment upon
+it, and those who know him least are often more in favor of his testimony
+than yours. I am opposed to negro testimony, but by the constitution it is
+admitted. (The speaker was here interrupted by an inquiry by one of the
+audience: "Has this constitution been ratified by the people, and has the
+old constitution been abolished?" To which Mr. Evans replied: The people
+did not have an opportunity to ratify it. The convention did not see fit
+to submit it to them, and its action in the matter is final.)
+
+Slavery was destroyed eternally before the convention met, by the last
+four years of struggle. The convention only indorsed it, because it could
+do nothing else. I consider that convention the most important ever held
+on this continent--the determination of the war pending upon its action,
+and its great influence upon our southern sister States. The unanimity of
+the convention was unparalleled: the result of which has met with
+universal approval.
+
+The only objectors to its action is the radicalism of the north, which
+thinks it should have conferred universal suffrage on the freedmen.
+
+It is useless to send any one to Washington to gain admission to the
+Congress of the United States unless the legislature carries out the
+dictations of the convention for the protection of the freedmen's rights
+and property, and let them have access to the courts of justice.
+
+Do you not desire to get rid of the Freedmen's Bureau and the bayonets and
+meet the President half way in his policy of reconstruction? If you do, be
+careful and send men to the legislature who will carry out this point, and
+thereby enable your congressmen to obtain their seats, and not have to
+return.
+
+The speaker was here again interrupted by Mr. John Vallandigham, who
+wished to inform the gentleman and all present that there were no
+secessionists now.
+
+(The speaker requested not to be interrupted again.) [Great applause.] I
+am no demagogue. Supposing you fail to meet the President in his policy,
+what will be the result? The convention has done its duty. It remains for
+you to elect men to the next legislature who will secure to the freedman
+his right. There are large republican majorities in the United States
+Congress. The northern press, denouncing the President's policy, are
+assuming that Congress has the right to dictate to you who shall be your
+rulers. The result of the large majorities will be to give the right of
+suffrage to every man in the State, and the negroes will elect officers to
+govern you.
+
+The President and the conservative element of the north are determined
+that the negro shall be placed where nature places him, in spite of the
+fanatics.
+
+We can only make free labor profitable by giving the negro justice and a
+right at the courts.
+
+It is hard to accept the fact that our slaves stand as freedmen, and that
+we have no more right to direct them. It is hard to realize, but let us
+look at it as it is, and act accordingly.
+
+Your country is laid desolate, your farms have been ravished and
+impoverished by the war. Vicksburg, the city of hills, everywhere bears
+marks of war. The Mississippi valley is desolate. You have been deprived
+of your property in the negro, your houses burned and destroyed.
+
+We can meet the President and the conservative element of the north by a
+simple act of legislation, and it becomes us as a country-loving people to
+look well to the candidates for the legislature. If they fail to take the
+necessary step, the result will be that the Freedmen's Bureau and bayonets
+will remain with us until they do.
+
+Although somewhat ignorant of the proceeding of the federal Congress, if
+elected I shall try to promote the especial interests of this State. I
+shall urge that the United States government owe it as a duty to the State
+of Mississippi to repair her levees; her people are so impoverished by the
+war that they cannot stand the taxation necessary to rebuild them. I
+believe it to be the duty of the general government to appropriate money
+to assist the people to improve their railroads, rivers, and assist in
+like new enterprises.
+
+Another important question, that of labor, I believe can only be settled
+by legislation. I believe it to be for the interests of the people of the
+south to have the vagrant freedmen removed, as they are the cause of
+continued strife and tumult.
+
+I am sure we do not want the scenes of St. Domingo and Hayti repeated in
+our midst. I believe such will be the case if they are not removed. If
+elected, I shall urge upon the general government the duty of colonizing
+the negroes; it being the duty of the government to do this, as we are
+deprived of that amount of property, and the negroes should be removed
+where they can be distinct and by themselves. It is impossible for the two
+classes to exist equal together, for we would always be liable to
+outbreaks and bloodshed. We must either educate them or abolish them, for
+they know but little more now than to lie all day in the sun and think
+some one will look out for them. Though free, they cannot yet understand
+what freedom is, and in many cases it is an injury rather than a benefit.
+It would be better to have white labor than to try and retain the black.
+
+Another important point--a great debt has been contracted by the federal
+government. The south cannot pay a proportion of that debt. I am opposed
+to repudiation, but am in favor of relieving the south of the internal
+revenue tax.
+
+My opponent, Mr. West, contends that Mississippi must pay her taxes up to
+1865. I do not think so; and this is the only issue between us. I deny
+that the government has a right to levy such a tax, and contend that the
+government cannot impose a tax upon a State unless that State participates
+in the accumulation of that debt. At the time this debt was contracted we
+were recognized as belligerents, and not liable to a share of the debt
+then contracted for. That back tax can only be collected by a special act
+of Congress, and, if elected, I shall oppose any such act.
+
+Mr. West proposed an amendment in favor of secession into the State
+senate, while I was opposed to it. I always contended that slavery would
+die with secession, while Mr. West said it was the only remedy. But I do
+not consider this any time to talk of secession, but rather bury all such
+in oblivion, and talk of the best way to restore peace.
+
+In many instances those who opposed secession the most were the first to
+enter the army and fight most valiantly. (Applause.) I believe it to be
+our duty to forget all this and attend to present issues.
+
+It is time the war was over, and it is time that the results of the war
+were settled, and those are to be settled by the actions of the people
+themselves.
+
+Determine for yourselves whether or not the President does not offer terms
+that should suit any of us; is he not trying to stay the tide of
+fanaticism at the north that would overwhelm us? Has he not shown it in
+our own State in the appointment of our military governor? No man in the
+State could have been appointed to give more general satisfaction than
+W.L. Sharkey, an able, straightforward, just man.
+
+The President, in his speech to the southern delegation, assures them that
+he is determined to stay the tremendous tide of the fanatics of the north,
+and that suffrage to the negro shall not be forced upon the people of the
+south.
+
+If elected, I will heartily co-operate with the President in his policy of
+reconstruction, for I am bitterly opposed to conferring the right of
+suffrage upon the negro. I believe it to be the right of the States to
+settle that matter.
+
+The radicals of the north now contend that they have a right to confer the
+right of suffrage on the negro, and we must at this hour support the
+President in approving that idea; if not, he will be overpowered, and that
+will be the result.
+
+In conclusion, if honored with an election I pledge myself to exert every
+energy in my power in behalf of the State and district.
+
+At the conclusion of the remarks of Judge Evans, loud and repeated calls
+for Colonel Patridge brought that gentleman to his feet. He was received
+with much applause, which was somewhat protracted, showing the favor in
+which he was held by the audience. Upon rising and attempting to speak
+from his place on the floor, loud and urgent calls demanded that he should
+take the stand. Colonel Patridge replied that he would not take the stand
+until he met his competitor there.
+
+REMARKS OF COLONEL PATRIDGE.
+
+He said that as a public journalist he had gone in and out before this
+people for many years. His views were as well known as those of any man
+who ever approached the people, asking their suffrage. He was a union man
+before the war, and a soldier in the war. He had performed his duty as a
+private and an officer, on the battle field and on the staff. At the close
+of the struggle, terminating as it had in our overthrow, he had used his
+entire exertions to speedily restore Mississippi to her former relations
+with the federal government. The convention had done this, in entire
+accordance with the views he had entertained, and if elected to the
+legislature, he should finish the work in the same spirit, and carry out
+fully the policy of the convention.
+
+So far as the question of admitting the testimony of negroes into our
+courts was concerned, he expressed no opinion upon it, as a separate
+question. He had as many prejudices as other southern men. But in his
+public acts he had always endeavored to discard prejudice. He looked to
+the happiness and welfare of the people. But there was one phase of the
+negro testimony question which was settled. The negro was already regarded
+as a competent witness. He alluded to the cases which, by an act of
+Congress, came under the jurisdiction of the Freedmen's Bureau. The
+question was not whether their testimony should be received or not. It was
+already received. The question was whether, in receiving it, it shall be
+received before our own civil magistrates or juries, or before the provost
+marshals of the Freedmen's Bureau. He had no hesitation in expressing
+himself in favor of the former. He was opposed to all systems of
+repudiation, whether styled stay laws, bankrupt laws, or insolvent acts,
+and in general was in favor of placing Mississippi in the front rank of
+States. He desired to see our congressmen admitted at the next session,
+and to that end would do all in his power to promote the policy of
+President Johnson for the rehabilitation which it was understood was the
+ultimatum. His remarks, which were exceedingly well received, were
+continued for fifteen or twenty minutes, at the close of which he
+announced himself ready to meet his competitor, whom he spoke of in high
+terms, at any time to discuss the momentous issues devolving upon the next
+legislature.
+
+
+
+No. 15.
+
+_To the voters of the sixth judicial district, composed of the counties of
+Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Noxubee, Neshoba, Kemper, and Winston_:
+
+Until the spring of 1861 I was a citizen of Kentucky, but my native State
+having elected to abide by the fortunes of the Union in the tremendous
+struggle that has lately terminated, while all my sympathies and instincts
+bound me to the southern people, I assumed new relations so far as
+citizenship was concerned, and for the last three years have been a
+resident of Mississippi. I entered the army as a private soldier, and
+until the end of the conflict sustained, what I knew in the beginning to
+be, a desperate and doubtful cause. I went down in battle, never to rise
+up again a sound man, upon the frontier of this broad abounding land of
+yours. I therefore cannot feel that I am an alien in your midst, and, with
+something of confidence as to the result, appeal to you for your suffrages
+for the office of district attorney. I am as fully identified with the
+interests of Mississippi as it is possible for any one to be, and in my
+humble way, will strive as earnestly as any one to restore her lost
+franchises and lost prosperity. In former years I held in Kentucky a
+position similar to the one I now seek at your hands, and I hope that I
+violate no rule of propriety in saying that I deem myself equal to its
+duties and responsibilities.
+
+Respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+JNO. T. HOGAN.
+
+P.S.--Owing to the fact that I have but little acquaintance with the
+people of the sixth district, outside of the county of Lowndes, I will
+address them at different points so soon as I can prepare and publish a
+list of appointments.
+
+J.T.H.
+
+Columbus, _Mississippi, August_ 26, 1865.
+
+
+
+No. 16.
+
+HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF LOUISIANA, OFFICE OF PROVOST MARSHAL GENERAL,
+
+_New Orleans, La., September_ 12, 1865.
+
+General: In the matter of the investigation ordered to be made in relation
+to the loyalty of certain members of the board of public schools of this
+city, I have the honor to report as follows:
+
+Thomas Sloo, in his capacity as president of the "Sun Mutual Insurance
+Company," subscribed fifty thousand dollars towards the confederate loan.
+
+John I. Adams, a prominent and influential merchant, left this city
+immediately on the arrival of the federal forces, and did not return until
+the final overthrow of the rebellion. He presented a piece of ordnance,
+manufactured at his own expense, to the "Washington Artillery," to be used
+against the government of the United States. He also was a subscriber to
+the rebel loan.
+
+Glendy Burke and George Ruleff, the former at one time a prominent
+politician, the latter a wealthy merchant, sent their sons into the
+confederacy, while they remained at home, refusing to assist in any way in
+the reorganization of the State government, and showing their contempt for
+the United States government and its constituted authorities. Their
+conduct was far from being loyal and patriotic; associating only with the
+avowed enemies of the government.
+
+Edwin L. Jewell, editor and proprietor of the "Star" newspaper, is not a
+citizen of New Orleans. Previous to the rebellion he was a resident of the
+parish of Point Coupee, where he edited a newspaper, noted only for its
+bitter and violent opposition to the government and the strong and ardent
+manner in which it enunciated the principles of secession. He has only
+lately arrived here, and has not resided in the city for a sufficient
+length of time to entitle him to the rights of citizenship.
+
+David McCoard is classed with those whose conduct throughout the war has
+been intent only in misrepresenting the government and treating its
+representatives with contumely.
+
+Dr. Alfred Perry has served four years in the confederate army. Comment is
+unnecessary.
+
+Messrs. Keep, Viavant, Turpise, Toyes, Holliday, Bear, Walsh, Moore and
+Ducongel, all contributed more or less in money and influence towards
+establishing a government hostile and inimical to the United States.
+
+Dr. Holliday was at one time acting as surgeon in a rebel camp. (Moore.)
+
+Mr. Rodgers, the candidate for the position of superintendent of public
+schools, held the same office at the commencement of the war. His conduct
+at that time was imbued with extreme bitterness and hate towards the
+United States, and in his capacity as superintendent he introduced the
+"Bonnie Blue Flag" and other rebel songs into the exercises of the schools
+under his charge. In histories and other books, where the initials "U.S."
+occurred, he had the same erased and "C.S." substituted. He used all means
+in his power to imbue the minds of the youths intrusted to his care with
+hate and malignity towards the Union. He has just returned from the late
+confederacy, where he has resided during the war. At the time he left the
+city to join the rebel army he left his property in the care of one
+Finley, who claims to be a British subject, but held the position of
+sergeant in a confederate regiment of militia.
+
+I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+CHAS. W. LOWELL,
+_Major 80th United States Colored Infantry and Provost Marshal General_.
+
+Major General E.R.S. CANBY,
+_Commanding Department_.
+
+
+
+No. 17.
+
+[From the New Orleans Times, September 12, 1865.]
+
+THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
+
+To the citizens of New Orleans our public schools have long been a
+cherished and peculiar interest. They have been regarded with pride,
+fostered with peculiar care, and looked up to as a source of future
+greatness. In their first organization, Samuel J. Peters, and those who
+acted with him, had to contend against the popular prejudices of the day,
+for parental pride--sometimes stronger than common sense--was shocked at
+the thought of an educational establishment in which the children of all
+classes of citizens met on a common level, and the difference between free
+schools and charity schools was not very readily discerned. Those
+prejudices, however, wore gradually away, and the free schools increased
+in numbers and efficiency till they were regarded by rich and poor with
+equal interest. Pride withdrew its frown and put on a patronizing smile.
+The children of the cavalier sat beside those of the roundhead, and
+heterogeneous differences of race were extinguished by a homogeneous
+fellowship.
+
+For years previous to the war our public schools occupied a high position.
+No political or sectarian dogmas were taught. In politics and religion
+children naturally incline to the opinions of their parents, and it is
+well that they do so; for if the reverse were the case, there would be
+many divided households, which, under existing arrangements, are
+harmonious and happy. The teachers taught those branches only which are
+set down in the educational programme, and the knowledge they imparted was
+necessary, not only for the appreciation but for the preservation of our
+free form of government. It is true that schoolmasters, like other people,
+have their own notions of right and wrong--their own political and
+religious opinions--but we speak what we know when we state that up to the
+time of the rebellion no attempt was made to give the minds of the pupils
+in the public schools of New Orleans either a political or religious bias.
+Some incline to the opinion that the duties of the educational trust would
+have been more effectively performed had patriotic politics been made a
+prominent branch of study; but to such a course innumerable objections
+would have arisen. Patriotism does not always wear the same mantle, or
+point in the same direction. It accommodates itself to the peculiarities
+of different countries and forms of government. Sometimes it is a holy
+principle--sometimes a mere party catchword with no more real meaning than
+can be attached to the echo of an echo.
+
+After the city was redeemed from rebel rule an earnest effort was made to
+include loyalty among the branches of our popular education, and tests
+were applied with perhaps an unnecessary degree of rigor. For this the
+excited state of public opinion, arising from the civil strife which then
+prevailed, was the sole excuse. Some seeds of bitterness were
+unfortunately sown. The antagonism of parents were repeated and
+intensified in the children, and love of country proved weak when compared
+with hatred of the rebels. Such enthusiastic displays, such hoistings of
+flags, such singings of patriotic songs were never known before. This made
+the children very loyal, but exceedingly revengeful and unchildlike. The
+divine advice, "love your enemy," they would have pronounced the height of
+madness, if not wickedness. In short, they were introduced before their
+time into the arena of political perplexities. For all this the teacher
+was perhaps not very much to blame. He was swept on by a current which he
+could not resist even if he would. A "higher law," irresponsible at the
+time, and backed up by the persuasive bayonet, was an authority which
+brooked no resistance. He merely obeyed orders and earned his daily bread.
+Under these circumstances it is not to be wondered at that the public
+schools lost a portion of their previous popularity, and, notwithstanding
+the diminished financial resources of our citizens, private schools
+multiplied among them beyond all precedent.
+
+An effort is now made to get the schools once more under popular control,
+and render them what they were originally intended to be--mere educational
+institutions. To this end a school board has been appointed, but as soon
+as it undertook to act it was met, as to certain members, by a question of
+loyalty, raised, in all probability, by some interested party, who, being
+without offence himself, thought proper to fling a few stones at his
+offending neighbors. If there be any disloyalty in the board we trust that
+it will be speedily purged thereof, but, knowing most of the members, we
+greatly doubt that any such bill of indictment can be sustained. At any
+rate, a week has elapsed since the charge was made, and we imagine it will
+be disposed of before the meeting takes place, which was appointed for
+to-morrow evening.
+
+One of our contemporaries, in his edition of yesterday evening, states, on
+the strength of a positive assurance, "that his excellency J. Madison
+Wells has been appointed provisional governor of Louisiana;" that his
+commission is here awaiting his acceptance, and that he "will probably
+order an election for members of a constitutional convention" soon after
+he returns to the city. If this proves so, it will create quite a stir in
+the political world hereabout. At the bare mention of "constitutional
+convention" a shudder involuntary creeps over us, visions of bankrupt
+treasuries present themselves, new species of taxation to frighten our
+patient but impoverished people, and a general "brandy and cigar"
+saturnalia for our disinterested and immensely patriotic politicians. But
+of this we suppose we need have no fear. The funds are deficient.
+
+
+
+No. 18.
+
+HEADQUARTERS SUB-DISTRICT OF JACKSON,
+
+_Jackson, Mississippi, September_ 17, 1865.
+
+Major: I would respectfully make the following report as to what I saw and
+learned by conversing with officers and citizens during my recent visit to
+the northwest part of this sub-district, particularly in Holmes county.
+The only garrison at present in the county is at Goodman, situated on the
+railroad, sixteen miles from Lexington, the county seat, which place I
+visited. Of the male population of the county I would estimate that not
+more than one-tenth of the whites and one-fourth the blacks seemed to have
+any employment or business of any kind; universal idleness seemed to be
+the rule, and work the exception, and but few of those at work seemed to
+be doing so with any spirit, as though they had any idea of accomplishing
+anything---just putting the time in. One-half of the male population can
+be met upon the road any day, and the travelling at night is much more
+than would be expected. In a common country road, probably thirty persons
+passed in a night on horseback. As to the character of the persons met by
+day or night many of them would be called suspicious, being supplied with
+arms, which they often take pains to display, riding United States and
+Confederate States horses and mules, government saddles and bridles, which
+it is useless to try to take away, as they have no difficulty in proving
+them to be theirs by the evidence of some comrade with whom they
+reciprocate in kind. They boast of Jeff. Davis and President Johnson, try
+in every way to show their contempt for the Yankee, boast of the number
+they have killed; &c. They want it understood that they are not
+whipped--simply overpowered. They have no visible means of support, and
+the impression is that they are living off the proceeds of government
+cotton and stock, and quite frequently of private property---generally
+cotton.
+
+The negroes complain that these same "gallant young men" make a practice
+of robbing them of such trifles as knives, tobacco, combs, &c. If any
+resistance is made, death is pretty sure to be the result; or if the poor
+negro is so unfortunate as to appear to recognize his persecutors, he can
+then expect nothing less. Negroes are often shot, as it appears, just out
+of wanton cruelty, for no reason at all that any one can imagine. The
+older and more respected class of white men seem to deplore the condition
+of things; think, however, that there is no way to stop it, except to let
+it have its own course; say such occurrences, though not so frequent, were
+by no means uncommon before the war. In conversing with such as were the
+leaders in politics and society before the war, and the leaders in the
+rebellion, one is reminded of their often-repeated assertions that the
+negro cannot take care of himself; capital must own labor, &c., &c. They
+have preached it, talked it, spoken it so long, that free labor would be a
+failure in the south, (and especially negro labor,) that it seems they
+have made themselves believe it, and very many act as though they were
+bound to make it so, if it was not going to be the natural result. Some,
+now their crops are gathered, drive off all the hands they do not want,
+without any compensation for their summer's work except food and clothing.
+
+In many cases the negroes act just like children, roving around the
+country, caring nothing for the future, not even knowing one day what they
+are to eat the next. They also seem to think that in their present
+condition as freemen their former masters and present employers should
+address them in a more respectful manner than formerly. This the whites
+refuse to accede to, but persist in still treating them as niggers, giving
+them orders in the same austere manner as of old. In one day's travel I
+passed by different places where five colored men had been murdered during
+the five days just passed, and as many wounded. In one place it appears
+that one man was taken out of bed and killed because, as the neighbors
+say, he was a preacher, though they none of them contend that he had ever
+taught any doctrine or said anything against the peace and welfare of the
+neighborhood; but nearly all approve the act. Three men were engaged in
+it, and finding some colored men were witnesses to the transaction, they
+killed two of them and left all three together. At another place a party
+of men, women, and children were collected together at a plantation, with
+the consent of the owner, and were having a dance, when a squad of about
+twelve rode up and, without any warning of any kind, commenced firing at
+them, killing one and wounding several. It is of course known by the white
+persons in the vicinity who these murderers are, but no effort is made to
+arrest them. The negroes say they have recognized a number of them, and
+say most all lived near by. I found no one that thought there was anything
+objectionable about this particular meeting, but nearly all objected to
+the practice of their gathering together; think it gives them extravagant
+ideas of liberty, has a tendency to make them insubordinate, &c. Another
+place a colored man was killed--supposed to have been shot for a small
+amount of money he happened to have with him; no clue to the murderers.
+Another place within one-fourth of a mile of Lexington, a colored man was
+shot through the head on the public road, (was not yet dead,) and his
+pockets rifled of the few cents he had; also his knife. Over in Attala
+county I learned that not long since two white men, (merchants,) while
+sitting in their store, were both instantly killed, as is supposed,
+because they were finding out too much about where their stolen cotton had
+gone to.
+
+When returning, near Canton I was informed by the commanding officer of
+the post that recently, near by, a colored boy was met by a couple of
+these "honorable young men" of the south, and his hands tied, was shot,
+his throat cut, and his ears cut off. No one has been able to ascribe any
+reason for it, as he was a very quiet, inoffensive lad. Two persons have
+been arrested for the deed. When arraigned by the civil authorities they
+were acquitted, as no white witnesses were knowing to the murder, and
+colored witnesses were not permitted to testify; but they were again
+arrested by the captain commanding the post, add forwarded for trial by
+military commission. All, both black and white, are afraid to give
+evidence against any one. They say in some instances that they would like
+to see the rascals get their just deserts; but if they were instrumental
+in bringing it about they would have to move to a military post for
+safety, and when the troops are withdrawn they would have to go also. An
+insurrection among the colored people is quite a subject of conversation
+among the whites, and they appear to fear it will develop itself in a
+general uprising and massacre about the 1st of January next. I do not
+consider there are any grounds for their suspicions, and believe it arises
+from their troubled consciences, which are accusing them of the many cruel
+acts perpetrated against their former slaves, and these barbarities are
+continued by some for the purpose of still keeping them under subjection.
+In some places there will evidently be a scarcity of food the coming
+winter, and white and black, as the season for foraging has passed, will
+soon have to get assistance or starve, as they seem determined not to
+work. I did not find among those I talked with one person who was in favor
+of organizing militia as contemplated in the governor's proclamation. Some
+thought it might be of service if it was composed of the right kind of
+men, but they know it would be composed of just a lot of roving fellows,
+the very ones who now most need watching. Militia finds favor only with
+the politicians, who are much in want of a hobby to ride, bar-room
+loafers, who think it would give their present calling a little more
+respectability, and the rambling fellows who would like some show of
+authority to cover up their robberies, with probably a few men who
+honestly believe it would be composed of better material.
+
+If it were not for the classes above described, a large majority would be
+in favor of the United States forces remaining in the State. I am of the
+opinion that a large amount of good might be done, if good speakers would
+travel around the country and explain to the freedmen what their rights
+are, what their duties are, and to the planters what the government
+expects of them and wishes them to do. A better understanding of this
+matter would be of advantage to all concerned. In conclusion I would
+respectfully state that I find myself unable in many instances to arrest
+parties accused of crime, for the reason no horses or mules can be
+obtained to mount soldiers sent in pursuit, and on account of the scarcity
+of officers in the command to take charge of squads.
+
+I am, major, very respectfully, &c.,
+
+CHARLES H. GILCHRIST,
+_Colonel 50th United States Colored Infantry, commanding_.
+
+Major W.A. GORDON,
+_Assistant Adjutant General, Northern District Mississippi_.
+
+Official: T. WAHREN MILLER,
+_Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+
+
+No. 19.
+
+HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTHERN ALABAMA,
+
+_Nashville, Tennessee, September_ 29, 1865.
+
+General: About the middle of September last while I was in command of the
+district of Huntsville, formerly district of northern Alabama, several
+citizens of Jackson county called on me at Huntsville, complaining that
+the sheriff of the county, Colonel Snodgrass, late of the confederate
+army, had arrested fifteen citizens of that county on charges of murder,
+which they were accused of having committed while in the service of the
+United States, under orders from their superiors, in fights with
+guerrillas. The trial was to take place before the probate judge, of
+Jackson county, no regular courts being held at that time. I sent an order
+to the sheriff to release the prisoners. I also sent an order to the judge
+before whom the trial was to take place to suspend action in their cases.
+At the same time I reported the case to General Thomas, commander of the
+military division of the Tennessee, and asked for instructions. I received
+answer that my action was approved. A few days afterwards it was reported
+to me that the sheriff refused to obey the order, and had used the most
+disrespectful language against the military authorities of the United
+States. I ordered his arrest, but about the same time I received orders to
+muster out all white regiments in my district, and my own regiment being
+among them, I relinquished command of the district. I deem the lives of
+southern men that have served in the United States army unsafe when they
+return to their homes. As to the feeling of the people in that section of
+the country, the majority at this day are as bitter enemies of the United
+States government as they were during the war.
+
+General, I have the honor to remain your obedient servant,
+
+W. KRZYZANOWSKI,
+_Late Brevet Brigadier General, U.S.V._
+
+Major General C. SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+No. 20.
+
+_List of colored people killed or maimed by white men and treated at post
+hospital, Montgomery_.
+
+1. Nancy, colored woman, ears cut off. She had followed Wilson's column
+towards Macon two or three days, and when returning camped near the road,
+and while asleep a white man by the name of Ferguson, or Foster, an
+overseer, came upon her and cut her ears off. This happened in April,
+about thirty miles east of Montgomery.
+
+2. Mary Steel, one side of her head scalped; died. She was with Nancy.
+
+3. Jacob Steel, both ears cut off; was with the same party.
+
+4. Amanda Steel, ears cut off; was with the same party.
+
+5. Washington Booth, shot in the back, near Montgomery, while returning
+from his work, May 1. He was shot by William Harris, of Pine Level, thirty
+miles from here, without any provocation.
+
+6. Sutton Jones, beard and chin cut off. He belonged to Nancy's party, and
+was maimed by the same man.
+
+7. About six colored people were treated at this hospital who were shot by
+persons in ambuscade during the months of June and July. Their names
+cannot be found in a hasty review of the record.
+
+8. Robert, servant of Colonel Hough, was stabbed while at his house by a
+man wearing in part the garb of a confederate soldier; died on the 26th of
+June, in this hospital, about seven days after having been stabbed.
+
+9. Ida, a young colored girl, was struck on the head with a club by an
+overseer, about thirty miles from here; died of her wound at this hospital
+June 20.
+
+10. James Taylor, stabbed about half a mile from town; had seven stabs
+that entered his lungs, two in his arms, two pistol-shots grazed him, and
+one arm cut one-third off, on the 18th of June. Offender escaped.
+
+11. James Monroe, cut across the throat while engaged in saddling a horse.
+The offender, a white man by the name of Metcalf, was arrested. No
+provocation. Case happened on August 19, in this city.
+
+These cases came to my notice as surgeon in charge of the post hospital at
+Montgomery. I treated them myself, and certify that the above statements
+are correct.
+
+Montgomery Hall, _August_ 21, 1865.
+
+J.M. PHIPPS,
+_Acting Staff Surgeon, in charge Post Hospital_.
+
+
+
+_List of colored people wounded and maimed by white people, and treated in
+Freedmen's hospital since July 22, 1865_.
+
+1. William Brown, shot in the hand; brought here July 22.
+
+2. William Mathews, shot in the arm; brought here August 11. Shot on
+Mathews's plantation by a neighbor of Mr. Mathews, who was told by Mr.
+Mathews to shoot the negro.
+
+3. Amos Whetstone, shot in the neck by John A. Howser, August 18, in this
+city. Howser halted the man, who was riding on a mule on the road; had an
+altercation with Mr. Whetstone; Howser, Whetstone's son-in-law, shot him
+while he was going to town.
+
+The above cases came to my notice as assistant surgeon at this hospital.
+Similar cases may have been treated here before I entered upon my duties,
+of which I can give no reliable account.
+
+J.E. HARVEY,
+_Assistant Surgeon 58th Illinois.
+
+Freedmen's Hospital,
+_Montgomery, Alabama, August_ 21, 1865.
+
+
+
+No. 21.
+
+OFFICE PROVOST MARSHAL,
+
+_Post of Selma, Alabama, August_ 22, 1865.
+
+I have the honor to report the following facts in regard to the treatment
+of colored persons by whites within the limits of my observation:
+
+There have come under my notice, officially, twelve cases in which I am
+morally certain (the trials have not been had yet) that negroes were
+killed by whites. In a majority of cases the provocation consisted in the
+negroes trying to come to town, or to return to the plantation after
+having been sent away. These cases are in part as follows:
+
+Wilson H. Gordon, convicted by military commission of having shot and
+drowned a negro, May 14, 1865.
+
+Samuel Smiley, charged with having shot one negro and wounded another,
+acquitted on proof of an alibi. It is certain, however, that one negro was
+shot and another wounded, as stated. Trial occurred in June.
+
+Three negroes were killed in the southern part of Dallas county; it is
+supposed by the Vaughn family. I tried twice to arrest them, but they
+escaped into the woods.
+
+Mr. Alexander, Perry county, shot a negro for being around his quarters at
+a late hour. He went into his house with a gun and claimed to have shot
+the negro accidentally. The fact is, the negro is dead.
+
+Mr. Dermott, Perry county, started with a negro to Selma, having a rope
+around the negro's neck. He was seen dragging him in that way, but
+returned home before he could have reached Selma. He did not report at
+Selma, and the negro has never since been heard of. The neighbors declare
+their belief that the negro was killed by him. This was about the 10th of
+July.
+
+Mr. Higginbotham, and Threadgill, charged with killing a negro in Wilcox
+county, whose body was found in the woods, came to my notice the first
+week of August.
+
+A negro was killed on Mr. Brown's place, about nine miles from Selma, on
+the 20th of August. Nothing further is known of it. Mr. Brown himself
+reported.
+
+A negro was killed in the calaboose of the city of Selma, by being beaten
+with a heavy club; also, by being tied up by the thumbs, clear of the
+floor, for three hours, and by further gross abuse, lasting more than a
+week, until he died.
+
+I can further state, that within the limits of my official observation
+crime is rampant; that life is insecure as well as property; that the
+country is filled with desperadoes and banditti who rob and plunder on
+every side, and that the county is emphatically in a condition of anarchy.
+
+The cases of crime above enumerated, I am convinced, are but a small part
+of those that have actually been perpetrated.
+
+I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+J.P. HOUSTON,
+_Major 5th Minnesota, and Provost Marshal U.S. forces at Selma, Alabama_.
+
+Major General CARL SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+No. 22.
+
+FREEDMEN'S BUREAU,
+
+_Mobile, September_ 9, 1865.
+
+Sir: In compliance with your request I have the honor to report the state
+of affairs as connected with the freedmen in this city and the counties of
+Washington, Monroe, Clark, Choctaw and Baldwin.
+
+The civil authorities in this city have accepted General Swayne's order
+No. 7, (herewith enclosed,) but the spirit of the order is not complied
+with, and complaints of injustice and criminal partiality in the mayor's
+court have been frequently made at this office, and particularly when Mr.
+Morton presides there is no justice rendered to the freedmen. Little or no
+business is done before other magistrates, as the colored people are
+aware, from experience, that their oath is a mere farce and their
+testimony against a white man has no weight; consequently all complaints
+of the colored people come before this bureau.
+
+I have by special order of General Swayne designated one of the justices
+of the peace, Mr. T. Starr, who adjudicates cases of debt, and in matters
+where both parties are of color he has so far given satisfaction, but the
+prejudice so universal against colored people here is already beginning to
+affect his decisions.
+
+The civil police department of this city is decidedly hostile to color,
+and the daily acts of persecution in this city are manifest in the number
+of arrests and false imprisonment made where no shadow of criminality
+exists, while gangs of idle rebel soldiers and other dissolute rowdies
+insult, rob, and assault the helpless freedmen with impunity.
+
+All hopes of equity and justice through the civil organization of this
+city is barred; prejudice and a vindictive hatred to color is universal
+here; it increases intensely, and the only capacity in which the negro
+will be tolerated is that of slave.
+
+The fever of excitement, distrust, and animosity, is kept alive by
+incendiary and lying reports in the papers, and false representations of
+rebel detectives. The alarm is constantly abroad that the negroes are
+going to rise; this is utterly without foundation. The freedmen will not
+rise, though docile and submissive to every abuse that is heaped upon them
+in this city. If they are ragged and dirty, they are spurned as outcasts;
+if genteel and respectable, they are insulted as presumptive; if
+intelligent, they are incendiary; and their humble worship of God is
+construed as a designing plot to rise against the citizens who oppress
+them.
+
+It is evident that General Swayne's good intentions are nugatory from the
+want of faith on the part of those to whom he intrusted his order.
+
+These men have been recipients of office for years. Old associations,
+customs and prejudices, the pressure of public opinion, and the undying
+hostility to federal innovation, all conspire gainst impartiality to
+color. Such is the state of affairs in this city.
+
+In the counties of this district above named there is no right of the
+negro which the white man respects; all is anarchy and confusion; a reign
+of terror exists, and the life of the freedmen is at the mercy of any
+villain whose hatred or caprice incites to murder. Organized patrols with
+negro hounds keep guard over the thoroughfares, bands of lawless robbers
+traverse the country, and the unfortunate who attempts escape, or he who
+returns for his wife or child, is waylaid or pursued with hounds, and shot
+or hung. Laborers on the plantations are forced to remain and toil without
+hope of remuneration. Others have made the crop and are now driven off to
+reach Mobile or starve; scarcely any of them have rags enough to cover
+them. Many who still labor are denied any meat, and whenever they are
+treated with humanity it is an isolated exception. Ragged, maimed, and
+diseased, these miserable outcasts seek their only refuge, the Freedmen's
+Bureau, and their simple tale of suffering and woe calls loudly on the
+mighty arm of our government for the protection promised them.
+
+These people are industrious. They do not refuse to work; on the contrary,
+they labor for the smallest pittance and plainest food, and are too often
+driven off deprived of the small compensation they labored for.
+
+The report of rations issued to destitute citizens on August 1, 1865, was
+3,570 persons. Owing to the numerous impostures by those who had means of
+support, I erased the names of a large number and the list now stands
+1,742 persons who are recipients of government alms. Of this number, 95
+per cent. are rebels who have participated in some manner in this
+rebellion. Number of rations issued to destitute colored people is simply
+six (6).
+
+The report of the freedmen's colony of this district to this date is (12)
+twelve men, (71) seventy-one women, and (88) eighty-eight children, and
+sick in hospital (105) one hundred and five; total (276) two hundred and
+seventy-six. Of this number many have been driven off of plantations as
+helpless, while many of their grown children are forcibly retained to hard
+labor for their masters.
+
+I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+W.A. POILLON,
+_Captain, Assistant Superintendent freedmen, refugees, abandoned
+lands, &c._
+
+General CARL SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+Freedmen's Bureau, _July_ 29, 1865.
+
+Sir: I have the honor to report some testimony I have received of the
+murders and barbarities committed on the freedmen in Clark, Choctaw,
+Washington and Marengo counties, also the Alabama and Bigbee rivers.
+
+About the last of April, two freedmen were hung in Clark county.
+
+On the night of the eleventh of May, a freedman named Alfred was taken
+from his bed by his master and others and was hung, and his body still
+hangs to the limb.
+
+About the middle of June, two colored soldiers (at a house in Washington
+county) showed their papers and were permitted to remain all night. In the
+morning the planter called them out and shot one dead, wounded the other,
+and then with the assistance of his brother (and their negro dogs) they
+pursued the one who had escaped. He ran about three miles and found a
+refuge in a white man's house, who informed the pursuers that he had
+passed. The soldier was finally got across the river, but has not been
+heard of since.
+
+At Bladen Springs, (or rather, six miles from there,) a freedman was
+chained to a pine tree and _burned to death_.
+
+About two weeks after, and fifteen miles from Bladen, another freedman was
+burned to death.
+
+In the latter part of May, fifteen miles south of Bladen, a freedman was
+shot _outside_ of the planter's premises and the body dragged into the
+stable, to make it appear he had shot him in the act of stealing.
+
+About the first of June, six miles west of Bladen, a freedman was hung.
+His body is still hanging.
+
+About the last of May, three freedmen were coming down the Bigbee river in
+a skiff, when two of them were shot; the other escaped to the other shore.
+
+At Magnolia Bluff (Bigbee river) a freedman (named George) was ordered out
+of his cabin to be whipped; he started to run, when the men (three of
+them) set their dogs (five of them) on him, and one of the men rode up to
+George and struck him to the earth with a loaded whip. Two of them dragged
+him back by the heels, while the dogs were lacerating his face and body.
+They then placed a stick across his neck, and while one stood on it the
+others beat him until life was nearly extinct.
+
+About the first of May, near ---- landing, in Choctaw county, a freedman
+was hung; and about the same time, near the same neighborhood, a planter
+shot a freedman, (who was talking to one of his servants,) and dragged his
+body into his garden to conceal it.
+
+A preacher (near Bladen Springs) states in the _pulpit_ that the roads in
+Choctaw county stunk with the dead bodies of servants that had fled from
+their masters.
+
+The people about Bladen _declare_ that _no negro_ shall live in the county
+unless he remains with his _master_ and is as obedient as heretofore.
+
+In Clark county, about the first of June, a freedman was shot through the
+heart; his body lies unburied.
+
+About the last of May, a planter hung his servant (a woman) in presence of
+all the neighborhood. Said planter had _killed_ this woman's husband three
+weeks before. This occurred at Suggsville, Clark county.
+
+About the last of April, two women were caught near a certain plantation
+in Clark county and hung; their bodies are still suspended.
+
+On the 19th of July, two freedmen were taken off the steamer Commodore
+Ferrand, tied and hung; then taken down, their heads cut off and their
+bodies thrown in the river.
+
+July 11, two men took a woman off the same boat and threw her in the
+river. This woman had a coop, with some chickens. They threw all in
+together, and told her to go to the damned Yankees. The woman was drowned.
+
+There are regular patrols posted on the rivers, who board some of the
+boats; after the boats leave they hang, shoot or drown the victims they
+may find on them, and all those found on the roads or coming down the
+river are most invariably _murdered_.
+
+This is only a few of the murders that are committed on the helpless and
+unprotected freedmen of the above-named counties.
+
+All the cases I have mentioned are _authentic_, and _numerous_ witnesses
+will testify to all I have reported. _Murder with his ghastly train stalks
+abroad at noonday and revels in undisputed carnage_, while the bewildered
+and terrified freedmen know not what to do. To leave is death; to remain
+is to suffer the increased burden imposed on them by the cruel taskmaster,
+whose only interest is their labor _wrung_ from them by every device an
+inhuman ingenuity can devise. Hence the lash and murder are resorted to to
+intimidate those whom fear of an awful death _alone_ causes to remain,
+while patrols, negro dogs, and spies (disguised as Yankees) keep
+_constant_ guard over these unfortunate people.
+
+I was in Washington county in the latter part of June, and there learned
+there was a disposition to _coerce_ the labor of these people on
+plantations where they had always been abused. I was alone, and
+consequently could not go where my presence was most required, but I
+learned enough then to convince me there were many grievances which
+required military power to redress. Since my return I have been attentive
+to the recital of the horrors which these people suffer, and have
+carefully perused their statements, which receive corroborate testimony.
+
+I have been careful in authenticity, and very much that has been related
+to me I have declined accepting as testimony, although I believe its
+truth.
+
+The history of all these cases, besides others, I have in full, with all
+their horrible particulars.
+
+Believing, sir, you required the earliest intelligence in this matter, I
+concluded not to await your arrival.
+
+With much respect, I am, sir, your obedient servant,
+
+W.A. POILLON,
+_Captain and Ass't. Sup't. Freedmen_.
+
+Brig. Gen. SWAYNE.
+
+A true copy of the original deposited in this office.
+
+CHARLES A. MILLER,
+_Major and A.A.A. General_.
+
+
+
+
+No. 23.
+
+Vicksburg, Mississippi, _July_ 8, 1865.
+
+Captain: I have the honor to report that, in compliance with Special
+Orders No. 5, Headquarters Sub-district Southwest Mississippi, I proceeded
+to the counties of Madison, Holmes, and Yazoo, but that I did not reach
+Issaquena from the fact that the country between Yazoo City and that
+county has been so overflowed as to render the roads impassable.
+
+I found a provost marshal of freedmen at Yazoo City--Lieutenant Fortu, who
+seemed to understand his duties well, and to have performed them
+satisfactorily. There was no officer of the bureau in either of the other
+counties. The whole country is in a state of social and political anarchy,
+and especially upon the subject of the freedom of the negroes, but very
+few who understand their rights and duties.
+
+It is of the utmost importance that officers of the bureau should be sent
+to all the counties of the State to supervise the question of labor, and
+to insure the gathering of the growing crop, which, if lost, will produce
+the greatest suffering. In no case ought a citizen of the locality be
+appointed to manage the affairs of the freedmen: first, because these men
+will wish to stand well with their neighbors and cannot do justice to the
+negro; and secondly, because the negroes only know these men as oppressors
+of their race, and will have no confidence in their acts. The officers of
+the bureau should be especially charged to impress upon the freedmen the
+sacredness of the family relation and the duty of parents to take care of
+their children, and of the aged and infirm of their race. Where a man and
+woman have lived together as husband and wife, the relation should be
+declared legitimate, and all parties, after contracting such relations,
+should be compelled to legal marriage by severe laws against concubinage.
+Where parents have deserted their children, they should be compelled to
+return and care for them; otherwise there will be great suffering among
+the women and children, for many of the planters who have lost the male
+hands from their places threaten to turn off the women and children, who
+will become a burden to the community. The two evils against which the
+officers will have to contend are cruelty on the part of the employer, and
+shirking on the part of the negroes. Every planter with whom I have talked
+premised his statements with the assertion that "a nigger won't work
+without whipping." I know that this is not true of the negroes as a body
+heretofore. A fair trial should be made of free labor by preventing a
+resort to the lash. It is true that there will be a large number of
+negroes who will shirk labor; and where they persistently refuse
+compliance with their contracts, I would respectfully suggest that such
+turbulent negroes be placed upon public works, such as rebuilding the
+levees and railroads of the State, where they can be compelled to labor,
+and where their labor will be of benefit to the community at large.
+
+It will be difficult for the employers to pay their laborers quarterly, as
+required by present orders. Money can only be realized yearly on a cotton
+crop, because to make such a crop requires an entire year's work in
+planting, picking, ginning, and sending to market. The lien upon the crop
+secures the laborer his pay at the end of the year, for which he can
+afford to wait, as all the necessaries of life are furnished by the
+planter, who could not pay quarterly except at a great sacrifice.
+
+The present orders recommend that the freedmen remain with their former
+masters so long as they are kindly treated. This, as a temporary policy,
+is the best that could be adopted, but I very much doubt its propriety as
+a permanent policy. It will tend to rebuild the fallen fortunes of the
+slaveholders, and re-establish the old system of class legislation, thus
+throwing the political power of the country back into the hands of this
+class, who love slavery and hate freedom and republican government. It
+would, in my opinion, be much wiser to diffuse this free labor among the
+laboring people of the country, who can sympathize with the laborer, and
+treat him with humanity.
+
+I would suggest that great care be taken in the selection of officers of
+the bureau to be sent to the various counties. The revolution of the whole
+system of labor has been so sudden and radical as to require great caution
+and prudence on the part of the officers charged with the care of the
+freedmen. They should be able to discuss the question of free labor as a
+matter of political economy, and by reason and good arguments induce the
+employers to give the system a fair and honest trial.
+
+Nowhere that I have been do the people generally realise the fact that the
+negro is free. The day I arrived at Jackson _en route_ for Canton, both
+the newspapers at that place published leading editorials, taking the
+ground that the emancipation proclamation was unconstitutional, and
+therefore void; that whilst the negro who entered the army _might_ be
+free, yet those who availed themselves not of the proclamation were still
+slaves, and that it was a question for the State whether or not to adopt a
+system of gradual emancipation. These seem to be the views of the people
+generally, and they expressed great desire "to get rid of these
+garrisons," when they hope "to have things their own way." And should the
+care and protection of the nation be taken away from the freedmen, these
+people will have their own way, and will practically re-establish slavery,
+more grinding and despotic than of old.
+
+Respectfully submitted:
+
+J.L. HAYNES,
+_Colonel First Texas Cavalry_.
+
+Captain B.F. MOREY,
+_Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+Official:
+
+STUART ELDRIDGE,
+_Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+Colonel Haynes was born and raised near Yazoo City, Mississippi. He owns a
+plantation, and owned negroes before the war. He left the State in 1862,
+and went to New Orleans, where he received a commission to raise a
+regiment of Texas troops.
+
+SAMUEL THOMAS,
+_Colonel_.
+
+
+
+No. 24.
+
+RAILROAD, _Camp near Clinton, Miss., July_ 8, 1865.
+
+Sir: I am induced by the suffering I daily see and hear of among colored
+people to address you this communication. I am located with my command
+four miles west of Clinton, Hines county, on the railroad. A great many
+colored people, on their way to and from Vicksburg and other distant
+points, pass by my camp. As a rule, they are hungry, naked, foot-sore, and
+heartless, aliens in their native land, homeless, and friendless. They are
+wandering up and down the country, rapidly becoming vagabonds and thieves
+from both necessity and inclination. Their late owners, I am led to
+believe, have entered into a tacit arrangement to refuse labor, food or
+drink, in all cases, to those who have been soldiers, as well as to those
+who have belonged to plantations within the State; in the latter case,
+often ordering them back peremptorily to their "masters."
+
+One planter said in my hearing lately, "These niggers will all be slaves
+again in twelve months. You have nothing but Lincoln proclamations to make
+them free." Another said, "No white labor shall ever reclaim my cotton
+fields." Another said, "Emigration has been the curse of the country; it
+must be prevented here. This soil must be held by its present owners and
+their descendants." Another said, "The constitutional amendment, if
+successful, will be carried before the Supreme Court before its execution
+can be certain, and we hope much from that court!"
+
+These expressions I have listened to at different times, and only repeat
+them here in order that I may make the point clear that there is already a
+secret rebel, anti-emigration, pro-slavery party formed or forming in this
+State, whose present policy appears to be to labor assiduously for a
+restoration of the old system of slavery, or a system of apprenticeship,
+or some manner of involuntary servitude, on the plea of recompense for
+loss of slaves on the one hand, and, on the other, to counterbalance the
+influence of Yankee schools and the labor-hiring system as much as
+possible by oppression and cruelty. I hear that negroes are frequently
+driven from plantations where they either belong, or have hired, on slight
+provocation, and are as frequently offered violence on applying for
+employment. Dogs are sometimes set upon them when they approach houses for
+water. Others have been met, on the highway by white men they never saw
+before, and beaten with clubs and canes, without offering either
+provocation or resistance. I see negroes almost every day, of both sexes,
+and almost all ages, who have subsisted for many hours on berries, often
+wandering they know not where, begging for food, drink, and employment.
+
+It is impossible for me or any officer I have the pleasure of an
+acquaintance with to afford these people relief. Neither can I advise
+them, for I am not aware that any provisions have been, or are to be made
+to reach such cases. The evil is not decreasing, but, on the contrary, as
+the season advances, is increasing.
+
+I have heretofore entertained the opinion that the negroes flocked into
+the cities from all parts of the country; but a few weeks' experience at
+this station has changed my views on the subject, and I am now led to
+believe that those who have done so comprise comparatively a very small
+part of the whole, and are almost entirely composed of those belonging to
+plantations adjoining the towns. However, those who did go to the cities
+have been well cared for in comparison with those who have remained in the
+country. A small proportion of the latter class are well situated, either
+as necessary house-servants, body-servants, or favorites by inclination,
+as mistresses, or by necessity or duty, as each master may have been
+induced to regard long and faithful service or ties of consanguinity.
+Throughout the entire country, from Vicksburg to the capital of the State,
+there is but little corn growing. The manner of cultivating is very
+primitive, and the yield will be exceedingly small. I estimate that in
+this country fully one-half of the white population, and a greater
+proportion of the colored people, will be necessitated either to emigrate,
+buy food, beg it, or starve. The negro has no means to buy, and begging
+will not avail him anything. He will then be compelled to emigrate, which,
+in his case, is usually equivalent to turning vagabond, or, induced by his
+necessities, resort to organized banding to steal, rob, and plunder. I am
+at a loss to know why the government has not adopted some system for the
+immediate relief and protection of this oppressed and suffering people,
+whose late social changes have conduced so much to their present unhappy
+condition, and made every officer in the United States army an agent to
+carry out its provisions. Were I employed to do so, I should seize the
+largest rebel plantation in this and every other county in the State,
+partition it in lots of suitable size for the support of a family--say ten
+acres each--erect mills and cotton gins, encourage them to build houses
+and cultivate the soil, give them warrants for the land, issue rations to
+the truly needy, loan them seed, stock, and farming utensils for a year or
+two, and trust the result to "Yankee schools" and the industry of a then
+truly free and proverbially happy people. Some other system might be
+better; few could be more simple in the execution, and in my opinion
+better calculated to "save a race" now floating about in a contentious sea
+without hope or haven.
+
+I am, sir, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
+
+H.R. BRINKERHOFF,
+_Lieutenant Colonel 52d U.S. Colored Infantry, Commanding Detachment_.
+
+Major General O. O. HOWARD, _Washington, D.C._
+
+Official:
+
+STUART ELDRIDGE,
+_Lieutenant, Acting Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+
+
+No. 25.
+
+EXECUTIVE OFFICE, _Jackson, August_ 18, 1865.
+
+Sir: Your order No. 16, disbanding police guard for Claiborne county,
+has been laid before me. I apprehend you are laboring under a mistake in
+regard to the character of this organization. I had express authority
+from the President himself to organize the militia if I thought it
+necessary to keep order in the country. This I did not do, but authorized
+the organization of patrol guards or county police, for the purpose of
+suppressing crime, and for arresting offenders. This organization is
+therefore part of the civil organization of the State, as much so as
+sheriff, constable, and justices of the peace, and I claim the right to
+use this organization for these purposes, and hope you will revoke your
+order.
+
+Your obedient servant,
+
+W.L. SHARKEY,
+_Provisional Governor of Mississippi_.
+
+Colonel YORK.
+
+Official copy:
+
+J. WARREN MILLER,
+_Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+
+
+HEADQUARTERS POST OF PORT GIBSON,
+
+_Port Gibson, Mississippi, August_ 26, 1865.
+
+General: I have the honor to state that my reasons for issuing the
+enclosed order, (No. 16,) was, that a party of citizens acting under
+authority from Captain Jack, 9th Indiana cavalry, and having as their
+chief C.B. Clark, was by their own acknowledgment in the habit of
+patrolling the roads in this section of the country, and ordering any one
+they came across to halt. If this was not promptly done, they were ordered
+to fire upon them. In this way one negro woman was wounded, and Union men
+and negroes were afraid to be out of their houses after dark. The company
+was formed out of what they called picked men, _i.e._, those only who
+had been actively engaged in the war, and were known to be strong
+disunionists.
+
+The negroes in the section of the country these men controlled were kept
+in the most abject state of slavery, and treated in every way contrary to
+the requirements of General Orders No. 129 from the War Department, a copy
+of which order was issued by me to C.B. Clark.
+
+Hoping, general, to receive instructions as to the manner in which I shall
+regulate my action,
+
+I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+P. JONES YORK,
+_Lieutenant Colonel Commanding Post_.
+
+Provost Major General DAVIDSON,
+_Commanding Southern District of Mississippi_.
+
+Official copy:
+
+J. WARREN MILLER,
+_Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+
+
+[Special Orders No. 16.]
+
+HEADQUARTERS POST OF PORT GIBSON,
+
+_Port Gibson, Mississippi, August_ 10, 1865.
+
+The permission given from these headquarters, dated July 3, 1865, by
+Captain Jack, provost marshal, is hereby revoked.
+
+C.B. Clark, chief of police, under the permission, will notify the parties
+forming the said patrol to discontinue the practice of patrolling the
+roads and country armed. All arrests must be made by the proper military
+or civil authorities.
+
+P. JONES YORK,
+_Lieutenant Colonel Commanding Post_.
+
+Official copy:
+
+J. WARREN MILLER,
+_Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+
+
+No. 26.
+
+BUREAU REFUGEES, FREEDMEN, AND ABANDONED LANDS,
+
+OFFICE ACTING ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER FOR WESTERN DIST. OF MISS.,
+
+_Vicksburg, Miss., September_ 28, 1865.
+
+Colonel: I beg leave to call your attention to some of the difficulties we
+are still obliged to contend with, and some of the abuses still inflicted
+upon the freedmen, resulting from the prejudices which are still far from
+being eradicated. In the immediate vicinity of our military posts, and in
+locations that can readily be reached by the officers of this bureau, the
+citizens are wary of abusing the blacks; they are so because this bureau
+has arrested and punished people committing such offences; and the manner
+in which such cases have been dealt with has shown people that abuse and
+imposition will not be tolerated, and that such offences are sure to be
+punished in accordance with the enormity of the crime. But in remote
+localities, those that cannot well be reached by officers of the bureau,
+the blacks are as badly treated as ever; colored people often report
+themselves to the sub-commissioners with bruised heads and lacerated
+backs, and ask for redress, protection, to be permitted to live at their
+former homes, and some assurance that they will not be treated in a like
+manner again if they return. But nothing can be done if their homes happen
+to be twenty or thirty miles from any office that will protect them. A
+great many have thus learned that there is no protection for them, and
+quietly submit to anything that may be required of them, or, as is more
+frequently the case, they leave such places and crowd about the places
+where they can be protected.
+
+A girl about twelve years of age, certainly too young to commit any
+serious offence, lies in No. 1 hospital now with her back perfectly raw,
+the results of a paddling administered by her former owner. Any number of
+such cases could easily be cited. In many cases negroes who left their
+homes during the war, and have been within our military lines, and have
+provided homes here for their families, going back to get their wives or
+children, have been driven off and told they could not have them. In
+several cases guards have been sent to aid people in getting their
+families, in many others it has been impracticable, as the distance was
+too great. In portions of the northern part of this district the colored
+people are kept in SLAVERY still. The white people tell them that they
+were free during the war, but the war is now over, and they must go to
+work again as before. The reports from sub-commissioners nearest that
+locality show that the blacks are in a much worse state than ever before,
+the able-bodied being kept at work under the lash, and the young and
+infirm driven off to care for themselves.
+
+As to protection from the civil authorities, there is no such thing
+outside of this city. There is not a justice of the peace or any other
+civil officer in the district, eight (8) counties, of which I have charge,
+that will listen to a complaint from a negro; and in the city, since the
+adjudication of these cases has been turned over to the mayor, the abuse
+of and impositions upon negroes are increasing very visibly, for the
+reason that very little, if any, attention is paid to any complaint of a
+negro against a white person. Negro testimony is admitted, but, judging
+from some of the decisions, it would seem that it carries very little
+weight. In several cases black witnesses have been refused on the ground
+that the testimony on the opposite side, white, could not be controverted,
+and it was useless to bring in black witnesses against it. I enclose an
+affidavit taken on one such case. In the mayor's court, cases in which it
+is practicable to impose a fine and thereby replenish the city treasury,
+are taken up invariably, but cases where the parties have no money are
+very apt to pass unnoticed. One more point, and a serious one, too, for
+the colored people, is, that in the collection of debts, and a great many
+of a similar class of cases that are not taken cognizance of in the
+mayor's court, they have to go through a regular civil process,
+necessitating the feeing of lawyers, &c., which is quite a burden on a
+people whose means are limited. These cases have all formerly been handled
+by an officer of this bureau, and without any expense to the parties for
+fees, &c.
+
+The prejudices of the citizens are very strong against the negro; he is
+considered to be deserving of the same treatment a mule gets, in many
+cases not as kind, as it is unprofitable to kill or maim a mule, but the
+breaking of the neck of the free negro is nobody's loss; and unless there
+is some means for meting out justice to these people that is surer and
+more impartial than these civil justice's courts, run by men whose minds
+are prejudiced and bitter against the negro, I would recommend, as an act
+of humanity, that the negroes be made slaves again.
+
+I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+J.H. WEBER,
+_Captain and Acting Ass't. Com'r. Freedmen's Bureau for Western Dist.
+Miss_.
+
+Colonel SAMUEL THOMAS,
+_Ass't. Com'r. Bureau Freedmen, &c., Vicksburg, Miss_.
+
+
+
+No. 27.
+
+OFFICE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER BUREAU REFUGEES, FREEDMEN, AND ABANDONED
+LANDS FOR STATE OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Vicksburg, Mississippi, September_ 28, 1865.
+
+Dear Sir: In accordance with your request, I write the following letter,
+containing some of my views on the subject to which you called my
+attention--a subject worthy of great consideration, because a bad policy
+adopted now with reference to the administration of justice and the
+establishment of courts in the south may lead to evils that will be
+irreparable in the future.
+
+You are aware that some time ago General Swayne, commissioner of the
+Freedmen's Bureau for Alabama, constituted the civil officers of the
+provisional government of that State commissioners of the bureau for
+hearing and deciding all cases in which freedmen were parties, provided no
+invidious distinctions in receiving testimony, punishment, &c., were made
+between blacks and whites. Governor Parsons, of Alabama, approved of the
+arrangement, and urged the State officials to comply with the condition,
+and thus do away with the necessity for military courts in connexion with
+freedmen affairs. I have no doubt I could have induced the governor of
+Mississippi to take the same action had I thought it the policy of the
+government. I was under the impression that General Swayne had made a
+mistake, and that he would defeat the very objects for which the bureau
+was laboring. I thought the citizens were not to be trusted with freedmen
+affairs until they had given some strong evidence that they were prepared
+to accept the great change in the condition of the freedmen. I had not the
+least idea that such a limited control as General Swayne now has would
+accomplish what the authorities desired. The protection he gives freedmen
+under his order is so limited, and will fall so far short of what the
+freedmen have a right to expect, that I did not think of bringing the
+matter before the government. Late orders and instructions from the
+President convince me that I was mistaken, and that the trial is to be
+made.
+
+I have issued an order in accordance with these instructions, which I
+append:
+
+[General Orders No. 8.]
+
+BUREAU REFUGEES, FREEDMEN, AND ABANDONED LANDS, _Office Ass't.
+Commissioner for State of Miss., Vicksburg, Miss., September_ 20, 1865.
+
+The following extracts from Circular No. 5, current series, Bureau
+Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, and General Orders No. 10,
+current series, headquarters department of Mississippi, in reference to
+the same, are hereby republished for the guidance of officers of this
+bureau:
+
+["Circular No. 5.]
+
+"WAR DEPARTMENT,
+
+"_Bureau Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Washington, May_ 30,
+1865.
+
+"RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR ASSISTANT COMMISSIONERS.
+
+"VII. In all places where there is an interruption of civil law, or in
+which local courts, by reason of old codes, in violation of the freedom
+guaranteed by the proclamation of the President and laws of Congress,
+disregard the negro's right to justice before the laws, in not allowing
+him to give testimony, the control of all subjects relating to refugees
+and freedmen being committed to this bureau, the assistant commissioners
+will adjudicate, either themselves or through officers of their
+appointment, all difficulties arising between negroes and whites or
+Indians, except those in military service, so far as recognizable by
+military authority, and not taken cognizance of by the other tribunals,
+civil or military, of the United States.
+
+"O.O. HOWARD, _Major General_, _Commissioner Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen,
+&c._
+
+"Approved June 2, 1865.
+
+"ANDREW JOHNSON,
+"President of the United States."
+
+
+["General Orders No. 10.]
+
+"HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+"_Vicksburg, Mississippi, August_ 3, 1865.
+
+"VII. This order, (Circular No. 5, paragraph VII, Bureau Refugees,
+Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands,) however, must not be so construed as to
+give the colored man immunities not accorded to other persons. If he is
+charged with the violation of any law of the State, or an ordinance of any
+city, for which offence the same penalty is imposed upon white persons as
+upon black, and if courts grant to him the same privileges as are accorded
+to white men, no interference on the part of the military authorities will
+be permitted. Several instances have recently been reported in which
+military officers, claiming to act under the authority of the order above
+mentioned, have taken from the custody of the civil authorities negroes
+arrested for theft and other misdemeanors, even in cases where the courts
+were willing to concede to them the same privileges as are granted to
+white persons. These officers have not been governed by the spirit of the
+order. The object of the government is not to screen this class from just
+punishment--not to encourage in them the idea that they can be guilty of
+crime and escape its penalties, but simply to secure to them the rights of
+freemen, holding them, at the same time, subject to the same laws by which
+other classes are governed.
+
+"By order of Major General Slocum:
+
+"J. WARREN MILLER,
+"_Assistant Adjutant General_."
+
+In accordance with this order, where the judicial officers and magistrates
+of the provisional government of this State will take for their mode of
+procedure the laws now in force in this State, except so far as those laws
+make a distinction on account of color, and allow the negroes the same
+rights and privileges as are accorded to white men before their courts,
+officers of this bureau will not interfere with such tribunals, but give
+them every assistance possible in the discharge of their duties.
+
+In cities or counties where mayors, judicial officers, and magistrates
+will assume the duties of the administration of justice to the freedmen,
+in accordance with paragraph VII, Circular No. 5, issued from the Bureau
+of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, and approved by the President,
+and will signify their willingness to comply with this request by a
+written acceptance addressed to the assistant commissioner for the State,
+no freedmen courts will be established, and those that may now be in
+existence in such localities will be closed.
+
+It is expected that the officers of this bureau will heartily co-operate
+with the State officials in establishing law and order, end that all
+conflict of authority and jurisdiction will be avoided.
+
+By order of Colonel Samuel Thomas, assistant commissioner Freedmen's
+Bureau for State of Mississippi.
+
+STUART ELDRIDGE,
+_Lieutenant, Acting Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+I have written to Governor Sharkey, and explained to him how this order
+can be put in force in this State, and will do all I can to secure its
+success, and to aid the civil authorities to discharge their duties. I
+presume the legislature of this State, which is to meet in October, will
+take up this matter immediately, and arrange some plan by which the State
+authorities can take complete charge of freedmen affairs, and relieve the
+officers of this bureau. There is a jealousy of United States officers
+existing among the State officials that makes it disagreeable to perform
+any duty which is liable to conflict with their authority.
+
+When General Howard's Circular No. 5 was issued, I thought it was the
+intention that military courts should be established for the purpose of
+taking the administration of justice among the freedmen out of the hands
+of their old masters, and placing it under the control of their friends
+for a short time--until the citizens of the south were reconciled to the
+change, and until their feeling of hatred for their former slaves had
+abated; that a complete restoration of rights, privileges, and property
+was to come after a period of probation, in which they should give some
+evidence of their changed feelings. I have thought much on this subject,
+have watched the development of feeling among the southern people, and am
+satisfied that the time for such a restoration has not yet arrived.
+
+The order of General Swayne and the proclamation of General Parsons are
+unexceptionable in form. If justice to the freedmen can be secured by the
+means indicated in these documents, and if the process be not too
+expensive, and if ruinous delays be not allowed, then, it may be, all this
+movement will be good. But it seems to me that so delicate a matter cannot
+be smoothly managed in the present temper of Mississippi.
+
+I am aware that it is the policy of the government; that we must trust
+these people some time; that the establishment of the Freedman's Bureau is
+(as soon as martial law is withdrawn) a violation of the spirit both of
+the State and federal constitutions; that the officers of the bureau have
+no interest in common with the white citizens of the State, and that the
+bureau is an immense expense to the general government, which should be
+abolished as soon as compatible with the public interest.
+
+Yet, I feel that we are in honor bound to secure to the helpless people we
+have liberated a "republican form of government," and that we betray our
+trust when we hand these freed people over to their old masters to be
+persecuted and forced to live and work according to their peculiar
+southern ideas. It seems to me that we are forgetting the helpless and
+poor in our desire to assist our subjugated enemies, and that we are more
+desirous of showing ourselves to be a great and magnanimous nation than of
+protecting the people who have assisted us by arms, and who turned the
+scale of battle in our favor. We certainly commit a wrong, if, while
+restoring these communities to all their former privileges as States, we
+sacrifice one jot or tittle of the rights and liberties of the freedmen.
+
+The mayor of this city has had complete charge of all municipal affairs
+since the issue of General Slocum's Order 10, (quoted in the order I have
+before given.) He has been compelled to admit negro testimony by the
+provisions of that order. In cases that come before him, when it is
+necessary to admit it he goes through the form of receiving it, but I have
+yet to hear of one instance where such evidence affected his decision. The
+testimony of one white man outweighs (practically) that of any dozen
+freedmen.
+
+The admission of negro testimony will never secure the freedmen justice
+before the courts of this State as long as that testimony is considered
+valueless by the judges and juries who hear it. It is of no consequence
+what the law may be if the majority be not inclined to have it executed. A
+negro might bring a suit before a magistrate and have colored witnesses
+examined in his behalf, according to provisions of general orders and
+United States law, and yet the prejudices of the community render it
+impossible for him to procure justice. The judge would claim the right to
+decide whether the testimony was credible, and among the neighbors that
+would surround him, in many places, he would be bold, indeed, if he
+believed the sworn evidence of a negro when confronted by the simple
+assertion or opposed even to the interest of a white man. I recently heard
+a circle of Mississippians conversing on this subject. Their conclusion
+was, that they would make no objection to the admission of negro
+testimony, because "no southern man would believe a nigger if he had the
+dammed impudence to testify contrary to the statement of a white man." I
+verily believe that in many places a colored man would refuse, from fear
+of death, to make a complaint against a white man before a State tribunal
+if there were no efficient military protection at hand.
+
+Wherever I go--the street, the shop, the house, the hotel, or the
+steamboat--I hear the people talk in such a way as to indicate that they
+are yet unable to conceive of the negro as possessing any rights at all.
+Men who are honorable in their dealings with their white neighbors will
+cheat a negro without feeling a single twinge of their honor. To kill a
+negro they do not deem murder; to debauch a negro woman they do not think
+fornication; to take the property away from a negro they do not consider
+robbery. The people boast that when they get freedmen affairs in their own
+hands, to use their own classic expression, "the niggers will catch hell."
+
+The reason of all this is simple and manifest. The whites esteem the
+blacks their property by natural right, and however much they may admit
+that the individual relations of masters and slaves have been destroyed by
+the war and by the President's emancipation proclamation, they still have
+an ingrained feeling that the blacks at large belong to the whites at
+large, and whenever opportunity serves they treat the colored people just
+as their profit, caprice or passion may dictate.
+
+Justice from tribunals made up among such people is impossible. Here and
+there is a fair and just man. One in a hundred, perhaps, sees the good
+policy of justice; but these are so few that they will not, at present,
+guide public sentiment. Other States may, in this matter, be in advance of
+Mississippi; I suspect they are. If justice is possible, I feel sure they
+are.
+
+I fear such tribunals would be very expensive for the poor freedmen. Fees
+are heavy in this State. Unless they can get justice inexpensively, we
+might as well deny them all remedy before courts at once. Indeed, I think
+that would be rather more merciful than the arrangement proposed, as they
+would then trust nobody, and would be less defrauded. Long delays in the
+course of procedure would be ruinous to most of them. How could a freedman
+appeal a suit for wages, or respond adequately to an appeal, when he is
+starving for want of the very wages which are withheld from him?
+
+It may be claimed that officers of the bureau can watch such cases and see
+that justice is done the freedman. I say they cannot do it. Political
+power is against him, and will destroy any officer who fearlessly does his
+duty in this way. He will be charged with interference with the civil
+authority, with violating some constitution or some code; his acts will be
+so twisted and contorted before they reach Washington, that he will get
+nothing for his pains but censure and dismissal.
+
+I can say without fear of contradiction, that there has not occurred one
+instance of interference with civil authorities on the part of military
+officers in this State, unless they saw first that every law of justice
+was violated to such an extent as to arouse the indignation of any man
+born in a country where human beings have an equal right to justice before
+the tribunals of the land. Yet, if I am not mistaken, there is a growing
+impression, supported by this same political power in the south, that the
+officers in this State are tyrannical, meddlesome, and disposed to thwart
+the faithful efforts of the noble white people to reorganize the State.
+
+Many delegations of the citizens of this State have visited Washington for
+the purpose of getting their property returned, or of obtaining some other
+favor. They, in order to accomplish their desire, represent the feeling of
+their friends at home as very cordially disposed toward the United States
+government, and say that they all acquiesce in the freedom of the negroes.
+A little examination into the condition of affairs in this State will show
+that this is not the case, and that what the people do is only done in
+order that they may be restored to power so as to change the direction in
+which affairs are tending. I am afraid the profuse loyalty of the
+delegations to Washington is being taken as the sentiment of the masses,
+and is directing legislation and policy.
+
+It is idle to talk about these people working out this negro problem.
+People who will not admit that it is best, or even right, to educate the
+freedmen, are not the proper persons to be intrusted with the
+administration of justice to them. I have no hesitation in saying, that if
+the question of educating the colored people were to-day submitted to the
+whites of this State, they would vote against it in a body. Nine-tenths of
+the educated and refined class, who are supposed to have higher and nobler
+feelings, would vote against it.
+
+I have been called on by persons of this class, and asked to suppress the
+religious meetings among the colored people because they made so much
+noise! When I remonstrate with them and talk of religious freedom, and of
+the right of all to worship God in the manner most suited to their
+convictions of right, these gentlemen hold up their hands in horror at the
+idea. What would magistrates selected from these people do in reference to
+such complaints? Suppress the meeting, of course.
+
+A similar and much stronger prejudice exists against the establishment of
+schools for the negro's benefit. If federal bayonets were to-day removed
+from our midst, not a colored school would be permitted in the State. The
+teachers, perhaps, would not be tarred and feathered and hung, as they
+would have been in old times, but ways and means innumerable would present
+themselves by which to drive them out.
+
+The white citizens both of Vicksburg and Natchez have requested me not to
+establish freedmen schools inside their city limits, yet over one-half the
+population of these cities is composed of freed people--the class who are
+doing the work, toiling all day in the sun, while the white employers are
+reaping the benefit of their labor through superior knowledge, and are
+occupying their elegant leisure by talking and writing constantly about
+the demoralization of negro labor--that the negro won't work, &c.
+
+It is nonsense to talk so much about plans for getting the negroes to
+work. They do now and always have done, all the physical labor of the
+south, and if treated as they should be by their government, (which is so
+anxious to be magnanimous to the white people of this country, who never
+did work and never will,) they will continue to do so. Who are the workmen
+in these fields? Who are hauling the cotton to market, driving hacks and
+drays in the cities, repairing streets and railroads, cutting timber, and
+in every place raising the hum of industry? The freedmen, not the rebel
+soldiery. The southern white men, true to their instincts and training,
+are going to Mexico or Brazil, or talk of importing labor in the shape of
+Coolies, Irishmen--anything--anything to avoid work, any way to keep from
+putting their own shoulders to the wheel.
+
+The mass of the freedmen can and will support themselves by labor. They
+need nothing but justice before the courts of the land, impartial judges
+and juries, to encourage them in well-doing, or punish them for the
+violation of just laws, a chance to own the land and property they can
+honestly obtain, the free exercise of their right to worship God and
+educate themselves, and--let them alone.
+
+The delegates to Washington think that it is their duty, peculiarly, to
+see the President and arrange the affairs of the negro. Why don't they
+attend to their own business, or make arrangements for the working of the
+disbanded rebel army in the cotton fields and workshops of the south?
+There are to-day as many houseless, homeless, poor, wandering, idle white
+men here as there are negroes in the same condition, yet no arrangements
+are made for their working. All the trickery, chicanery and political
+power possible are being brought to bear on the poor negro, to make him do
+the hard labor for the whites, as in days of old.
+
+To this end the mass of the people are instinctively working. They
+steadily refuse to sell or lease lands to black men. Colored mechanics of
+this city, who have made several thousand dollars during the last two
+years, find it impossible to buy even land enough to put up a house on,
+yet white men can purchase any amount of land. The whites know that if
+negroes are not allowed to acquire property or become landholders, they
+must ultimately return to plantation labor, and work for wages that will
+barely support themselves and families, and they feel that this kind of
+slavery will be better than none at all.
+
+People who will do these things, after such a war, and so much misery,
+while federal bayonets are yet around them, are not to be intrusted with
+the education and development of a, race of slaves just liberated.
+
+I have made this letter longer than it should have been, and may have
+taxed your patience, yet I do not see how I could have said less, and
+expressed my views on the subject.
+
+I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+SAMUEL THOMAS,
+Colonel, Assistant Commissioner B.R.F. and A.L.
+for Mississippi and N.E. Louisiana.
+
+General CARL SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+No. 28.
+
+Mobile, Alabama, _September_ 9, 1865.
+
+Colonel George D. Robinson, 97th United States colored troops, states as
+follows:
+
+I was sent out to Connecuh, Covington, Coffee, Dale, and Henry counties,
+to administer the amnesty oath. I was at Covington myself, having officers
+under my orders stationed in the other four counties. I travelled through
+Connecuh and Covington; about the other counties I have reports from my
+officers. A general disposition was found among the planters to set the
+colored people who had cultivated their crops during the summer adrift as
+soon as the crops would be secured, and not to permit the negro to remain
+upon any footing of equality with the white man in that country.
+
+In none of the above-named counties I heard of a justice of the peace or
+other magistrate discharging the duties of an agent of the Freedmen's
+Bureau, nor did I hear of any of them willing to do so. I deem it
+necessary that some officers be sent out there to attend to the interests
+of the freedmen, in order to avoid the trouble and confusion which is
+almost certain to ensue unless the matter is attended to and regulated.
+
+I returned from Covington yesterday, September 8.
+
+GEO. D. ROBINSON,
+_Colonel 97th United States Infantry_.
+
+
+
+No. 29.
+
+MEMORANDUM OF A CONVERSATION BETWEEN WILLIAM KING, ESQ., OF SAVANNAH, AND
+CARL SCHURZ.
+
+Savannah, July 31, 1865.
+
+Question by Mr. Schurz. What are the ideas of the people in this State as
+to the future organization of your labor system?
+
+Answer. It is generally conceded that slavery is dead, but it is believed
+that the negro will not work unless compelled to. Money is no inducement
+that will incite him to work. He works for comfort, that is, he wants to
+gain something and then enjoy it immediately afterwards. He has no idea of
+the binding force of a contract, and it is questionable whether he ever
+will have.
+
+Question. So you consider the contract system, as it is now introduced
+here and there, a failure.
+
+Answer. In a number of cases that I know of it is a failure. The negroes
+are not doing the work they have contracted for. I know other cases in
+which they have remained with their former masters, work well, and produce
+fair crops.
+
+Question. In what manner, then, can, in your opinion, the free-labor
+system be made to work here?
+
+Answer. The negro must be kept in a state of tutelage, like a minor. For
+instance, he may be permitted to freely choose the master for whom he
+wants to work; he may bind himself for a year, and, for all practical
+purposes, the master must act as his guardian.
+
+Question. You think, then, something more is necessary than a mere
+contract system by which the negro is only held to fulfil his contract?
+
+Answer. Yes. The negro ought to be held in the position of a ward.
+
+Question. Do you not think the negro ought to be educated, and do you
+believe the people of this State would tax themselves for the purpose of
+establishing a general system of education?
+
+Answer. I think it would be well to have the negro educated, but I do not
+think the people of this State would tax themselves for such a purpose.
+The people are too poor and have too many other things to take care of. We
+have to look for that to the people of the North. The North having freed
+the negroes, ought to see to it that they be elevated. Besides, the poor
+whites are not in favor of general education at all. They are themselves
+very ignorant, and look upon education as something dangerous. For them we
+must have a system of compulsory education, or we cannot get them to send
+their children to school. A good many of the Hardshell Baptists among them
+look upon school-teachers as the emissaries of the devil.
+
+Question. How far do you think the people of this State would be prepared
+to grant the negro equality before the law? Would they, for instance, give
+him the right to testify in courts of justice against white men?
+
+Answer. I think not. It is generally believed that the negro has no idea
+of the sanctity of an oath.
+
+Question. Do you not think such disabilities would place the negro under
+such disadvantage in the race of life as to deprive him of a fair chance?
+
+Answer. This is the dilemma, in my opinion: either we admit the negro's
+testimony in courts of justice, and then our highest interests are placed
+at the mercy of a class of people who cannot be relied on when testifying
+under oath; or we deny the negro that right, and then he will not be in a
+position to properly defend his own interests, and will be a downtrodden,
+miserable creature.
+
+Question. Do you not think vagrancy laws and police regulations might be
+enacted, equally applicable to whites and blacks, which might obviate most
+of the difficulties you suggest as arising from the unwillingness of the
+negro to work?
+
+Answer. Perhaps they might; but the whites would not agree to that. The
+poor whites hate and are jealous of the negro, and the politicians will
+try and please the whites so as to get their votes.
+
+Question. Do you think it would be advisable to withdraw our military
+forces from the State if the civil government be restored at an early
+date?
+
+Answer. It would not be safe. There are a great many bad characters in the
+country who would make it for some time unsafe for known Union people, and
+for northerners who may settle down here, to live in this country without
+the protection of the military. The mere presence of garrisons will
+prevent much mischief. The presence of the military is also necessary to
+maintain the peace between the whites and blacks, and it will be necessary
+until their relations are settled upon a permanent and satisfactory basis.
+
+This memorandum was read by me to Mr. King and approved by him as a
+correct reproduction of the views he had expressed.
+
+C. SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+No. 30.
+
+_What the planter wants before he embarks his capital and time in the
+attempt to cultivate another crop.--Suggestions submitted by a committee
+at a meeting of planters, November 24, 1864_.
+
+_First_.--Above all, he wants an undoubted guarantee that the labor and
+teams, corn and hay, with which he begins the cultivation of another crop
+shall be secured to him for at least twelve months. From past experience,
+we know that, to be reliable, this guarantee must come from the government
+at Washington.
+
+_Second_.--Some mode of compelling laborers to perform ten (10) hours of
+faithful labor in each twenty-four hours, (Sundays excepted,) and strict
+obedience of all orders. This may be partially attained by a graduated
+system of fines, deduction of time or wages, deduction of rations of all
+kinds in proportion to time lost, rigidly enforced. But in obstinate cases
+it can only be done by corporal punishments, such as are inflicted in the
+army and navy of the United States. In light cases of disobedience of
+orders and non-performance of duty the employer should impose fines, &c.
+The corporal punishment should be inflicted by officers appointed by the
+superintendent of "colored labor," who might, from time to time, visit
+each plantation in a parish, and ascertain whether the laborer was
+satisfied with his treatment, and whether he performed his part of the
+contract, and thus the officer would qualify himself by his own
+information to correct any abuse that might exist, and award equal justice
+to each party. The plan of sending off refractory laborers to work on
+government plantations is worse than useless. A planter always plants as
+much land as he believes he has labor to cultivate efficiently, neither
+more nor less. If less, a portion of his laborers are idle a part of their
+time; if more, his crops must suffer from the want of proper cultivation.
+If the laborers do not work faithfully, and their work is not judiciously
+directed, either from want of skill on the part of him who directs the
+labor, or from the refusal or failure of the laborers from any cause to do
+the work as it ought to be done, the crops must suffer. If, then, a
+portion of labor necessary to cultivate a certain amount of land is
+abstracted by sending it to work anywhere else, the crop must fail in
+proportion to the amount of labor abstracted. It must therefore be
+apparent to all that the amount of prompt, faithful, and well-directed
+labor, necessary to cultivate a given quantity of land efficiently, must
+be available at all times, when the cultivator deems it necessary, or the
+crops must necessarily, to a greater or less extent, prove a failure.
+
+_Third_.--The rate of wages should be fixed--above which no one should be
+allowed to go. There should be at least four classes of hands, both male
+and female. If the laborer should be furnished, as this year, 1864, with
+clothing, shoes, rations, houses, wood, medicine, &c., the planter cannot
+afford to pay any more wages than this year, and to some hands not so
+much. Wages should not be paid oftener than once a quarter. As long as a
+negro has a dime in his pocket he will go every Saturday to some store or
+town. Besides, if the men have money once a month they are constantly
+corrupting the women, who will not work because they expect to get money
+of the men. If the laborers are to pay for all their supplies, some think
+higher wages could be paid; but it would be necessary to require the negro
+to supply himself with at least two suits of clothes, one pair of shoes, a
+hat, and four pounds of pork or bacon, one peck of corn meal a week,
+vegetables at least twice a week, for a first-class hand. The laborer
+should pay for his medicine, medical attendance, nursing, &c.; also, house
+rent, $5 a month, water included; wood at $2 a cord in the tree, or $4 a
+cord cut and delivered. Instead of money, each employer should be required
+to pay once a week in tickets issued and signed by himself or agent, not
+transferable to any one off the premises of him who issues them,
+redeemable by the issuer quarterly in current funds, and to be received by
+him in the purchase of goods, provisions, &c., which he sold at current
+prices.
+
+_Fourth_.--A law to punish most severely any one who endeavors, by
+offering higher wages, gifts, perquisites, &c., &c., to induce a negro to
+leave his employer before the expiration of the term for which he has
+engaged to labor without the consent of said employer.
+
+_Fifth_.--Wages to be quarterly. One-half to be retained to the end of the
+year, unless it is found that more than half is required to maintain a man
+and his family.
+
+_Sixth_.--Lost time to be deducted from wages daily; fines to be charged
+daily; rations, of all kinds, to be docked in proportion to the time lost
+during the week, if rations are to be supplied.
+
+_Seventh_.--Fines to be imposed for disobedience of any orders.
+
+_Eighth_.--During sugar-making the laborer should be required to work at
+night as well as during the day. For night-work he might be allowed double
+wages for the time he works.
+
+_Ninth_.--The negroes should not be allowed to go from one plantation to
+another without the written permit of their employer, nor should they be
+allowed to go to any town or store without written permission.
+
+_Tenth_.--That the laborers should be required to have their meals cooked
+in a common kitchen by the plantation cooks, as heretofore. At present
+each family cook for themselves. If there be twenty-five houses on a
+plantation worked by one hundred hands, there are lighted, three times
+every day, winter and summer, for the purpose of cooking, twenty-five (25)
+fires, instead of one or two, which are quite as many as are necessary. To
+attend these twenty-five fires there must be twenty-five cooks. The
+extravagance in wood and the loss of time by this mode must be apparent to
+all. Making the negroes pay for the wood they burn, and for fencing lumber
+of any kind, would have a tendency to stop this extravagant mode of doing
+business. They should also be fined heavily or suffer some kind of
+corporal punishment for burning staves, hoop-poles, shingles, plank,
+spokes, &c., which they now constantly do.
+
+_Eleventh_.--None but regularly ordained ministers should be allowed to
+preach. At present on every plantation there are a number of preachers.
+Frequent meetings are held at night, continuing from 7 or 8 p.m. until
+1 or 2 o'clock a.m. The day after one of these long meetings many of
+the laborers are unfit to labor; neither are the morals of the negroes
+improved by these late meetings, nor the health. The night meetings should
+break up at 10 p.m., and there should be but one a week on a plantation.
+Some of the preachers privately promulgate the most immoral doctrines.
+
+_Twelfth_.--A police guard or patrol should be established under the
+control of the superintendent of free labor, whose duty it shall be, under
+their officers, to enforce the rules and regulations that the
+superintendent of free labor may think best to adopt for the government of
+the laborers and their families on plantations and in private families.
+
+_Thirteenth_.--The laborers are at present extremely careless of the
+teams, carts, wagons, gear, tools, and material of all kinds put in their
+possession, and should therefore be held accountable for the same. Parents
+should be held liable for things stolen or destroyed by their children not
+over twelve years of age.
+
+_Fourteenth_.--Foremen should be fined whenever they fail to report any of
+the laborers under them who disobey orders of any kind. The foreman at the
+stable should be required especially to report neglect or ill treatment of
+teams by their drivers, and he should be held liable for all tools and
+halters, &c., put in the stable.
+
+_Fifteenth_.--The unauthorized purchase of clothing or other property by
+laborers, or others domesticated on plantations, should be severely
+punished, and so should the sale by laborers or others domesticated on
+plantations of plantation products without a written permission be
+punished by fine, imprisonment, and obstinate cases by corporal
+punishment. The sale or furnishing of intoxicating liquor of any kind to
+laborers or others domesticated on plantations should be severely
+punished.
+
+_Sixteenth_.--The possession of arms or other dangerous weapons without
+authority should be punished by fine or imprisonment and the arms
+forfeited.
+
+_Seventeenth_.--No one, white or colored, with or without passes, should
+have authority to go into a quarter without permission of the proprietor
+of said quarter. Should any insist upon going in, or be found in a quarter
+without permission of the proprietor, he should be arrested at once by the
+proprietor.
+
+_Eighteenth_.--Fighting and quarrelling should be prohibited under severe
+penalties, especially husbands whipping their wives.
+
+_Nineteenth_.--Laborers and all other persons domesticated on plantations
+or elsewhere should be required to be respectful in tone, manner, and
+language to their employers, and proprietors of the plantations or places
+on which they reside, or be fined and imprisoned.
+
+_Twentieth_.--The whole study, aim, and object of the negro laborer now is
+how to avoid work and yet have a claim for wages, rations, clothes, &c.
+
+
+
+No. 31.
+
+OAK FOREST, NEAR TIGERVILLE STATION,
+
+_N.O. and O. Railroad, December_ 1, 1864.
+
+Dear Sir: The earnest desire you have manifested to make the negro laborer
+under the new order of things successful, makes me the more disposed to
+offer every assistance in my power to that end. I have no prejudices to
+overcome; I would do the blacks all the good in my power consistently with
+their welfare and the welfare of the country; I owe them no ill will, but
+I am well satisfied that it will demand the highest skill and the largest
+experience combined to make the new system work successfully, when
+hitherto all others, including our own two years' experience, have
+signally failed. No namby-pamby measures will do. We may have more psalm
+singing, more night preaching, greater excesses in the outward
+manifestation of religion, but depend upon it there will be less true
+morality, less order, less truthfulness, less honest industry. It is not
+the experiment of a few only, or of a day, but of an _institution_, if
+anything, for millions; the mixing in industrial association of separate
+races hitherto distinct; of systems fundamentally changed and not of mere
+individuals, and the man who does not rise to the height of the great
+argument fails before he starts. It is not to listen to babblers, to
+_professional_ philanthropists, to quacks and demagogues: it demands a
+manly, masculine, vigorous exercise of executive power, adapted to the
+circumstances of the case. Nobody is absolutely free, white or black. I
+have been a slave all my life; you have been the same. We were subject to
+discipline from childhood, and the negro as well, and must continue to be
+subject to wholesome restraints all of us.
+
+It is well to consider that the measures of the government have rendered
+labor scarce. It would be safe to say there is not _half a supply_; that
+every sort of inducement will be held out to get labor away from present
+situations; that the inclination of all who are unincumbered is, to get to
+the city and its neighborhood. Every planter has some already there,
+living most unprofitably. I have half a dozen, some under the agreement of
+the present year. Concentration is the order of the day, and none but
+those who can command the largest sum of money will be able to carry on
+plantations with any hope of success. I take leave to add some
+suggestions, believing you will receive them with the same friendly spirit
+in which they are offered. I am still surrounded by my own servants, and
+would like to see the system so ordered that they would still find it to
+their advantage to remain in their present comfortable homes.
+
+Wages, rules, and regulations should be fixed and uniform: nothing left to
+discretion.
+
+A penalty should be inflicted on every employer who deviates from the
+established rates, _maximum_ rates.
+
+No field crops should be raised by hired laborers. The evils attending
+this are numerous and insurmountable.
+
+Wages should be extremely moderate on account of the unsteadiness of labor
+and exceeding uncertainty of crops of all sorts, but especially of cane
+and cotton.
+
+Cooking for hands should be confined absolutely to one kitchen, and a
+charge made for all wood taken to their houses; a certain supply should be
+allowed, and no additional quantity permitted at any price: otherwise no
+plantation can long stand the enormous, wasteful consumption of fuel.
+
+All necessary expenditures for the blacks, old as well as young, should be
+borne by themselves. White laborers are all liable to such charges, and
+why not wasteful and improvident blacks? They should be early taught the
+value of what they consume as well as the other costs of living.
+
+About keeping stock the rule should be absolute.
+
+No travelling about, day or night, without a written sanction from the
+proper person. The violation of this order by a commanding officer has
+brought the small-pox on my place and already eight grown hands have died
+with it, and there are not less than twenty invalids besides: this is one
+of the evils.
+
+Medicine and professional attendance a charge to the patient, as well as
+all educational arrangements.
+
+Every ploughman or woman, and teamster, to be obliged to feed and curry
+his or her team once at least every day.
+
+Payments beyond proper and prescribed supplies to be small, the smaller
+the better, and still better if withheld till the crop is made and saved;
+but settlements by tickets should be made weekly. (A share in the crop is
+the best for both parties.) I do not perceive the utility of "home
+colonies;" they belong to the class of _theories_ more than anything else.
+Families should be kept together and at the "homes" to which they have
+been accustomed, if possible, and _made_ to support themselves, all who
+are able to do so. At present there are many who will not do this because
+they are made a charge on the master or employer. Vagrants should be
+punished; _work is a necessity_. But I only put down a few particulars to
+_impress_ upon your mind as they occur to me.
+
+I know the difficult task you have undertaken. You have a giant to manage,
+and you will have to exercise a giant's strength. You have no less than to
+revise the teachings of all past history. You have to accomplish what has
+never been accomplished before. Neither in the east nor in the west has
+the African been found to work voluntarily; but the experiment is to be
+tried anew in this country, and I shall lend my assistance, whatever it
+is, to help on in the road to success, if that be possible. I have tried
+it two years under the military without success, or the prospect of it.
+If, however, I can in any way assist you to gain the meed of success, both
+my own interest and my kind feelings towards you combine to prompt me to
+renewed efforts in the cause.
+
+I remain, very respectfully and truly, yours,
+
+T. GIBSON.
+
+Hon. B.F. FLANDERS.
+
+P.S.--The great desideratum in obtaining labor from free blacks is its
+_enforcement_. How is this to be done? Formerly the known authority
+possessed by the master over the slave, prevented in a great degree the
+exercise of it. The knowledge now, on the part of the blacks, that the
+military authority has forbidden any authority over them, increases the
+very necessity of the power which is forbidden. This is palpable to any
+one who sees with an experienced eye for a day. There can necessarily be
+no order, day or night, no fidelity, no morality, no industry. _It is so_,
+speculate and theorize as we may. I wish it were different; it is a great
+pity to witness these deplorable effects.
+
+Disease is scattered broadcast; my own stock has been for some time
+consumed, except a few milch cows. The sugar from the sugar-houses has
+been sold in quantities in every direction. The cotton of one plantation
+has been sold to the extent of half the crop to a white man, and only by
+the merest accident discovered in time to be detected. My neighbor's hogs
+have been taken from the pen, killed and brought home for consumption; his
+cattle the same. These things are within my knowledge by the merest
+accident, but there is absolutely no remedy, because their testimony is as
+good, if not better than mine, and this they know perfectly well. In a
+case of sugar-selling, I had the oath of a disinterested white man to the
+fact, and the black and white man identified by the witness. When this
+witness was through with his testimony, the negro man, the interested
+party, _the accused himself_, was called up by the provost marshal, and of
+course he swore himself innocent, and so he was _cleared_. In the case of
+the cotton not a negro can be brought to confess, notwithstanding the
+confession of the white man and the surrender of the cotton. How, then,
+can good order, good morals and honest industry be maintained when
+immunity from punishment is patent to their understandings?
+
+I know no remedy adequate to the circumstances but an always present power
+to enforce law and order, and this now requires the constant presence of
+the bayonet. Which is the best, a regular military government, or the
+quiet, humane exercise of just so much authority as the case demands, by
+the master, who has every motive, human and divine, to exercise humanity
+and protect his slave from injustice and injury?
+
+The past, or rather the present year, we had nothing but blank orders, and
+these are of no avail whatever without enforcement; and this brings us
+back to the starting-point again, and the bayonet again, and so it is to
+the end of the chapter. Moral suasion will not do for whites who have had
+freedom as an inheritance, and education within their reach. How then can
+it be expected that he who has been predestined by the Almighty to be a
+servant of servants all the days of his life, shall be capable of at once
+rising to motives of human conduct higher than those possessed by the
+white man?
+
+All that my reason teaches and the experience I have had, and the history
+I have read, bring me to the same conclusion: you must utterly fail unless
+you add the stimulus of _corporal punishment_ to the admonitions of the
+law; but as this would be somewhat inconsistent with the freedom which our
+solons have decreed, I must only confess my inability to prescribe the
+orthodox remedies according to the received dogmas from the inspired
+sources of knowledge at the north above all the lessons I have learned
+heretofore, and entirely above everything I expect to learn hereafter.
+
+
+
+No. 32.
+
+FREEDMEN'S BUREAU,
+
+_Shreveport, La., August_ 1, 1865.
+
+Sir: At the date of my last monthly report, (July 2d,) the free-labor
+system in western Louisiana was an experiment. No contracts between the
+planters and freedmen had then been entered into, and the difficulties to
+be met with and overcome by the contracting parties were new to each. The
+herculean task of removing the objections which the freedmen offered to
+signing a "contract," and of eradicating the prejudice existing among the
+planters against countenancing the employment upon their plantations as
+free men of those whom they had so long and firmly held in bondage,
+devolved upon the agents of the bureau.
+
+The objection presented by the freedmen consisted chiefly in the fact that
+they had _no confidence whatever_ in the word of their "old masters." Said
+they, in substance, "We cannot trust the power that has never accorded us
+any privileges. Our former oppressors show by their actions that they
+would sooner retard than advance our prosperity." While in nine cases out
+of ten the freedmen eagerly and readily acceded to fair terms for their
+labor when the matter was explained by a government agent, exactly in the
+same ratio did they refuse to listen to any proposition made by the
+planter alone.
+
+Their readiness to comprehend their situation and to enter into an
+agreement to work when enlightened by an agent of the bureau, or, in
+exceptional cases, when the planters sought in a kind and philanthropic
+spirit to explain to them their relations to society and the government,
+is conclusive proof that the disposition to be idle formed no part of the
+reason for their refusing to contract with their former masters.
+
+With these facts in view, it will be readily perceived that the only
+feasible mode of success was to send agents into the country to visit
+every plantation. This was undertaken; but with no funds to procure the
+services of assistants, and with the difficulty of obtaining the right
+class of men for these positions from the army, the progress made has not
+been as rapid or the work as effectual as it would have been under more
+favorable circumstances. Partial returns have been received, as follows:
+
+From Bienville parish        248 contracts.
+ "   Bossier parish           14    "
+ "   Caddo parish            172    "
+ "   DeSoto parish           246    "
+ "   Marion county, Texas    206    "
+                             ---
+Total received               886    "
+                             ===
+
+Returns are yet to be received from the parishes of Claiborne,
+Natchitoches, Winn and Sabine, and from Harrison county, Texas. These will
+all be given in by the 15th inst., and I shall then be able to determine
+the exact number employed upon each plantation and laboring under the new
+system. Regarding the average number employed upon each plantation in the
+parish of Caddo as a basis for an estimate, the returned rolls will foot
+up a list of 7,088 names, and the whole number of freedmen contracted with
+during the month of July in the district under my supervision will not
+probably exceed 20,000, or fall short of 15,000.
+
+During the month a sufficient length of time has elapsed to render
+judgment to a certain extent upon the workings of the new system. That it
+has not satisfied a majority of the planters is a conclusion which, from
+their disposition at first, was evident would be arrived at. That the
+freedmen have accepted the arrangements devised by the government for
+their protection so readily and have worked so faithfully, is a matter
+for congratulation.
+
+The planters at first expected that, though the power to "control" the
+persons of the laborers had been torn from them by the stern requirements
+of war, the agents of the bureau would, through the military, confine the
+negro to their plantations and compel him to labor for them. In this way
+it was thought that the same _regime_ as pursued in times of slavery could
+be kept up, and it was this idea which prompted a planter, noted for his
+frankness, to remark "that the people of the south desired the government
+to continue this supervision for a term of years." Finding that their
+ideas of the policy of the government were erroneous, and that they could
+not exercise this "controlling power" either directly or indirectly, and
+that the freedman was to be placed, as nearly as the circumstances
+surrounding his situation would permit, upon the same grounds as the white
+laborer, it is but a logical sequence that the planters should be
+disappointed and dissatisfied with the work performed by the freedmen.
+
+In this place it may be well to notice that the country is yet in a very
+unsettled condition. After a four years' war which has sapped it of all
+its resources, and after a life-long servitude for a hard taskmaster, the
+negro is liberated from bondage, and he finds the people of the country in
+no condition to offer him the most advantageous terms for his services.
+This, with the natural desire experienced by all mankind for a period of
+repose after that of incessant and forced labor, is one of the causes
+which have contributed to render the freedmen negligent and inconstant at
+their work.
+
+Reports are constantly brought to this office by the negroes from the
+interior that freedmen have been kidnapped and summarily disposed of.
+These obtain circulation and credence among all classes, and, whether true
+or not, operate disadvantageously to the interests of both the planters
+and the freedmen.
+
+Again, the threat of shooting the laborers, so frequently made by the
+planters, is very unwise, and usually has the effect of causing a general
+stampede from the plantation where the threat was made. The fact that the
+body of a negro was seen hanging from a tree in Texas, near the Louisiana
+line; and of the murder in cold blood, in the northern part of the parish
+of Caddo, of Mary, a colored woman, by John Johnson, the son of the
+proprietor of the plantation where the woman worked; and that instances
+have repeatedly occurred similar to a case presented at my office, where
+an old man had received a blow over his head with a shillalah one inch
+in diameter, which was so severe as to snap the stick asunder; and also
+the fracturing of the skull and the breaking of the arm of a helpless,
+inoffensive colored woman by a vindictive planter in the parish of
+Natchitoches; and the statement of one of my agents, who says that "upon
+half the plantations the freedmen are not well clothed and their rations
+are scanty;" and of another who has visited every plantation in ward
+No. --, parish of ----, who reports at the close of the month as follows:
+"The freedmen in my ward are very poorly clothed and fed, although no
+particular complaints have been made as yet;" should all be taken into
+consideration in arriving at conclusions in regard to the disposition of
+the freedmen to work, and before judgment is rendered upon the complaints
+of the major portion of the planters; and it is also useless to disguise
+the fact that among the freedmen, as among all classes of people, there
+are many ill-disposed as well as idle persons, and a few of these upon
+each plantation create dissatisfaction among the others.
+
+Notwithstanding the complaints of the planters and the above-named facts,
+the existence of which would cause a disturbance among any class of
+laborers in the world, the majority of the planters have been eager to
+contract with their former slaves, for the reason that after their
+plantations had been visited by an agent of the government, and an
+agreement had been made upon the prescribed forms, the freedmen worked
+better than before. This is a matter of significance, and its bearing is
+readily seen. Having noticed the disapprobation of the larger portion of
+the planting community, and the causes which led to their complaints, I
+desire to call your attention in this connexion to the report of one of
+my most experienced agents. It is as follows:
+
+"In all cases have the employees given satisfaction where their former
+masters are at all reasonable. I would mention the case of Jacob Hoss as
+an example: he contracted with his former slaves in the latter part of May
+for one-fourth of all his crops; they have been steady and industrious,
+and have decidedly the finest cotton and corn in the district." Mr. Hoss
+has 200 acres of cotton, 400 of corn, and 8 of potatoes. Your attention is
+also solicited to the testimony of the _liberal few_ who have taken the
+amnesty oath with the intention to keep it. One says: "The freedmen in my
+neighborhood are laboring well where they are well paid." Another, a large
+land proprietor, states that "he could not ask his hands to work better."
+The same gentleman also states that "he would not have the freedmen upon
+his plantation made slaves again if he could."
+
+The testimony is concurrent that, where liberal wages are paid and the
+freedmen are kindly treated, no difficulty is experienced with them, and
+that they labor honestly and industriously. The complaints which have been
+presented at the office for consideration are very nearly in a direct
+ratio of the two classes, but the wrongs of the freedmen are by far the
+most aggravated, as they suffer in almost every conceivable way. It has
+been necessary to fine and assess damages upon several planters for
+beating their laborers, and also to punish several freedmen for violating
+their contracts and for other misdemeanors. The following is a literal
+copy of a document brought to this office by a colored man, which is
+conclusive evidence that there _are_ those who still claim the negro as
+their property:
+
+"This boy Calvin has permit to hire to whome he please, but I shall hold
+him as my propperty untill set Free by Congress.
+
+"July the 7, 1865. E.V. TULLY."
+
+The spirit of the above also made its appearance in another form in the
+action of the police jury of the parish of Bossier, which was an attempt
+to revive at once the old slave laws, and to prevent the freedmen from
+obtaining employment from the plantations of their former masters. The
+gist of the enactment alluded to is contained in the paragraph directing
+the officers on patrol duty "to arrest and take up all idle and vagrant
+persons running at large without employment, and carry them before the
+proper authority, to be dealt with as the law directs."
+
+As soon as this matter came under the observation of the bureau, the facts
+in the case were represented to Brevet Major General J.P. Hawkins,
+commanding western district of Louisiana, and at the same time a request
+was made that the restrictions imposed upon the freedmen in this section
+by General Orders No. 24, headquarters northern division of Louisiana, be
+revoked; and the general issued an order, dated July 31, which removes the
+said restrictions, and prohibits the parish police juries, established by
+the civil authorities, from arresting freedmen unless for positive offence
+against the law. This breaks down the last barrier to the enjoyment of
+liberty by the freedmen in western Louisiana, and I feel highly gratified
+that it has been accomplished without referring it to higher authorities,
+as our mail facilities are so irregular that at least two months would
+have been consumed by the operation.
+
+Upon the 10th of July the freedmen's hospital was opened for the reception
+of patients, and enclosed please find a copy of the hospital report for
+July, marked 1. This is a necessary as well as a charitable institution,
+as the city authorities have as yet taken no measures to provide for the
+indigent sick.
+
+Since the establishment of the bureau here, it has been found necessary to
+issue rations to freedmen, as follows:
+
+To citizen employees                          46
+To helpless and infirm                      236
+To sick and hospital attendants           1,169
+                                          -----
+Total issued                              1,451
+                                          =====
+
+The number fed by the government to-day is as follows:
+
+Men                                           7
+Women                                         6
+Children                                     10
+                                             --
+Total number infirm and helpless rationed    23
+
+Number sick at hospital                      40
+Number hospital attendants                   24
+Number citizen employees rationed              1
+                                             --
+Total number supplied with rations           88
+                                             ==
+
+None but the helpless and infirm and sick have been fed at the expense
+of the government, and these only in cases of absolute necessity. Many
+planters who abandoned their homes on the Mississippi and carried away
+their slaves to Texas have returned to this city, and with a coolness
+amounting to audacity have demanded transportation for their former
+slaves to various points from the mouth of the Red river to Lake
+Providence. Finding that the officers of the government would not oblige
+them in this particular, they left behind the aged and infirm to provide
+for themselves as best they could. This and the abuses on plantations
+have caused the principal suffering among the freedmen, and have brought
+many to the city who otherwise would have remained upon the plantation,
+but, all things being considered, comparatively few have congregated
+about town. There has been such a demand for day labor in the city that I
+have deemed it a false philanthropy to feed those who temporarily sought
+refuge from oppression.
+
+The permanent residents are orderly and industrious, and desire very much
+to have schools established for their children. I cannot here refrain
+from mentioning the fact that the presence of negroes in town possessing
+free papers is extremely disagreeable to the citizens.
+
+The tax collected of planters has thus far been sufficient to defray
+office and printing expenses. The hire of a surgeon and nurses for the
+hospital, amounting in July to $204.46, is the only bill which it is
+necessary to refer to you for payment. All the property and money which
+has come into my hands on account of the bureau has been accounted for to
+the proper departments, according to regulations.
+
+By Special Orders No. 140, dated at headquarters northern division of
+Louisiana, June 21, 1865, Chaplain Thomas Callahan, 48th United States
+colored infantry, was assigned to duty with me as my assistant, and he
+has had charge of the department of complaints. He is a very capable and
+efficient officer, and his services are very valuable to the bureau.
+
+Again, I have occasion to return acknowledgments to Brigadier General
+J.C. Veatch for his cordial assistance in aiding me to carry out the
+measures of the bureau, and also to Colonel Crandal and Lieutenant
+Colonel McLaughlin, post commandants, for valuable aid; and to Brevet
+Major General J.P. Hawkins we are indebted for that which makes the
+colored man in reality a _free_ man.
+
+Believing that with proper management and kind treatment the freedmen in
+western Louisiana will be found to be as industrious as laborers in other
+sections of the country,
+
+I have the honor to be, with much respect, your obedient servant,
+
+W.B. STICKNEY,
+_Lieutenant and Assistant Superintendent Freedmen_.
+
+THOMAS W. CONWAY,
+_Assistant Commissioner Bureau of Freedmen. &c._
+
+
+
+No. 33.
+
+FREEDMEN'S BUREAU,
+
+_Shreveport, Louisiana, August_ 26, 1865.
+
+Sir: I have the honor to report, in accordance with orders, that in the
+district under my supervision, comprising eight parishes in Louisiana and
+two counties in Texas, and an area of about 13,764 square miles, 3,105
+contracts have been made, and 27,830 laborers enrolled since the first
+of July. The work of making contracts is now nearly completed, but the
+returns for the month of August from the officers acting in the different
+parishes have not as yet been received. From the data already collected
+it will be safe to estimate the whole number of laborers working under
+the contract system in the district at not less than 32,000, 25,000 of
+whom are in Louisiana.
+
+The experience of two months has demonstrated the fact that the negro will
+work well when he is well paid and kindly treated; and another principle
+in the nature of the contracting parties has been equally as clearly
+elucidated, _i.e_., the planters are disposed to pay the freedmen the
+least possible sum for their labor, and that for much compensation the
+freedmen make an offset by making as little as possible. To acknowledge
+the right of the negro to freedom, and to regard him as a free man
+entitled to the benefits of his labor and to all the privileges and
+immunities of citizenship, is to throw aside the dogmas for which the
+south have been contending for the last thirty years, and seems to be too
+great a stride for the people to take at once, and too unpalatable a truth
+for the aristocratic planter to comprehend, without the interposition of
+the stern logic of the bayonet in the hands of a colored soldier. Duty to
+my government compels me to report the following well-authenticated facts:
+
+1. Nineteen-twentieths of the planters have no disposition to pay the
+negro well or treat him well.
+
+2. In the same proportion the planting aristocracy proffers obedience to
+the government, and at the same time do all in their power to make
+trouble.
+
+3. The planters evince a disposition to throw all the helpless and infirm
+freedmen upon the hands of the government possible, in order to embarrass
+us and compel us to return them to slavery again.
+
+4. A majority of the planters desire to prevent the success of the
+free-labor system, that they may force Congress to revive slavery, or,
+what is more, a system of peonage.
+
+5. The belief is general among the planters that without some means of
+"controlling" the persons of the laborers they cannot succeed; and for
+this reason they desire to have the military force removed, and the
+privilege of enacting such laws as will enable them to retain this power.
+
+6. To defraud, oppress, and maltreat the freedmen seems to be the
+principle governing the action of more than half of those who make
+contracts with them.
+
+7. The lives of the freedmen are frequently threatened, and murders are
+not of uncommon occurrence.
+
+8. The life of a northern man who is true to his country and the spirit
+and genius of its institutions, and frankly enunciates his principles, is
+not secure where there is not a military force to protect him.
+
+About the 15th of July Corporal J.M. Wallace, of company B, forty-seventh
+Indiana Veteran volunteer infantry, was on duty with this bureau, and
+engaged in making contracts upon Red river, in the parish of Caddo. He
+visited Mr. Daniel's plantation, and, as it is stated, started for Mr.
+White's place, but never reached it. Being absent unaccountably, a
+sergeant and a detail of four men were sent to look him up, but could
+find no trace of him. Without doubt he was murdered. He was a young man
+of unexceptionable habits and character, and was highly esteemed by the
+officers of his regiment. The circumstances of the case are such as to
+lead to the belief that the planters in the vicinity connived at his
+death. Captain Hoke, another agent of the bureau, was stopped by a
+highwayman within eight miles of Shreveport. One of my assistants reports
+as follows: "In the northern part of this parish (Cuddo) there are men
+armed and banded to resist the law." These facts prove that the presence
+of a military force is needed in every parish. Instead of the present
+system of districts, I would recommend that the officer for each parish
+report direct to headquarters at New Orleans for instructions, and that
+each officer be furnished with at least twenty men, ten of whom should be
+mounted. I apprehend that at the commencement of the next year the
+planters will endeavor to load us down with the aged and infirm, and
+those with large families. To meet this and other difficulties that
+may arise, I recommend that at least five thousand acres of land be
+confiscated in every parish, and an opportunity given the freedmen to
+rent or purchase the land, and that every facility be afforded planters
+in the lower part of the State to obtain laborers from western Louisiana.
+Another remedy has been suggested, and as it meets with my approval I
+quote the recommendations of the officer in his own words: "Let the white
+troops on duty in this department be mustered out; they are greatly
+dissatisfied with remaining in the service after the close of the war;
+let black troops be mustered in their stead. In urging this matter, I
+suggest that the government has the first right to the services of the
+freedmen, and he needs the discipline of the army to develop his manhood
+and self-reliance. Such a course of recruiting black soldiers will act
+as a powerful restraint upon the abuses practiced by the planters on
+the freedmen, and will also compel the payment of better wages. If the
+planter wishes the services of a shrewd, enterprising freedman, he
+must out-bid the government. Lastly, the country needs the soldiers.
+Politicians may say what they may; western Louisiana is no more loyal
+now than when the State adopted the ordinance of secession."
+
+The statistics given at the commencement prove that we have experienced
+less difficulty with the freedmen than could have been expected. At times
+it has been necessary to adopt stringent measures to stem the tide of
+freedmen that seemed to be setting in toward Shreveport, and many of them
+have such vague ideas of the moral obligations of a contract that it has
+been necessary to strengthen them by imprisonment and hard labor; but the
+great and insuperable difficulty which meets us at every step is, _that
+the planters and the freedmen have no confidence in and respect for each
+other_. The planters inform us that they are the best friends of the
+negro, but the freedmen fail to see the matter in that light. I am well
+assured that as a general rule the old planters and overseers can never
+succeed with the freedmen; that there must be an entire change in either
+laborers or proprietors before the country will again be prosperous. The
+plan of renting lands to the freedmen, as proposed by a few planters, I
+am of the opinion will prove very profitable to both parties. While, as a
+general rule, there is constant difficulty between the freedmen and their
+old masters and overseers, my agents and northern men have no trouble
+with them; and should the planters employ practical farmers from the
+north as business managers, it seems to be well demonstrated that the
+free-labor system, as it now is, with but slight modifications, would be
+a grand success. In this connexion I cannot refrain from noticing the
+assertion of a southern politician to the effect "that were the freedmen
+enfranchised, nine out of ten of them would vote for their old masters,"
+which assertion every freedman will pronounce a wilful and malignant
+falsehood.
+
+The country is full of arms, and their use upon the freedmen is so
+frequent, and the general disposition of the people such, that I would
+strongly recommend, as a measure to secure the safety of life and
+property, that all classes of arms be taken from the citizens, not to be
+returned until an entirely different disposition is evinced.
+
+The system to be made binding for the next year should be published as
+early as the 15th of October, and the matter of contracting be commenced
+as soon thereafter as the parties desire to do so. I would respectfully
+suggest the propriety for calling of such statistical matter upon the
+back of the contract as will enable the officer in charge of the
+educational interests to determine the whole number of freedmen residing
+in the different parishes, and also the number of children of school age.
+
+The establishment of schools will be met by the most venomous opposition,
+and a military force will be required to protect the teacher and scholars
+from insult and injury unless the tone of public sentiment improves very
+rapidly.
+
+The civil authorities, so far as my knowledge extends, are not willing to
+grant the freedmen the rights to which their freedom entitles them. In
+fact it became necessary, as will be seen by a former report, for the
+military authorities to interfere to prevent their being virulently
+oppressed. In consequence of this I have kept an officer constantly on
+duty adjusting the difficulties arising between the whites and negroes,
+but important cases have been referred to the military authorities.
+
+Chaplain Thomas Callahan, the officer referred to above, in his last
+report says:
+
+"To many of the planters the idea of a negro's testimony being as good as
+a white man's is very unpleasant, and occasional attempts are made to
+bully and browbeat a colored witness upon the stand. The attempt is never
+made twice. Once I pitted a lawyer against a negro witness, held the
+parties on the cross-examination, and the lawyer was badly beaten. Some
+of the freedmen can conduct a case with uncommon shrewdness."
+
+I cannot urge upon your attention too strongly the importance of keeping
+an officer in every parish and of providing him with a sufficient guard
+to command respect and enforce obedience to the laws. The presence of a
+military force, with judicious and discreet officers to command it, is
+the only means of securing to the freedmen their rights and of giving
+proper security to life and property.
+
+With many thanks for that encouragement which has supported and cheered
+me through every difficulty, I have the honor to be, with much respect,
+your most obedient servant,
+
+W.B. STICKNEY,
+_Lieutenant and Assistant Superintendent of Freedmen_.
+
+THOMAS W. CONWAY,
+_Assistant Commissioner, &c._
+
+
+
+No. 34.
+
+Ordinance relative to the police of recently emancipated negroes or
+freedmen within the corporate limits of the town of Opelousas.
+
+Whereas the relations formerly subsisting between master and slave have
+become changed by the action of the controlling authorities; and whereas
+it is necessary to provide for the proper police and government of the
+recently emancipated negroes or freedmen in their new relations to the
+municipal authorities:
+
+SECTION 1. _Be it therefore ordained by the board of police of the town
+of Opelousas_, That no negro or freedman shall be allowed to come within
+the limits of the town of Opelousas without special permission from his
+employers, specifying the object of his visit and the time necessary for
+the accomplishment of the same. Whoever shall violate this provision
+shall suffer imprisonment and two days' work on the public streets, or
+shall pay a fine of two dollars and fifty cents.
+
+SECTION 2. _Be it further ordained_, That every negro freedman who shall
+be found on the streets of Opelousas after 10 o'clock at night without a
+written pass or permit from his employer shall be imprisoned and
+compelled to work five days on the public streets, or pay a fine of five
+dollars.
+
+SECTION 3. No negro or freedman shall be permitted to rent or keep a
+house within the limits of the town under any circumstances, and any one
+thus offending shall be ejected and compelled to find an employer or
+leave the town within twenty-four hours. The lessor or furnisher of the
+house leased or kept as above shall pay a fine of ten dollars for each
+offence.
+
+SECTION 4. No negro or freedman shall reside within the limits of the
+town of Opelousas who is not in the regular service of some white person
+or former owner, who shall be held responsible for the conduct of said
+freedman; but said employer or former owner may permit said freedman to
+hire his time by special permission in writing, which permission shall
+not extend over twenty-four hours at any one time. Any one violating the
+provisions of this, section shall be imprisoned and forced to work for
+two days on the public streets.
+
+SECTION 5. No public meetings or congregations of negroes or freedmen
+shall be allowed within the limits of the town of Opelousas under any
+circumstances or for any purpose without the permission of the mayor or
+president of the board. This prohibition is not intended, however, to
+prevent the freedmen from attending the usual church services conducted
+by established ministers of religion. Every freedman violating this law
+shall be imprisoned and made to work five days on the public streets.
+
+SECTION 6. No negro, or freedman shall be permitted to preach, exhort, or
+otherwise declaim to congregations of colored people without a special
+permission from the mayor or president of the board of police under the
+penalty of a fine of ten dollars or twenty days' work on the public
+streets.
+
+SECTION 7. No freedman who is not in the military service shall be
+allowed to carry firearms, or any kind of weapons, within the limits of
+the town of Opelousas without the special permission of his employer, in
+writing, and approved by the mayor or president of the board of police.
+Any one thus offending shall forfeit his weapons and shall be imprisoned
+and made to work for five days on the public streets or pay a fine of
+five dollars in lieu of said work.
+
+SECTION 8. No freedman shall sell, barter, or exchange any articles of
+merchandise or traffic within the limits of Opelousas without permission
+in writing from his employer or the mayor or president of the board,
+under the penalty of the forfeiture of said articles and imprisonment and
+one day's labor, or a fine of one dollar in lieu of said work.
+
+SECTION 9. Any freedman found drunk within the limits of the town shall
+be imprisoned and made to labor five days on the public streets, or pay
+five dollars in lieu of said labor.
+
+SECTION 10. Any freedman not residing in Opelousas who shall be found
+within the corporate limits after the hour of 3 p.m. on Sunday without a
+special permission from his employer or the mayor shall be arrested and
+imprisoned and made to work two days on the public streets, or pay two
+dollars in lieu of said work.
+
+SECTION 11. All the foregoing provisions apply to freedmen and
+freedwomen, or both sexes.
+
+SECTION 12. It shall be the special duty of the mayor or president of the
+board to see that all the provisions of this ordinance are faithfully
+executed.
+
+SECTION 13. _Be it further ordained_, That this ordinance to take effect
+from and after its first publication.
+
+Ordained the 3d day of July, 1865.
+
+E.D. ESTILLETTE,
+_President of the Board of Police_.
+
+JOS. D. RICHARDS,
+_Clerk_.
+
+Official copy:
+
+J. LOVELL,
+_Captain and Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+
+
+No. 35.
+
+An ordinance relative to the police of negroes recently emancipated
+within the parish of St. Landry.
+
+Whereas it was formerly made the duty of the police jury to make suitable
+regulations for the police of slaves within the limits of the parish; and
+whereas slaves have become emancipated by the action of the ruling
+powers; and whereas it is necessary for public order, as well as for
+the comfort and correct deportment of said freedmen, that suitable
+regulations should be established for their government in their changed
+condition, the following ordinances are adopted, with the approval of
+the United States military authorities commanding in said parish, viz:
+
+SECTION 1. _Be it ordained by the police jury of the parish of St.
+Landry_, That no negro shall be allowed to pass within the limits of said
+parish without a special permit in writing from his employer. Whoever
+shall violate this provision shall pay a fine of two dollars and fifty
+cents, or in default thereof shall be forced to work four days on the
+public road, or suffer corporeal punishment as provided hereinafter.
+
+SECTION 2. _Be it further ordained_, That every negro who shall be found
+absent from the residence of his employer after 10 o'clock at night,
+without a written permit from his employer, shall pay a fine of five
+dollars, or in default thereof, shall be compelled to work five days on
+the public road, or suffer corporeal punishment as hereinafter provided.
+
+SECTION 3. _Be it further ordained_, That no negro shall be permitted
+to rent or keep a house within said parish. Any negro violating this
+provision shall be immediately ejected and compelled to find an employer;
+and any person who shall rent, or give the use of any house to any negro,
+in violation of this section, shall pay a fine of five dollars for each
+offence.
+
+SECTION 4. _Be it further ordained_, That every negro is required to be
+in the regular service of some white person, or former owner, who shall
+be held responsible for the conduct of said negro. But said employer
+or former owner may permit said negro to hire his own time by special
+permission in writing, which permission shall not extend over seven days
+at any one time. Any negro violating the provisions of this section shall
+be fined five dollars for each offence, or in default of the payment
+thereof shall be forced to work five days on the public road, or suffer
+corporeal punishment as hereinafter provided.
+
+SECTION 5. _Be it further ordained_, That no public meetings or
+congregations of negroes shall be allowed within said parish after
+sunset; but such public meetings and congregations may be held between
+the hours of sunrise and sunset, by the special permission in writing of
+the captain of patrol, within whose beat such meetings shall take place.
+This prohibition, however, is not intended to prevent negroes from
+attending the usual church services, conducted by white ministers and
+priests. Every negro violating the provisions of this section shall pay a
+fine of five dollars, or in default thereof shall be compelled to work
+five days on the public road, or suffer corporeal punishment as
+hereinafter provided.
+
+SECTION 6. _Be it further ordained_, That no negro shall be permitted to
+preach, exhort, or otherwise declaim to congregations of colored people,
+without a special permission in writing from the president of the police
+jury. Any negro violating the provisions of this section shall pay a fine
+of ten dollars, or in default thereof shall be forced to work ten days on
+the public road, or suffer corporeal punishment as hereinafter provided.
+
+SECTION 7. _Be it further ordained_, That no negro who is not in the
+military service shall be allowed to carry fire-arms, or any kind of
+weapons, within the parish, without the special written permission of his
+employers, approved and indorsed by the nearest or most convenient chief
+of patrol. Anyone violating the provisions of this section shall forfeit
+his weapons and pay a fine of five dollars, or in default of the payment
+of said fine, shall be forced to work five days on the public road, or
+suffer corporeal punishment as hereinafter provided.
+
+SECTION 8. _Be it further ordained_, That no negro shall sell, barter, or
+exchange any articles of merchandise or traffic within said parish
+without the special written permission of his employer, specifying the
+articles of sale, barter or traffic. Anyone thus offending shall pay a
+fine of one dollar for each offence, and suffer the forfeiture of said
+articles, or in default of the payment of said fine shall work one day on
+the public road, or suffer corporeal punishment as hereinafter provided.
+
+SECTION 9. _Be it further ordained_, That any negro found drunk within
+the said parish shall pay a fine of five dollars, or in default thereof
+shall work five days on the public road, or suffer corporeal punishment
+as hereinafter provided.
+
+SECTION 10. _Be it further ordained_, That all the foregoing provisions
+shall apply to negroes of both sexes.
+
+SECTION 11. _Be it further ordained_, That it shall be the duty of every
+citizen to act as a police officer for the detection of offences and the
+apprehension of offenders, who shall be immediately handed over to the
+proper captain or chief of patrol.
+
+SECTION 12. _Be it further ordained_, That the aforesaid penalties shall
+be summarily enforced, and that it shall be the duty of the captains and
+chiefs of patrol to see that the aforesaid ordinances are promptly
+executed.
+
+SECTION 13. _Be it further ordained_, That all sums collected from the
+aforesaid fines shall be immediately handed over to the parish treasurer.
+
+SECTION 14. _Be it further ordained_, That the corporeal punishment
+provided for in the foregoing sections shall consist in confining the
+body of the offender within a barrel placed over his or her shoulders, in
+the manner practiced in the army, such confinement not to continue longer
+than twelve hours, and for such time within the aforesaid limit as shall
+be fixed by the captain or chief of patrol who inflicts the penalty.
+
+SECTION 15. _Be it further ordained_, That these ordinances shall not
+interfere with any municipal or military regulations inconsistent with
+them within the limits of said parish.
+
+SECTION 16. _Be it further ordained_, That these ordinances shall take
+effect five days after their publication in the Opelousas Courier.
+
+Official copy:
+
+J. LOVELL,
+_Captain and Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+
+
+At a meeting of the citizens of the parish of St. Mary, held at the
+court-house in the town of Franklin, on Saturday, the 15th instant, P.C.
+Bethel, Esq., was called to the chair, when a committee was appointed to
+report upon certain matters submitted to the consideration of the
+meeting, which committee reported by their chairman the following, which
+was unanimously adopted:
+
+REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.
+
+The committee appointed for the purpose of embodying the views and
+objects of the meeting of the citizens of the parish of St. Mary,
+assembled at the court-house of said parish on the 15th day of July, A.D.
+1865, to deliberate concerning the discipline of colored persons or
+freedmen, respectfully report that they recommend to the town council of
+the town of Franklin the adoption of the ordinance of the board of police
+of the town of Opelousas, passed on the third day of the present month,
+with such alterations and modifications as may suit the wants and
+necessities of this locality; also the ordinance of the same board of
+police passed on the same day, relative to the town of Opelousas; which
+ordinances are herewith presented for reference. And they furthermore
+recommend to the police jury of the parish of St. Mary, whenever
+convened, to make such regulations with regard to the discipline and
+management of the freedmen or colored population for the entire parish as
+may be most conducive to the quiet, tranquillity, and productiveness of
+said parish generally. The committee further recommend to all
+well-disposed citizens to co-operate with the authorities and with each
+other in producing a return to civil rule and good order within the
+shortest delay possible, that the State of Louisiana may be restored to
+her proper condition as regards internal political stability and
+tranquillity, as well as the representation she is entitled to in the
+councils of the nation, which representation is more important to her now
+than at any previous period of her history.
+
+W.T. PALFREY, Chairman.
+
+
+
+_Proceedings of the Mayor and Council of the town of Franklin_.
+
+Friday, _July_ 28, 1865.
+
+Pursuant to call of the major commanding, the mayor and council met this
+day. Present: A.S. Tucker, mayor; Wilson McKerall, Alfred Gates, John C.
+Gordy, and J.A. Peterman, members of the council.
+
+The following was unanimously adopted, viz:
+
+ORDINANCE relative to the police of negroes or colored persons within the
+corporate limits of the town of Franklin.
+
+SEC. 1. _Be it ordained by the mayor and council of the town of
+Franklin_, That no negro or colored person shall be allowed to come
+within the limits of said town without special permission from his
+employer, specifying the object of his visit and the time necessary for
+the accomplishment of the same. Whoever shall violate this provision
+shall suffer imprisonment and two days work on the public streets, or
+shall pay a fine of two dollars and a half.
+
+SEC. 2. _Be it further ordained. &c_., That every negro or colored person
+who shall be found on the streets of Franklin after ten o'clock at night
+without a written pass or permit from his or her employer, shall be
+imprisoned and compelled to work five days on the public streets or pay a
+fine of five dollars.
+
+SEC. 3. No negro or colored person shall be permitted to rent or keep a
+house within the limits of the town under any circumstances; and any one
+thus offending shall be ejected and compelled to find an employer, or
+leave the town within twenty-four hours. The lessor or furnisher of the
+house kept as above shall pay a fine of ten dollars for each offence:
+_Provided_, That the provisions of this section shall not apply to any
+free negro or colored person who was residing in the town of Franklin
+prior to the 1st January (1865) last.
+
+SEC. 4. No negro or colored person shall reside within the limits of the
+town of Franklin who is not in the regular service of some white person
+or former owner, who shall be held responsible for the conduct of said
+negro or colored person; but said employer or former owner may permit
+said negro or colored person to hire his or their time by special
+permission in writing, which permission shall not extend to over
+twenty-five hours at any one time. Any negro or colored person violating
+the provisions of this section shall be imprisoned and forced to work for
+two days on the public streets: _Provided_, That the provisions of this
+section shall not apply to negroes or colored persons heretofore free.
+
+SEC. 5. No public meetings or congregations of negroes or colored persons
+shall be allowed within the limits of the town of Franklin, under any
+circumstances or for any purpose, without the permission of the mayor.
+This prohibition is not intended, however, to prevent negroes or colored
+persons from attending the usual church service, conducted by established
+ministers of religion. Every negro or colored person violating this law
+shall be imprisoned and put to work five days on the public streets.
+
+SEC. 6. No negro or colored person shall be permitted to preach, exhort,
+or otherwise declaim to congregations of colored people without a special
+permission from the mayor, under the penalty of a fine of ten dollars or
+twenty days' work on the public streets.
+
+SEC. 7. No negro or colored person who is not in the military service
+shall be allowed to carry fire-arms or any kind of weapons within the
+limits of the town of Franklin without the special permission of his
+employer in writing, and approved by the mayor. Any one thus offending
+shall forfeit his weapons and shall be imprisoned and made to work five
+days on the public streets, or pay a fine of five dollars in lieu of said
+work.
+
+SEC. 8. No negro or colored person shall sell, barter, or exchange any
+articles of merchandise or traffic within the limits of Franklin, without
+permission in writing from his employer or the mayor, under the penalty
+of forfeiture of the said articles and imprisonment and one day's labor,
+or a fine of one dollar in lieu of said work.
+
+SEC. 9. Any negro or colored person found drunk within the limits of the
+town shall be imprisoned and made to labor five days on the public
+streets, or pay five dollars in lieu of said labor.
+
+SEC. 10. Any negro or colored person not residing in Franklin who shall
+be found within its corporate limits after the hour of three o'clock p.m.
+on Sunday without a special written permission from his employer or the
+mayor, shall be arrested and imprisoned and made to work two days on the
+public streets, or pay two dollars in lieu of said work.
+
+SEC. 11. All the foregoing provisions apply to negroes or colored persons
+of both sexes.
+
+SEC. 12. It shall be the special duty of the town constable, under
+direction of the mayor, to see that all the provisions of this ordinance
+are faithfully executed.
+
+SEC. 13. Whoever in Franklin shall sell or give to any negro or colored
+person any intoxicating liquors, or shall exchange or barter for the same
+with any such negro or colored person, without special permission from
+the mayor or employer of said negro or colored person, shall, on
+conviction thereof before the mayor or justice of the peace in and for
+the seventh ward of the parish of St. Mary, pay a fine of twenty-five
+dollars and costs of prosecution, and in default of the payment of said
+fine and costs the person thus offending shall suffer imprisonment in the
+parish jail for ten days.
+
+A.S. TUCKER, _Mayor_.
+
+R.W. McMILLAN, _Clerk_.
+
+Approved: GEO. R. DAVIS,
+_Major Third Rhode Island Cavalry, Commanding Post_.
+
+
+
+[Telegram.]
+
+New Orleans, _August_ 10, 1865.
+
+The ordinance relative to the "Police of negroes or colored persons
+within the corporate limits of the town of Franklin," dated Friday, July
+28, 1865, and signed by A.L. Tucker, mayor, being in violation of the
+emancipation proclamation, the orders of the War Department, and the
+orders of these headquarters, you will prevent their enforcement and
+arrest any person attempting to carry them out. The negroes are as free
+as other people. This ordinance, if enforced, would be slavery in
+substance, which can never be. Attend to this matter with all the vigor
+at your command. I have consulted General Canby, who concurs with me in
+the matter.
+
+THOMAS W. CONWAY,
+Ass't. Comm. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, &c., State of Louisiana_.
+
+Lieutenant S.E. SHEPARD,
+_Provost Marshal, Parish of St. Mary, Brashear City, or Franklin, La_.
+
+Official copy:
+
+D.V. FENNO,
+_First Lieutenant and A.A.A. General_.
+
+
+
+No. 36.
+
+BUREAU REFUGEES, FREEDMEN AND ABANDONED LANDS, OFFICE ASSISTANT
+COMMISSIONER FOR STATE OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Vicksburg, Miss., September_ 28, 1865.
+
+General: I enclose a copy of the city ordinances. You will see that
+negroes who sell vegetables, cakes, &c., on the street are required to
+pay ten dollars ($10) per month for the privilege of doing so.
+
+To illustrate the workings of this ordinance I will give you an actual
+occurrence in this city.
+
+About a year ago an old negro man named Henderson, crippled with
+over-work, about seventy years of age, was sent to me for support by the
+military authorities. I issued him rations for himself and wife, an old
+negro woman, incapable of doing anything but care for herself. I
+continued this till about January 1, 1865, when the old man came to me
+and informed me that if I would allow him to sell apples and cakes to the
+soldiers on a corner of the street near my office, under a large tree
+that grew there, he thought he could care for himself and make enough to
+support himself and wife. I immediately gave him permission and an order
+to protect him. I had but little faith in his being able to do it, as he
+was compelled to go on crutches and was bent nearly double, owing to a
+severe whipping his old master had given him some years ago.
+
+He commenced his work, and, much to my surprise, made enough to support
+himself, and asked for no more assistance from me.
+
+When the city authorities took charge of the city matters the marshal of
+the city ordered him to pay the ten dollars per month for the privilege
+of supporting himself or desist from such trade.
+
+The old man told him that all his profits would not amount to ten dollars
+per month, and that in some months he did not make that amount of sales,
+but, as Colonel Thomas provided him with a place to live, he could barely
+support himself by such trade. The marshal of the city informed him that
+the tax must be paid by all, and that Colonel Thomas could take care of
+him, as it was his duty to do so.
+
+The old man came to my office and told me the whole affair. I wrote a
+letter to the mayor setting forth the whole case, and that the collection
+of this tax on such old cripples would compel me to support them, as they
+could not pay the city ten dollars per month and make their support. In
+fact, ten dollars per month is the common wages for negro labor. The
+mayor refused to allow the negro to continue his sales, and I was
+compelled to take charge of him. I would have refused to allow the city
+authorities to interrupt him had it not been for General Orders No. 10,
+from headquarters department of Mississippi, allowing the mayor to take
+charge of such matters.
+
+You will see by the city ordinance that a drayman or hackman must file a
+bond of five hundred dollars in addition to paying for his license. The
+mayor requires that the bondsmen shall be freeholders. The laws of this
+State do not, and never did, allow a negro to own land or hold property.
+The white citizens refuse to sign any bonds for the freedmen.
+
+The white citizens and authorities say that it is for their interest to
+drive out all independent negro labor; that the freedmen must hire to
+white men if they wish to do this kind of work.
+
+I am, general, very respectfully,
+
+SAMUEL THOMAS,
+
+_Colonel, Assistant Commissioner Freedmen's Bureau, State of Mississippi_.
+
+Major General C. SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+_Proceedings of the City Council_.
+
+At a regular meeting of the board of mayor and council of the city of
+Vicksburg, held at the City Hall, on Monday, August 7, 1865: Present--T.J.
+Randolph, mayor; Messrs. Stites, Royall, Johnson, Bender, Spengler,
+Manlove, and Porterfield, councilmen.
+
+Mr. Stites introduced the following ordinance, which was read; and, on
+motion of Mr. Bender, the rules were suspended, the ordinance read a
+second time; and, on motion of Mr. Manlove, the rules were again
+suspended, the ordinance read a third time by its title, and passed.
+
+Mr. Johnson called for the ayes and noes on the passage of the ordinance,
+which were taken:
+
+Ayes--Stites, Royall, Bender, Spengler, Manlove, and Porterfield--6.
+
+Nay--Johnson--1.
+
+AN ORDINANCE to raise revenue for the city of Vicksburg.
+
+SEC. 1. That there shall be assessed, levied, and collected upon the
+landholders, freeholders, and householders of the city of Vicksburg, for
+the year commencing July 9, 1865, upon the _ad valorem_ worth of all
+houses, lots and parts of lots, and lands, and on all goods, wares, and
+merchandise, on all moneys loaned at interest in said city, whether by a
+resident or nonresident or a corporation, a general tax of fifty cents on
+every one hundred dollars' value thereof; that said valuation or
+assessment shall be assessed from the 9th day of July, A.D. 1865, and
+shall be for one year, but the tax so assessed shall be payable in
+advance.
+
+SEC. 2. That on all goods, wares, and merchandise, produce, &c.,
+contained or sold on board any flatboat, or other water craft, there
+shall be assessed, levied, and collected upon the _ad valorem_ worth a
+general tax of fifty cents on every one hundred dollars' value thereof.
+
+SEC. 3. That there shall be assessed, levied, and collected a poll tax of
+two dollars upon every male inhabitant of said city over the age of
+twenty-one years.
+
+SEC. 4. That the rate for license for the houses, business, &c., be
+assessed as follows, payable as set forth in section 1: On all family
+groceries, porter-houses, eating-houses, oyster houses, and restaurants,
+per year $40; on all auction stores, per year, $200; on all public
+auctioneers, $50; on all banks, brokers, and exchange offices, $500; on
+all insurance companies having agents in this city, $100; on all express
+companies, $200; on all wholesale and retail stores and commission
+houses, $50; on all drays and carts, $20; on all hacks, $25; on all
+private boarding-houses having ten or more boarders, $20; on all hotels,
+$100; on all rooms where billiard tables are kept for playing, $200; on
+all rooms where bagatelle or pigeonhole tables are kept for playing, $25;
+on all alleys known as ten-pin or nine-pin alleys, $200; on all livery
+stables, $50; on all wagon yards, $40; on all barber shops, for each
+chair, $40; on all manufactories of ale, porter, or soda-water per year,
+$75; on all bakeries, $25; on all theatres, circuses, animal shows, or
+any public performance or exhibition where compensation is paid in money,
+each day, $25; on all bar-rooms, or other places where vinous or
+spirituous liquors are sold in less quantities than one gallon, per year,
+$500; on all confectionary, fruit or ice cream, soda water or vegetable
+stores, $50; on all cigar stores, $50; on all shops where fresh meat is
+sold, $50; on all street peddlers of goods, wares, or merchandise, fruit
+&c., except from market carts from the country, per month, $10; on all
+live stock sold in this city, one-half of one per cent, _ad valorem_.
+
+SEC. 5. That all ordinances in any way conflicting with the provisions of
+this ordinance be, and the same are hereby, repealed.
+
+SEC. 6. That this ordinance take effect from and after its passage.
+
+Vicksburg, Mississippi, _August_ 7, 1865.
+
+
+Mr. Stites introduced the following ordinance, which was read; and, on
+motion of Mr. Bender, the rules were suspended and the ordinance read a
+second time; and, on motion of Mr. Manlove, the rules were again
+suspended, the ordinance read a third time by its title, and passed.
+
+AN ORDINANCE to regulate the mode of obtaining licenses within the city
+of Vicksburg.
+
+SEC. 1. That, before license shall be granted to any one to keep a family
+grocery, porter-house, oyster-house, eating-house, or restaurant in this
+city, the person or persons so applying shall execute a bond in the penal
+sum of $500, with one or more securities, payable to the mayor of the
+city of Vicksburg and his successors in office, conditioned that he, she,
+or they will keep an orderly and well-conducted house, and will not
+permit any riotous or disorderly conduct, or any gaming in or about the
+same, and will not sell any vinous or spirituous liquors to any one in
+less quantity than one gallon during the continuance of his or her
+license.
+
+SEC. 2. That before any person or persons shall be licensed to retail
+vinous or spirituous liquors within this city, he, she, or they shall
+produce before the board of mayor and council of said city the written
+recommendation of five freeholders of his or her neighborhood, setting
+forth that he or she is of good reputation and a suitable person to
+receive such license.
+
+SEC. 3. That no license to sell vinous or spirituous liquors as aforesaid
+shall be delivered to any person until he or she shall have first
+produced the receipt of the treasurer of the city for the amount of tax
+assessed for such license, and shall also have executed a bond in the
+penal sum of $1,000, with one or more good and sufficient sureties,
+payable to the mayor of the city of Vicksburg and his successor in
+office, conditioned that he, she, or they will keep an orderly and
+well-conducted house, and will not permit any riotous or disorderly
+conduct, or any gaming, in or about the same.
+
+SEC. 4. That the bonds provided for in this ordinance shall be submitted
+to, and approved by, the board of mayor and council before said license
+shall be issued.
+
+SEC. 5. That if any person shall retail any vinous or spirituous liquors
+within this city in less quantity than one gallon without first having
+procured license to do so, pursuant to the provisions of this ordinance,
+or in any way violate the provisions of this ordinance, he shall, upon
+conviction before the mayor of the city, be fined in a sum not less than
+one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars.
+
+SEC. 6. That before issuing license to any person or persons for the
+privilege of running a public dray, cart, or hack in this city, the party
+so applying shall first file with the mayor of the city a bond, with good
+and sufficient security, to be approved by the mayor, in the penal sum of
+$500, conditioned for the faithful performance of their duties as public
+carriers.
+
+SEC. 7. That all ordinances in any way conflicting with the provisions of
+this ordinance be, and the same are hereby, repealed.
+
+SEC. 8. That this ordinance take effect from and after its passage.
+
+Vicksburg, Mississippi, _August_ 7, 1865
+
+
+Mr. Johnson introduced the following ordinance, which was read; and on
+motion of Mr. Manlove, the rules were suspended and the ordinance read a
+second time; and on motion of Mr. Bender, the rules were again suspended,
+the ordinance read a third time by its title, and passed:
+
+AN ORDINANCE to amend the market ordinance.
+
+SEC. 1. That from and after the passage of this ordinance it shall not be
+lawful for any person or persons to sell or expose for sale in the
+market-house of Vicksburg, after the hour of 9 o'clock a.m., any
+lemonade, ice-cream, cakes, pies, fruit, or vegetables, or other
+articles usually sold in market, under the penalty of $10 for each and
+every offence.
+
+SEC. 2. That it shall not be lawful for any person or persons trading in
+the market to buy or bargain for, during market hours, or receive from
+any person or persons not renting a stall in the market, any meat, fish,
+poultry, butter, eggs, vegetables, or fruits, and offer the same for sale
+in the market again within ten days, under a penalty of $10 for each and
+every offence.
+
+SEC. 3. That it shall not be lawful for any person or persons to buy from
+any person on their way to market, within the city, during market hours,
+any of the articles named in the second section, or prevent such person
+from going to market with aforesaid articles, under a penalty of $10 for
+each and every offence.
+
+SEC. 4. That it shall be the duty of the day police of each ward to
+arrest and bring before the mayor all persons found violating any section
+of the above ordinance.
+
+SEC. 5. That all ordinances or parts of ordinances conflicting with this
+ordinance be, and the same are hereby, repealed.
+
+
+Mr. Porterfield introduced the following ordinance, which was read; and
+on motion of Mr. Manlove, the rules were suspended and the ordinance read
+a second time; and on further motion of Mr. Manlove, the rules were again
+suspended, the ordinance read a third time by its title, and passed:
+
+AN ORDINANCE regulating ferry-boats, &c.
+
+SEC. 1. That all ferry-boats crossing the Mississippi river and landing
+in the city limits shall pay the sum of $25 per week.
+
+SEC. 2. That this ordinance shall be in force from and after its passage.
+
+On motion of Mr. Manlove, the following resolution was adopted:
+_Resolved_, That hereafter it shall be lawful for the city marshal to
+charge for prisoners committed to workhouse for board, per day, sixty
+cents.
+
+On motion of Mr. Spangler, the following resolution was adopted:
+_Resolved_, That the city marshal notify the owners of property to have
+their side-walks and gutters repaired on Washington street, between
+second corner of East to Depot street, in thirty days; and if not done,
+the city marshal have it done, at the expense of the property.
+
+On motion of Mr. Manlove, the following resolution was adopted:
+_Resolved_, That the mayor be authorized to pay the policemen the amounts
+due them respectively to date, according to the report by the city
+marshal.
+
+On motion of Mr. Spangler, the following resolution was adopted:
+_Resolved_, That the overseers of street hands' pay shall be $100 per
+month.
+
+On motion of Mr. Manlove, the following resolution was adopted:
+_Resolved_, That the salary of the city marshal shall be $1,200 per
+annum, the salary of the deputy marshal be $900 per annum, and the salary
+of the policemen $60 per month, all of which shall be paid monthly.
+
+On motion of Mr. Manlove, the following resolution was adopted:
+_Resolved_, That a committee of two be appointed to receive proposals to
+publish the proceedings of the city council to the third Monday in March
+next, and also inquire on what terms the city printing can be done, and
+report to next meeting of this council.
+
+The mayor appointed Messrs. Manlove and Bender on said committee.
+
+On motion of Mr. Bender, the board adjourned till Thursday evening,
+August 10, at six o'clock.
+
+T.J. RANDOLPH, _Mayor_.
+
+
+
+No. 37.
+
+FREEDMEN'S BUREAU, STATE OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Office State Superintendent of Education,
+
+Vicksburg, Miss., September_ 28, 1865.
+
+General: At the request of Colonel Thomas, I beg your attention to a few
+considerations touching the turning over of the care of the freedmen in
+Mississippi to the State authorities, so far as the transfer bears upon
+the religious and educational privileges of the colored people. Perhaps
+no one who has been less engaged in caring for the education and the
+moral interests of these people can fully appreciate the facts that I
+intend to lay before you, or understand them as having the intensity of
+meaning that I see in them.
+
+I have seen a good deal of the people of Mississippi, and have purposely
+sounded them as to their feelings with regard to the effort to educate
+the blacks. The general feeling is that of strong opposition to it. Only
+one person resident in Mississippi before the rebellion has expressed
+himself to me as in favor of it, and he did not propose to do anything to
+aid it; and, to show how much his favor was worth, he said he regretted
+that he was not able to prevent the negroes from having shouting
+meetings, and that he would keep them from going off the plantation to
+meeting now if he could, as he formerly did. Aside from this gentleman,
+every native Mississippian and Irishman with whom I have conversed
+opposes the instruction of freedmen. Some disguise their opposition by
+affected contemptuous disbelief of the negro's capacity. All the facts
+that we can give them, however rich and suggestive, are received with
+sneering incredulity and the assurance that they know the negroes better
+than we do. A little persistence in giving this class of men facts
+disproving their assertions usually makes them angry, and leads them to
+declare that if the negroes can learn, the greater the damage that will
+be done them, for the education will do them no good, and will spoil
+them. Others take this last-mentioned ground at first, and say that a
+learned negro is a nuisance; for, while he is ignorant, stupid, and
+loutish, he may be compelled to labor; but as soon as he comes to know
+something the white people cannot make so profitable use of him.
+
+Some manifest great spite when this subject is mentioned. They say we are
+trying to make the negro equal with them. Many do not hesitate to say
+that he ought to be kept uneducated in order that he may not be superior
+to ignorant white men.
+
+I have discovered that many object to the negro women's being educated
+lest they should be led to respect themselves, and not so easily be made
+the instruments of the white man's lust.
+
+The people of Vicksburg have asked Colonel Thomas to prevent the
+establishment of colored schools within the city--they would probably
+say, to preserve the peace of the city; but I feel sure it is because the
+sight of them gives pain. And if their removal ever becomes necessary to
+the peace of a place, the fact will illustrate public feeling
+sufficiently.
+
+I have heard more than one person say that he would kill a colored
+teacher if he ever saw one.
+
+The children of a community generally express the public feeling, and we
+may usually learn from them what the feeling is, even when the parents,
+from prudence, seek to conceal it. Children often exaggerate, but they
+get their bias at home. The children of Mississippi throw stones at
+colored scholars, and are only restrained by fear from mobbing colored
+schools.
+
+My memorandum book contains such information as to points in the interior
+of the State as I can gather from officers, and from any reliable source,
+to guide me in locating teachers. Some of these memoranda are: "Garrison
+withdrawn; school impossible." "No resident federal officer; a teacher
+could not be protected." "People much prejudiced; protection cannot be
+guaranteed." Such things are said in regard to every place not under
+northern protection. I think I do not overstate in saying that I do not
+know a single northern man in Mississippi who supposes a colored school
+possible where there is no federal sword or bayonet. Some northern men do
+not regret this fact, perhaps; and this makes their testimony on this
+point more valuable.
+
+White churches recover their houses of worship which the blacks helped to
+build, and which they have repaired extensively during the last two
+years, and remorselessly turn the blacks out without any regard to their
+rights in equity, their feelings, or their religious interests.
+
+I may state here that there is such a general expression of contempt for
+negro religion, and such a desire to suppress it, if possible, that it
+seems as if the whites thought it a piece of terrible impertinence for
+the blacks to worship the same God that we do. The white people also
+fear, or affect to fear, that opposition to their plans, and even
+insurrection, will be hatched at the meetings of colored people. The
+Nemesis of slavery still holds her whip over them. From this source arise
+the occasional reports of intended insurrections; and these reports are
+intended, often, to cause the prevention of meetings, at which the
+colored people may consult together, and convey information important to
+them.
+
+In view of all these things, I have no doubt but that, if our protection
+be withdrawn, negro education will be hindered in every possible way,
+including obstruction by fraud and violence. I have not the smallest
+expectation that, with the State authorities in full power, a northern
+citizen would be protected in the exercise of his constitutional right to
+teach and preach to the colored people; and shall look for a renewal of
+the fearful scenes, in which northerners were whipped, tarred and
+feathered, warned off, and murdered, before the war.
+
+I meant to make this letter shorter, but could not. I hope I need not
+assure you, general, that I am not conscious that any part of the above
+comes of enmity to the south. I certainly should rejoice to see my
+opinion of the state of feeling in Mississippi falsified by patent facts.
+
+I have the honer to be, general, your obedient servant,
+
+JOSEPH WARREN,
+_Chaplain, State Superintendent of Education_.
+
+Major General CARL SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+No. 39.
+
+OFFICE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER BUREAU REFUGEES, FREEDMEN AND ABANDONED
+LANDS FOR STATE OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Vicksburg, Mississippi, September 30, 1865_.
+
+General: I see by the papers of a late date that Dr. Murdoch, of
+Columbus, Mississippi, has made a speech at General Howard's office, in
+which he makes strong promises of the hearty co-operation of his
+fellow-citizens in the education of the freedmen in the State.
+
+The officer of this bureau at that place, Captain Hubbard, writes that
+"the citizens of the place are so prejudiced against the negroes that
+they are opposed to all efforts being made for their education or
+elevation; that the people will not give rooms, or allow the children of
+their hired freedmen to attend the schools; that the citizens of the
+place have written a letter to the officer saying that they would
+respectfully ask that no freedmen schools be established under the
+auspices of the bureau, as it would tend to disturb the present labor
+system, and take from the field labor that is so necessary to restore the
+wealth of the State." This is signed by half a dozen citizens purporting
+to represent the people, and certainly gives us a different idea of the
+case from that stated by Dr. Murdoch.
+
+I am, general, very respectfully,
+
+SAMUEL THOMAS,
+_Colonel, Assistant Commissioner for Mississippi_.
+
+Major General CARL SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+No. 40.
+
+_To the Voters of Wilkinson county_:
+
+Fellow-Citizens: When I consented, some days ago, to be a candidate for
+the State convention, I confess that, with some of my personal friends, I
+was vain enough to believe that I was sufficiently well known to the
+people of Wilkinson county to make it unnecessary for me to publish my
+political creed. But, to my surprise, it is rumored, to the prejudice of
+my humble claim upon your suffrage, that I am an "_unconditional,
+immediate emancipationist--an abolitionist_."
+
+In the freedom of casual, friendly conversation, it is certainly not
+unreasonable that I may, as any other man, be misunderstood. I cannot
+think any of my fellow-citizens capable of misrepresenting me purposely.
+But certain it is I am misunderstood if any man believes me to favor the
+policy that wrongs and impoverishes my country. It does occur to me,
+fellow-citizens, that the _charity_, at least, if not the good sense of
+those who know me, would contradict any such insinuation. True, I only
+claim to have done my duty, but my record for the last four years, I
+trust, is sufficient proof of my fidelity to the interests of the south
+and all her institutions. Can any man believe me now in favor of, and
+ready to advocate, the abolition of an institution for which I have
+contended so long, and which I am as fully persuaded to-day, as ever, was
+the true status of the negro? Surely not.
+
+But, fellow-citizens,--what I may, in common with you all, have to submit
+to, is a very different thing. Slavery has been taken from us. The power
+that has already practically abolished the institution threatens totally
+and forever to abolish it. But does it follow that I am in favor of this
+thing? By no means. And, certainly, you who know me will not demand of me
+any further assurance than my antecedents afford that I will, as your
+representative, should you elect me, "do all and secure all" I could for
+the best interest of the State, and the rights and interests of a free
+people.
+
+I have thought, and have said, and do now repeat, that my honest
+conviction is, we must accept the situation as it is until we can get
+control once more of our own State affairs. We cannot do otherwise and
+get our place again in the Union, and occupy a position, exert an
+influence, that will protect us against further and greater evils which
+threaten us. I must, as any other man who votes or holds an office,
+submit, for the time, to evils I cannot remedy.
+
+I want it distinctly understood that _I do not run on "Mr. Burruss's
+platform," or any other man's, save my own_.
+
+Should you send me to the convention I will go committed, as I think an
+honest man can only commit himself, i. e., according to my best judgment,
+and with an intention to guard all the blessings we now enjoy, to the
+extent of my ability, exert myself, as I have said, to secure all I can
+for the interest of our State. If I cannot be trusted, then choose some
+other man, who may have shown himself hitherto, and is now, more truly
+your friend, and who is, in your judgment, more capable of representing
+you.
+
+W.L. BRANDON.
+
+Wilkinson County, _August_ 6.
+
+
+
+No. 41.
+
+OFFICE ACTING ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER BUREAU FREEDMEN, &c., FOR SOUTHERN
+DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Natchez, Miss., September_ 25, 1865.
+
+General: In obedience to your request, I have the honor to submit the
+following as the result of my observations during the past year among
+freedmen:
+
+The opinion and feeling among the negroes throughout this district,
+comprising the counties of Claiborne, Copiah, Lawrence, Covington, Jones,
+Wayne, Jefferson, Franklin, Pike, Marion, Perry, Greene, Adams,
+Wilkinson, Amite, Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson, and Concordia and
+Teusas parishes, Louisiana, are almost unanimous on one point, viz: they
+will remain this year on their old places for a support, and such
+remuneration as the crop raised can give them, but next year they will
+leave and make other arrangements. They say that they have tried their
+old masters, know what they require, and how they will be treated, and
+that, as they are now free, they will try some other place and some other
+way of working. They take this view not because they are tired of work,
+or because they want to be idle, but because they are free, and want to
+find out in what their freedom consists.
+
+To contend with the results of this opinion will be the great work flung
+upon the hands of some one next year. And not only will they have to see
+that the laborers are properly settled, but they must provide for the
+crippled, the helpless and the children. The planters cannot be made to
+support those who are too feeble to give any return, and who only remain
+because they are too old or too young to get away. What, then, is to
+become of them?
+
+As to those who can labor, there will be no difficulty--the demand for
+laborers will far exceed the supply. The great trouble will be to keep
+the negro in the State, and to provide assistance for those who are
+unable to take care of themselves. Another want to be provided for is
+that of education. If we are to have good, industrious, and law-abiding
+people, we must provide some means for their education. It is intended to
+place a teacher in every town in which schools can be established and
+protected. From conversations with intelligent citizens, whom I feel
+assured, represent the feelings of a large class of people, I think that
+for some time the equality of negroes and whites before the law, as
+regards testimony, will be merely an equality in name.
+
+Citizens say that their legislature may, and probably will, make laws
+receiving the testimony of negroes in all cases, as a means of inducing
+the government to re-admit them to a full exercise of their State
+jurisdiction and representation, but that no southern jury can ever be
+found that, when it comes to a case where twenty negroes testify one way,
+and two white men testify the other, will not decide in favor of the
+white, and virtually throw out the negro testimony. Of course this matter
+of testimony will settle itself with time, and a negro's word obtain the
+same credit from his individual character as among whites, for the
+whites, having cases that they are dependent upon negro testimony for,
+will in the course of time be brought by their own interests to take and
+demand the full benefit of the law; but for some time, although legally
+admitted, it will in fact be excluded.
+
+The report of Captain Warren Peck, a copy of which I have the honor to
+enclose, gives a very fair view of what the result would be, were the
+officers of this bureau removed.
+
+When I took charge here I found a perfect state of terror among whites
+and blacks; but now that officers are thickly distributed over the
+district, complaints are few, and the laborers are well, and, so far as
+possible, comfortably fixed for this year. Out of a negro population of
+over 75,000, only 649 receive rations from the government as destitutes.
+
+I feel no hesitation in saying that it is imperatively necessary to give
+the system of free labor a fair trial, and to secure to the freedmen all
+the benefits contemplated by the emancipation proclamation; that officers
+or agents should be retained whose duty it is to look after the interests
+of this large class of people, and see that they are gradually accustomed
+to manage their own business and protect their own interests.
+
+I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your obedient
+servant,
+
+GEORGE D. REYNOLDS,
+_Major 6th United States Colored Heavy Artillery, and Acting Assistant
+Comm. Bureau of Freedmen, &c., Southern Dist. of Mississippi_.
+
+Major General CARL SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+No. 42.
+
+HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Jackson, Miss., August_ 21, 1865.
+
+Captain: I have the honor to enclose copies of a notice to form companies
+in this and a neighboring county, and of my letter to Governor Sharkey in
+reference to this matter. In a discussion which I had with the governor
+he told me that it was his intention to raise a company of militia in
+every county of the State, in accordance with the militia law of
+Mississippi, mainly for the purpose of suppressing any acts of violence
+which the negroes may attempt to commit during next winter. I called the
+attention of the governor to the fact that the docket, until this day,
+exhibits only the name of white criminals, and that all information
+proves that almost all the cases of robbery, murder, &c., were brought in
+connexion with young men in the country lately returned from military
+service--just the very same men who, in all probability, would join the
+intended meetings to form companies of militia.
+
+The result of the organization of such companies, while the State is
+occupied by United States troops, mostly colored, cannot be doubted--the
+heterogeneous element must clash and bring about a state of affairs which
+certainly would prove detrimental to the peace and best interests of the
+State.
+
+Governor Sharkey tells me that he has applied to President Johnson for
+authority to raise the militia, and that he would inform me of any
+decision he may receive from Washington; in the mean time I consider it
+my duty to take action as communicated in my letter, and respectfully
+request the approval of the major general commanding department. Very
+respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+P. JOS. OSTERHAUS,
+_Major General Volunteers_.
+
+Captain J. WARREN MILLER, _A.A. General, Department of Mississippi_.
+
+Official copy:
+
+W.A. GORDON,
+_A.A. General_.
+
+
+
+EXECUTIVE OFFICE, _Jackson, Miss., August_ 19, 1865.
+
+Information having reached me that parties of bad men have banded
+together in different parts of the State for the purpose of robbing and
+plundering, and for violating the law in various ways, and that outrages
+of various kinds are being perpetrated, and the military authorities of
+the United States being insufficient to protect the people throughout the
+entire State, I do therefore call upon the people, and especially on such
+as are liable to perform military duty, and are familiar with military
+discipline, to organize volunteer companies in each county in the State,
+if practicable, at least one company of cavalry and one of infantry, as
+speedily as possible, for the detection of criminals, the prevention of
+crime, and the preservation of good order. And I urge upon these
+companies, when formed, that they will be vigilant in the discharge of
+these duties. These companies will be organized under the law in relation
+to volunteer companies as contained in the Revised Code, and the
+amendment thereto, passed on the 10th of February, 1860, except that as
+soon as the proper number shall volunteer, the election for officers may
+take place immediately and without further order, and commissions will be
+issued as soon as returns are received, and the election may be held by
+any justice of the peace. I most earnestly call upon the young men of the
+State, who have so distinguished themselves for gallantry, to respond
+promptly to this call, which is made in behalf of a suffering people.
+
+It will be the duty, as I hope it will be the pleasure, of these
+companies to pursue and apprehend all offenders against law, and by
+vigilance to prevent crime, to aid the civil authorities, and to
+contribute all in their power to the restoration of good order in the
+community. Arms will be procured, if possible, for such as may not have
+them, but I would advise an immediate organization with such arms as can
+be procured.
+
+Given under my hand and the great seal of State affixed.
+
+W.L. SHARKEY,
+_Provisional Governor of Mississippi_.
+
+By the Governor:
+
+JOHN H. ECHOLS,
+_Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Jackson, Miss., August_ 22, 1865.
+
+Captain: I have the honor to enclose copy of a letter received from
+Governor Sharkey in reply to my communication of yesterday, copy of which
+was sent you by last courier. The governor's proclamation, raising troops
+in the whole State, changes the status of things, as it no longer belongs
+to the limits of my district, but to the department; and, consequently, I
+desist from all further action in the matter until your instructions have
+come to hand.
+
+In regard to the robberies, I will state that not a single _regular_
+stage, between Big Black and Jackson, has been earnestly interfered with;
+they were permitted to run, without molestation, while the "robbers"
+operated against a Massachusetts schoolmaster, some darkies, and the
+government messengers; not a house was entered in the vicinity of the
+field of operations, not an inhabitant robbed. All "home institutions"
+are apparently safe. The inference is natural that these highway men are
+guerillas in the true sense of the word, and are waging a war against the
+"invaders." The governor admits, very candidly, that he knows that the
+people are reluctant to give aid to me by imparting information. Several
+persons who were halted by the "robbers," but released with the excuse
+that they were stopped by mistake, refused flatly to give any name, of
+the party they were stopped by, but declared to know them.
+
+You know, captain, that certain parties have importuned the governor,
+from the beginning, to raise the militia; and, as there was no cause for
+such a measure before, it probably was thought expedient to get up some
+cause for the desired purpose. Now we have the "robberies"--they are very
+one-sided and extraordinary--but they furnished the cause so badly
+wanted. The governor is confident that a few squads of young men, armed
+with fowling-pieces and the omnipresent revolvers, can suppress all
+irregularities, which the utmost vigilance and constant exertion of a
+large number of United States troops failed to suppress!
+
+I must state yet that the parties arrested under suspicion of
+participating in the described robberies are young men lately connected
+with the rebel army. There is no doubt on my mind that the young men "who
+steal the despatches from our messengers" will become good members of the
+intended militia.
+
+With great respect, your obedient servant,
+
+P. JOS. OSTERHAUS,
+_Major General Volunteers_.
+
+Captain J. WARREN MILLER,
+_A.A. General, Department of Mississippi_.
+
+Official copy:
+
+W.A. GORDON,
+_A.A. General_.
+
+
+
+HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Jackson, Miss., August_ 21, 1865.
+
+Sir: A notice appears in yesterday's paper, over the signature of Lamar
+Fontaine, calling on the young men of Hinds and Madison counties to meet
+at Cooper Wells and at Livingstone, respectively, on the 22d and 24th
+instant, for the purpose of organizing companies and electing officers.
+
+The notice creates the impression that some kind of military organization
+is intended, and in that event I would beg leave to call your attention
+to the fact that the State of Mississippi is under occupation, and that
+martial law is still in force, and that no military organizations can be
+tolerated which are not under the control of the United States officers.
+I am, therefore, in duty bound and compelled to prevent and prohibit all
+military organization not recognized as a portion of the United States
+forces, unless they are formed under special authority of the War
+Department, or the major general commanding the department of
+Mississippi.
+
+I can assure your excellency that the number of troops in the counties of
+Hinds and Madison is amply sufficient to give the civil authorities all
+the assistance they may possibly need, and the means at my disposal are
+amply sufficient to stop all crime, provided the civil authorities will
+co-operate sincerely with the military commanders, and furnish
+information promptly and voluntarily, as the public peace and safety
+require them to do.
+
+I respectfully request that you will communicate the tenor of this
+communication to Mr. Fontaine.
+
+Believe me, with great esteem, your excellency's obedient servant,
+
+P. JOS. O'STERHAUS,
+_Major General Volunteers_.
+
+His Excellency Hon. W.L. SHARKEY,
+_Provisional Governor of Mississippi_.
+
+Official copy:
+
+W.A. GORDON,
+A.A.G.
+
+
+
+EXECUTIVE OFFICE, _Jackson, Miss., August_ 22, 1865.
+
+General: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
+communication of yesterday, in which you call my attention to the fact
+that the State of Mississippi is still under military occupation, and
+that martial law is still in force, and that no military organizations
+can be tolerated which are not under the control of United States
+officers; and you add that you will feel bound to prevent such
+organizations, and you also assure me that you have sufficient troops in
+the counties of Hinds and Madison to aid the civil authorities. This last
+remark was made by you with reference to a particular organization which
+has been proposed in those counties. I have, however, issued a general
+order on this subject, a copy of which I hand you, regretting that you
+have felt yourself compelled to take this view of the subject, and I know
+you are prompted by a sense of duty. I beg to remind you that for twelve
+or fifteen consecutive nights passengers travelling in the stage between
+here and Vicksburg have been robbed, and these things have occurred
+within twelve or fifteen miles of your own headquarters. I would not be
+understood as reflecting in the slightest degree on you. I know you have
+every desire to prevent such occurrences, and will use every means in
+your power to do so, and to arrest the culprits. I know, too, that the
+people are reluctant to give you aid by imparting information to you,
+but, in addition to these robberies, information daily reaches me of the
+perpetration of outrages, committed in various ways in distant parts of
+the--State where you have no military force. The people are calling on me
+for protection, which I cannot give them under existing circumstances,
+and it was to give them relief that the military organizations have been
+ordered. If further justification be necessary, I may add in the last
+interview I had with the President, in speaking of anticipated troubles,
+he distinctly stated to me that I could organize the militia if it should
+become necessary. I think the necessity is now manifest, and therefore
+claim the authority of the President of the United States for my action.
+It was precisely under this authority that in my proclamation of the 1st
+of July I called upon the people in unprotected counties to organize for
+their security. I will also state that the President has been apprised of
+what I am doing in this respect, and when he shall change his
+instructions I will, of course, yield obedience; but until he shall do
+so, I shall feel it to be my duty to carry out the line of policy I have
+adopted. I need scarcely assure you, general, that this is not in any
+sense a hostile demonstration, and feel quite sure no evil can result
+from it. Mississippi has spoken too plainly in her convention to leave
+any doubt about her future purposes.
+
+Believe me, with great respect, your most obedient servant,
+
+W.L. SHARKEY,
+_Provisional Governor of Mississippi_.
+
+Major General P. Jos. OSTERHAUS.
+
+Official copy:
+
+W.A. GORDON,
+A.A.G.
+
+
+
+No. 43.
+
+OFFICE ACTING ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
+
+FOR NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI,
+
+_Jackson, Miss., September_ 28, 1865.
+
+Major: In compliance with your request desiring me to furnish you a list
+of crimes and assaults against freedmen, I have the honor to report that
+on or about the 18th day of August, 1865, Matilda, a colored woman, was
+murdered by one J.H. Kiley and son, in Newton county, in this State, for
+simply remonstrating against whipping her son. Lucinda, a colored woman,
+in Yalobusha county, was stripped naked, tied to a tree, and severely
+whipped by three men, names unknown. In the county of Holmes, between the
+5th and 15th days of September, 1865, five negroes were murdered; names
+of the perpetrators unknown. In Simpson county, about the 1st of August,
+a father and his two sons cruelly whipped and abused a colored woman in
+their employ. Near Lauderdale Springs, Castwell Eads, a citizen, by his
+own statement, shot and wounded a colored man for simply refusing to obey
+his command, _halt_! while he was running from him after being cruelly
+whipped. In Smith county, S.S. Catchings, a citizen, followed a colored
+man, who had left his plantation, overtook him, knocked him down, and
+beat him brutally.
+
+These are all the cases of which I have detailed accounts, none but
+general reports having yet been received from the agents. These indicate
+that cruelty is frequently practiced.
+
+I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+E.S. DONALDSON,
+_Lieutenant Colonel, Acting Assistant Commissioner_.
+
+Major W.A. GORDON,
+_Assistant Adjutant General_.
+
+
+
+No. 44.
+
+Savannah, Ga., _August_ 1, 1865.
+
+General: In answer to your question with regard to free labor at the
+South, and particularly the way in which the contract system is viewed by
+persons who were formerly slaveholders, I would state that these persons
+accept the present condition of affairs as an alternative forced upon
+them, believing still that the emancipation of their slaves was a great
+blunder, and that slavery is the only system by which the colored laborer
+can be made profitable to his employer.
+
+Within this district the plantation contracts now in force were entered
+into just subsequent to the arrival of the army, and when it was
+impossible for planters to undertake the care of their plantations. The
+negroes, therefore, planted for themselves, promising the owner a fair
+proportion of the crop as rent for the use of the land.
+
+Now, however, the matter comes up in a different shape. Owners have
+returned, and it is necessary to make arrangements for the next season.
+Most of them complain and find fault with the government, and remain
+inactive. So long as the military form prevails they seem to submit and
+to conform to present requirements, but at heart they are unfriendly.
+Some few, however, ask of us what we are going to do with the negro, and
+what provision will be made with regard to labor. There is nothing in
+their conduct that betokens sympathy with our movements, or a desire to
+co-operate with us earnestly in our work. The rebel spirit is as bitter
+as ever in the minds of the southern people. To return to the old customs
+is now their effort, and step by step they would take us back to where we
+were when the war broke out. They will contract with the freedmen, not
+because they prefer to, but because they are obliged to, and so long as
+the authority of the United States is present for the protection of all
+parties, and to compel a faithful performance, the agreement will be
+carried out; but should the army be withdrawn, the freedmen would
+virtually be reduced to slavery, and freedom-loving men would find a
+southern residence unsafe.
+
+I think the negro is disposed to fulfil his contract, and in cases where
+it has seemed otherwise, the other party has often been at fault.
+
+While I have met a few planters who seem to realize that emancipation is
+a fixed fact, and that they must make the most of present circumstances,
+by resorting to the only means by which labor can now be obtained, (the
+contract system,) I have found scarcely one who will enter into the
+matter with any kind of sympathy, or with either the belief or the hope
+that our plans will eventually succeed, for they feel keenly that the
+success of those plans will prove the foolishness of slavery.
+
+The coming year will produce a change of opinion at the South, I think,
+if by thorough supervision we secure protection to free labor.
+
+I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+A.P. KETCHUM.
+Major General CARL SCHURZ.
+
+
+
+LETTER OF GENERAL GRANT CONCERNING AFFAIRS AT THE SOUTH.
+
+HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
+
+_Washington, D.C., December_ 18, 1865.
+
+Sir: In reply to your note of the 16th instant, requesting a report from
+me giving such information as I may be possessed of coming within the
+scope of the inquiries made by the Senate of the United States in their
+resolution of the 12th instant, I have the honor to submit the following:
+
+With your approval, and also that of the honorable Secretary of War, I
+left Washington city on the 27th of last month for the purpose of making
+a tour of inspection through some of the southern States, or States
+lately in rebellion, and to see what changes were necessary to be made in
+the disposition of the military forces of the country; how these forces
+could be reduced and expenses curtailed, &c.; and to learn, as far as
+possible, the feelings and intentions of the citizens of those States
+towards the general government.
+
+The State of Virginia being so accessible to Washington city, and
+information from this quarter, therefore, being readily obtained, I
+hastened through the State without conversing or meeting with any of its
+citizens. In Raleigh, North Carolina, I spent one day; in Charleston,
+South Carolina, two days; Savannah and Augusta, Georgia, each one day.
+Both in travelling and whilst stopping I saw much and conversed freely
+with the citizens of those States as well as with officers of the army
+who have been stationed among them. The following are the conclusions
+come to by me.
+
+I am satisfied that the mass of thinking men of the south accept the
+present situation of affairs in good faith. The questions which have
+heretofore divided the sentiment of the people of the two
+sections--slavery and State rights, or the right of a State to secede
+from the Union--they regard as having been settled forever by the highest
+tribunal--arms--that man can resort to. I was pleased to learn from the
+leading men whom I met that they not only accepted the decision arrived
+at as final, but, now that the smoke of battle has cleared away and time
+has been given for reflection, that this decision has been a fortunate
+one for the whole country, they receiving like benefits from it with
+those who opposed them in the field and in council.
+
+Four years of war, during which law was executed only at the point of the
+bayonet throughout the States in rebellion, have left the people possibly
+in a condition not to yield that ready obedience to civil authority the
+American people have generally been in the habit of yielding. This would
+render the presence of small garrisons throughout those States necessary
+until such time as labor returns to its proper channel, and civil
+authority is fully established. I did not meet any one, either those
+holding places under the government or citizens of the southern States,
+who think it practicable to withdraw the military from the south at
+present. The white and the black mutually require the protection of the
+general government.
+
+There is stick universal acquiescence in the authority of the general
+government throughout the portions of country visited by me, that the
+mere presence of a military force, without regard to numbers, is
+sufficient to maintain order. The good of the country, and economy,
+require that the force kept in the interior, where there are many
+freedmen, (elsewhere in the southern States than at forts upon the
+seacoast no force is necessary,) should all be white troops. The reasons
+for this are obvious without mentioning many of them. The presence of
+black troops, lately slaves, demoralizes labor, both by their advice and
+by furnishing in their camps a resort for the freedmen for long distances
+around. White troops generally excite no opposition, and therefore a
+small number of them can maintain order in a given district. Colored
+troops must be kept in bodies sufficient to defend themselves. It is not
+the thinking men who would use violence towards any class of troops sent
+among them by the general government, but the ignorant in some places
+might; and the late slave seems to be imbued with the idea that the
+property of his late master should, by right, belong to him, or at least
+should have no protection from the colored soldier. There is danger of
+collisions being brought on by such causes.
+
+My observations lead me to the conclusion that the citizens of the
+southern States are anxious to return to self-government, within the
+Union, as soon as possible; that whilst reconstructing they want and
+require protection from the government; that they are in earnest in
+wishing to do what they think is required by the government, not
+humiliating to them as citizens, and that if such a course were pointed
+out they would pursue it in good faith. It is to be regretted that there
+cannot be a greater commingling, at this time, between the citizens of
+the two sections, and particularly of those intrusted with the law-making
+power.
+
+I did not give the operations of the Freedmen's Bureau that attention I
+would have done if more time had been at my disposal. Conversations on
+the subject, however, with officers connected with the bureau, lead me to
+think that, in some of the States, its affairs have not been conducted
+with good judgment or economy, and that the belief, widely spread among
+the freedmen of the southern States, that the lands of their former
+owners will, at least in part, be divided among them, has come from the
+agents of this bureau. This belief is seriously interfering with the
+willingness of the freedmen to make contracts for the coming year. In
+some form the Freedmen's Bureau is an absolute necessity until civil law
+is established and enforced, securing to the freedmen their rights and
+full protection. At present, however, it is independent of the military
+establishment of the country, and seems to be operated by the different
+agents of the bureau according to their individual notions. Everywhere
+General Howard, the able head of the bureau, made friends by the just and
+fair instructions and advice he gave; but the complaint in South Carolina
+was that when he left, things went on as before. Many, perhaps the
+majority, of the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau advise the freedmen that
+by their own industry they must expect to live. To this end they endeavor
+to secure employment for them, and to see that both contracting parties
+comply with their engagements. In some instances, I am sorry to say, the
+freedman's mind does not seem to be disabused of the idea that a freedman
+has the right to live without care or provision for the future. The
+effect of the belief in division of lands is idleness and accumulation in
+camps, towns, and cities. In such cases I think it will be found that
+vice and disease will tend to the extermination or great reduction of the
+colored race. It cannot be expected that the opinions held by men at the
+south for years can be changed in a day, and therefore the freedmen
+require, for a few years, not only laws to protect them, but the
+fostering care of those who will give them good counsel, and on whom
+they rely.
+
+The Freedmen's Bureau being separated from the military establishment of
+the country, requires all the expense of a separate organization. One
+does not necessarily know what the other is doing, or what orders they
+are acting under. It seems to me this could be corrected by regarding
+every officer on duty with troops in the southern States as an agent
+of the Freedmen's Bureau, and then have all orders from the head of
+the bureau sent through department commanders. This would create a
+responsibility that would secure uniformity of action throughout all the
+south; would insure the orders and instructions from the head of the
+bureau being carried out, and would relieve from duty and pay a large
+number of employees of the government.
+
+I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+U.S. GRANT,
+_Lieutenant General_.
+
+His Excellency ANDREW JOHNSON,
+_President of the United States_.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Report on the Condition of the South
+by Carl Schurz
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