THE FREEDMEN'S RECORD.
VOL. I.
BOSTON, OCTOBER, 1865.
No. 10.

"THE FREEDMEN'S RECORD" is published monthly, and is the organ of the NEW-ENGLAND FREEDMEN'S AID SOCIETY. All communications for or relating to the "RECORD" should be addressed to M. G. KIMBALL, 8, Studio Building, Boston; and must be accompanied by the name and address of the writer.

Terms per annum, $1.00 in advance; single copies, 10 cents.

 

CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN FREEDMEN'S AID COMMISSION.

REFERENCE was made in our last number to the formation of the Freedmen's Aid Commission. We give below the Constitution, and an account of the action of the New England Freedmen's Aid Society in relation to it:

ARTICLE 1. This organization shall be known as "The American Freedmen's Aid Commission."

ART. 2. Its object shall be to promote the education and elevation of the Freedmen, and to co-operate to this end with the " Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands."

ART. 3. The Commission shall consist of gentlemen hereinafter named, their associates and successors, and shall have power to appoint and remove, at discretion, its own officers; shall fill its own vacancies, not permitting its number to diminish; shall elect associates at discretion; shall audit the accounts of its officers, make necessary regulations, and be responsible for the efficiency and fidelity of its agents.

ART. 4. The Commission shall comprise an Eastern and Western department, each of which shall be independent of the other, so far as the collection of money and goods, and the selection, supervision, and payment of teachers and agents, may be concerned. These departments shall be organized in the East under the auspices of the American Freedmen's Aid Union, and in the West under the auspices of the United Western and North-western Freedmen's Aid Commissions.

ART. 6. The officers of the Commission shall be a President, one or more Vice-Presidents, a General and an Associate Secretary, one of whom shall reside in Washington, and a Treasurer.

ART. 6. The Board of Managers shall consist of the officers of the Commission, the Corresponding Secretaries of the departments, together with five delegates from each department; which Board of Managers shall decide, subject to the revision of the Commission, all questions relating to the general policy and action of the Commission.

ART. 7. Teachers and agents shall be accredited in the name of the American Freedmen's Aid Commission; their credentials being attested by the President and one of the Secretaries, and countersigned by the Corresponding Secretary of the Department from which they issue.

ART. 8. Each Department shall account to the General Treasurer for all monies received and expended, and all goods received and distributed.

ART. 9. Contributions from Europe, the Pacific Coast, and other common sources, shall go into the general treasury, unless otherwise directed by the contributors. Funds in the general treasury shall be distributed by the Board of Managers to the Departments, or otherwise applied for the purposes of the Commission. The General Treasurer shall make to the Commission an annual exhibit of all receipts and disbursements.

ART. 10. The General Secretary shall make an annual report to the Commission; which, with the annual exhibit of the General Treasurer, shall be published, under the direction of the Board of Managers.

ART. 11. The persons next hereinafter named, their associates and successors, shall constitute the Commission: —

Matthew Simpson, President; William Lloyd Garrison, First Vice-President; Charles G. Hammond, Second Vice-President; Frederick Law Olmstead, General Secretary; Jacob R. Shipherd, Associate Secretary; George C. Ward, Treasurer.

John Parkman, Thomas Russell, Jacob M, Manning, John G. Whittier, New England; Francis G. Shaw, John Jay, Robert Haydock, Henry Ward Beecher, Joseph P. Thompson, George Whipple, New York; Hugh L. Bond, Archibald Sterling, Evans Rogers, William J. Albert, Baltimore; Stephen Colwell, Francis R. Cope, J. E. Rhoads, Joseph Parrish, John P. Crosier, Philip S. Brooks, Philadelphia; C. G. Hussy

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John B. Clarke, William D. Howard, Pittsburgh; Levi Coffin, Adam Poe, D. H. Allen, Cincinnati; James E. Yeatman, William H. Elliot, George Partridge, St. Louis; J. G. Newberry, L. F. Mellen, Cleveland; R. W. Patterson, W. W. Patton, Grant Goodrich, Chicago; George Duffield, Charles S. May, Michigan; Calvin Fletcher, Indianapolis; 6.J. R. McMillan, St. Paul; William De Loss Love, Milwaukee; Abram M. Taylor, John P. Wood, Charles T. Coffin, Robert Morrison, Society of Friends; James B. Roberts, P. R. Cooes, San Francisco.

ART. 12. The Commission shall meet in the city of Baltimore, on the day of October, 1865; and thereafter as it shall determine.

ART. 13. This Constitution may be amended by the Commission at any regularly called meeting, provided previous notice of the changes proposed shall have accompanied the convening call.

The above Constitution having been adopted at a meeting of friends of the cause, held previously at New York, was admitted to a special meeting of the New-England Freedmen's Aid Society, held on Monday, Sept. 18, 1865, at No. 8 Studio Building.

Rev. Edward E. Hale, Vice-president, in the Chair. The Secretary being absent, Mr. George Atkinson was appointed Secretary pro tern. Prof. F. J. Child stated the object of the meeting to be the consideration of the subject of joining the proposed Freedmen's Aid Commission. Rev, Jacob R. Shepherd, of Chicago, made a statement of the general plan and objects of the Commission. After a full description, it was unimously [sic] voted:

"That, this Society, acting as a branch of the American Freedmen's Aid Union, gives that Society the power, so far as it has authority so to do, to unite in the American Freedmen's Aid Commission, as its Eastern Department.

"Provided, that article 3 of the draft of the Constitution be so amended as to allow vacancies to be filled from two or more names to be nominated by the Department in whose representation the vacancy may occur."

The meeting was then dissolved.

Geo. ATKINSON, Secretary pro tem.

At the meeting of the American Freedmen's Commission, held at New York subsequently, the desired alteration was made; and thus, the only obstacle to the cordial co-operation of the New-England Freedmen's Aid Society with the National Society, was removed.

"WE hope to give in our next number a list of the Teachers employed by the Society, and also of Branch Societies.

 

THE FREE COLORED PEOPLE.

THE thrift, industry, and general prosperity exhibited by the colored freedmen in many-quarters of the South, during the last three or four years, have surprised many. It is beginning to be seen that it is not the poor blacks but the poor whites whose disinclination to labor, whose ignorance and degradation, bid fair to unfit them for universal freedom. Not that the liberated negro does not show, in various ways, the ill effects of his previous condition. He does not prove himself, as yet, the equal of the Northern white man, reared under the influences of our Northern civilization, in energy and enterprise. He does not, as yet, manifest some of the hardier qualities which characterize some of the white races. These qualifications may be made, and still it may be said with truth, that wherever the negroes, since the emancipation proclamation, have been treated fairly and justly, they have utterly falsified the prophecies of those who have said that the negro is a hopelessly lazy, sensual creature, who, if he has enough to satisfy the lowest animal wants, will be content.

Many have been surprised that the freedmen have given the lie to such prognostications. This is true of two classes of persons;—those who, simply, upon the ground of what they know of human nature, have inferred that shivery could not produce such traits and virtues as freedom only cherishes; and those who have judged of the capacities and characters of free negroes by what they have seen or heard of them in the slave States, or in some of the disreputable quarters of New York or Philadelphia.

It is with reference to this last class of doubts, that we venture the assertion, that no one will be surprised by the reports of the general good conduct of the freed negroes of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, who has had a correct idea of the character and condition, as a general rule, of the colored people of the Northern States, during the last twenty or thirty years.

We suspect few persons, even among their friends and well-wishers, are aware of the strength of the argument drawn from this source.

It will be found, for example, from statistics, that the amount of crime committed by this class of persons is much less than that committed by white men. And this, too, when it might be fairly supposed, that; owing to bad

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surroundings, to early home-training, and especially to their being shut out from most employments, temptations to theft and dishonesty would be peculiarly strong.

Nor does this latter circumstance have, what would naturally be expected, the further effect of making a large proportion of them paupers. Only a few years ago, excluded from the public schools, where others gain not only knowledge, but get their wits sharpened for the business and competition of after life; knowing, however apt and skilful, that no white journeyman would remain in the shop in which they sought work; forbidden, practically, to learn any one of a score of trades in which white persons, often of less, capacity, make an honest living; with no career opening to those who felt themselves able to be something more than waiters or barbers, or — summit of the black man's ambition — stewards; oftener, too, in our Northern climate, incapacitated for hard work by illness, than are white laborers; not so strong, at the best, as they, it would not be strange, if, in our alms-houses, twice or four times as many blacks as whites were found. Nor would any one have a right to say, were it thus, that this proves the negro is naturally inferior, and unable to take care of himself. We do not say this of the white English peasant or mechanic because in England every eighth, some say seventh, man is a pauper; we say rather, how hard and unjust those restrictions! how cruel that state of things which produces such sad results!

The proportion of Irish paupers in Massachusetts, a year or two ago, to the whole Irish population, was one in one hundred and thirty-one. The ratio of negro pauperism was one in one hundred and twenty-five or one hundred and twenty-six. Yet the Irishman, as a white man, has immense advantage over the black man. And if this is true of the man, how much more striking the contrast between the Irish and the negro child.

The pecuniary prosperity to which, as statistics show, the free colored people, notwithstanding so many hindrances, have attained, is very remarkable. Thus in 1861, according to a statistical statement furnished by Dr. J. McCune Smith, it appears that colored, persons had invested in business carried on by themselves: —

Rev, Henry Ward Beecher, two years earlier, gave the following testimony in reference to New-York City and Brooklyn: —

"The taxed real estate in the city of New York, owned by colored persons, amounts to $1,400,000. The untaxed property in the city of New York, owned by colored persons, exempt from taxes, amounts to $250,000. The personal estate in the city of New York, owned by colored people, amounts to $710,000, and the amount of money in the Savings Bank in the city of New York, belonging to colored persons, is $1,121,000; making in all, $3,481,000; about three millions and a half of dollars. And it is supposed that there is in the hands of the colored people of Brooklyn, property of all kinds amounting to from a million to a million and a half of dollars. So that there is owned by the colored people of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, property to the amount of nearly five millions of dollars."

From a pamphlet compiled by W. C. Nell, who has devoted much attention to the subject, we learn further, that the Colored Home and Orphan Asylum in the City of New York contain, with very few exceptions, all the colored poor dependent on public support; and that the colored population, compared with the white, is as one to twenty-five: "hence," he adds, " the colored population are twenty-seven per cent less burdensome than is the white population to the poor fund. And this happy state of things has arisen from the fact, that the former have mutual-benefit societies, with a cash capital of thirty thousand dollars, from which to relieve the suffering and the destitute."

From other reliable sources we gather these facts, that, according to the latest statistics, the colored people in Detroit own property to the amount of $300,000; while they are excluded from the best public schools, which they, in common with their white fellow-citizens, are taxed to support.

That in Washington, D.C., two years ago, they were taxed on property valued at three hundred and sixty thousand dollars; and that the amount which they paid for the support of schools to which they were not allowed to send their children, was three thousand six hundred dollars.

In Philadelphia, according to statistics published a few years ago, there were four thousand and nineteen families of colored people, and the amount of property owned was eight hundred thousand dollars. In an article published in the "Christian Examiner." 1859, written by Rev. J. F. Clarke, it is stated, that

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"the census has just been taken, of their taxable property in real estate; and, though not all taken, it amounted to more than five hundred thousand dollars. Their number was about three thousand five hundred. Four hundred and fifty of their children were in the public schools, and fifty more of them at higher schools in Oberlin and Albany. They supported six churches, and had contributed between two and three thousand dollars to endow a colored orphan asylum" " In Louisiana," says the same authority, "the free colored people are in a better condition than in the extreme Northern States. The census gives nine colored brokers : one of them is the largest broker in New Orleans. Four are put down as capitalists, four as doctors, four as engineers, sixty-one as clerks, seventy-seven as merchants, two hundred and fourteen as planters, seven as students, and fifteen as teachers. One colored man, Cyprian Recaud, recently bought an estate, embracing over four thousand acres, with two hundred and fifty negroes belonging to it, for a quarter of a million of dollars." It has been computed, that, just before the war, the whole amount of property held in New Orleans by colored people was fifteen millions of dollars.

In view of these facts, it may be doubted whether any other oppressed class—if we except the Jews, who have, however, never been subjected to such disabilities and oppressions as they have been — has ever exhibited such ability in withstanding the depressing influences by which they have been surrounded, as has this Pariah class in America. In Port Royal, Norfolk, Newbern, &c, they have shown what they could do when the depressing effect of slavery was removed. In our Northern cities, they have manifested, under the incubus of a baleful prejudice, qualities which some claim as exclusively belonging to the white races. What may not be hoped for from them when that incubus is thrown off, and they are admitted to all the privileges of freedmen!

 

ON the second Monday in October, the people of Connecticut vote on the question of Negro Suffrage in their own State. It is a most important choice, which will powerfully affect the future of the nation. This remnant of oppression in a few of the free States is the most powerful support of tyranny in the South. GOT. Perry does not fail to refer to it. There is not a valid argument against Negro Suffrage in Connecticut. The minority report of the Legislature against it was too weak to deserve comment or require answer. We cannot doubt that Connecticut will prove true to herself and the truth.

 

GOV. PERRY'S MESSAGE.

THE Southerners have the merit of frankness at least. The very boldness of their assertions has often deceived us. Their bluster and brag about secession lulled us to security. But we ought to have grown wiser, and learned that sin does not always hide in the dark, but sometimes hopes to conquer by a bold, unblushing face. Satan defying heaven with his artillery, or crawling in the serpent, is the same evil spirit.

If any one doubts that the former slave-holding power of the South is crushed but unrepentant,— is determined to hold on to every vestige of power that remains to it, and to grind the negro race down to the lowest depths of misery and servitude possible to it without the name of slavery,—let him read the official message of Gov. Perry, of South Carolina. A man selected by President Johnson, as provisional Governor, to carry on his " Experiment," we must suppose to be above, rather than below, the average loyalty and right feeling of his State; and it is, therefore, fair to take his statements without abatement or qualification.

From his message, it is perfectly clear, that he considers slavery an unmixed good, and its abolition a measure to be submitted to because it is inevitable, but only as far as it is inevitable. He maintains that the Government of the United States is for the whites alone; and is not bound to care for the blacks at all. He scoffs at the idea of negro suffrage; and evidently considers that the relation of the white and negro is to be forever that of master and servant, and that it is the duty of the State Government to adjust the relation between them. He exults at the withdrawal of the colored troops, charging them with infamous conduct, which charge is not substantiated by any evidence.

Now, it is idle to suppose that this message will not be as well read and as well understood by the Freedmen of South Carolina, as it is by us. Danger sharpens the faculties. Will the thousands of black men, who, for four years

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have been taught the lesson of armed resistance to tyranny, and have learned their own strength and the advantage of combination and discipline, sit tamely down and accept this condition of things! They are thinking of holding land, of making their own contracts, of supporting their own families, of establishing their own schools and churches, of being their own masters. The self-control of the negroes during the war is the surest indication of their power. The man who can restrain his anger long is grand and fearful when he lets it loose. The freedmen believe in the North, — that it means to stand by them, and see justice done. Let that hope fail them, and we shall see a new contest, and, in the words of Jefferson, "there is no attribute of God that will take part against them."

 

DUTY TO THE FREEDMEN.

OPPORTUNITY is always a duty. When, in God's providence, we are allowed to become the instruments of a great good to others, that very fact binds us to do our utmost to make that good available to them. The Priest and the Levite felt no sense of obligation to the wounded man; but the good Samaritan, who had already bound up his wounds and poured in oil and wine, said to the housekeeper, "When I return I will pay thee all." So now, the former slaveholder, who has lived for years upon the sweat and blood of the negro, the hunker cotton-merchant who has made his millions on the product of his toil, feel no duty to the negro: he has got more than he has any right to expect already. But the faithful anti-slavery man, who has toiled and suffered for him these many years, sees that God offers him one chance more, a higher task to perform, in leading the negro along his new path to civilization and independence. "A good man," says Wilhelm Meister, "makes a promise of benefit in his very nature." The North owes the benefits of education to the negro, because it has them, to give. The power is the obligation.

 

THE WORK AT CHARLESTON.

BRIEFLY: Since the fall of Charleston these results have been attained by the colored people, and their friends, chiefly the Agents of the Freedmen's Aid Societies: —

1. The colored people have enlisted by hundreds. No white recruit!

2. The day-schools have steadily increased the number of their pupils, until now we have over 4,000, —within six of 4,000 in actual attendance.

3. Five night-schools have been established, two of which still continue. The want of regular teachers and books, and the insufficient means of lighting the buildings, prevented the complete success of these schools. Yet some 500 adults have attended them.

4. A splendid fence was built, by the voluntary labor of the colored people, around the graves of our soldiers who perished on the Race-course; and a society was organized, to keep it in order as long as its members should live. Over 200 days' work was done on this sacred soil, by poor men who asked and received no material recompense whatever.

5. An Orphan House for colored children — named after our lamented Col. Shaw — has been established, and is in active operation. Up to the last dates, fifty-one children have been admitted, — twelve of whom have been bound out, returned to parents, or otherwise disposed of, and two of whom have died; leaving thirty-seven in the House at this time.

6. A Home Guard — a battalion of 400 men — has been organized.

7. A Reading-room, Library, and Debating Society have been instituted.

8. A Loyal League, chartered by the National League, has been established, and when I left Charleston had some 800 members.

9. A Mutual-Aid Society, for the burial of the indigent dead, was organized entirely by the colored men, and was successfully established.

10. A Patriotic Association of Women was established, and promises to be a permanent Society. Its object is to aid in the distribution of the bounties sent from the North, and in all general philanthropic movements.

11. A Masonic Lodge and one or two other social secret societies were organized, as I was told; the charter of the Masons, it was said, having been obtained from Hayti.

12. Money is being rapidly raised to start a daily paper. Nine-tenths of it will be subscribed by colored men. It will be called the " Charleston Mercury." Church organizations, including Sunday schools, have been established, divided, and subdivided; but I have kept no record of these movements.

JAMES REDPATH.

 

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ANECDOTE AND INCIDENTS OF A VISIT TO FREEDMEN. (Concluded.)

Most of the sufferers we saw, had found refuge in religion, and acknowledged its consolations to overbalance all their afflictions; and these were always ready to number their blessings, and to forgive their oppressors. One poor woman had been a cripple from childhood; she gave us a terrible account of her sufferings, both from disease and from the cruelty of her master and mistress. She had been sent on an errand, with another little girl, and, in hurrying home, had fallen against some stones on the side of a ditch, and dislocated her knee; but, as no attention was paid to it, the limb grew worse and worse, until an incurable lameness was the result. When she would limp into the room where her mistress was, she was bidden to walk like other children, and, being unable to do so, the lash was applied to cure her of her "sulkiness;" "she was too young to cry about pains." After that, her master made inhuman efforts to compel her to walk erectly, — so that her poor back was in a continual state of laceration from the strokes of the cowhide. A brutal kick in the side, on one of these occasions, has produced a life-long weakness there; yet she seems to bear no malice towards her injurers, but says she "freely forgives them all."

Having a strong desire to see as much as possible of the freedman, in their various phases of life and character, and especially to mingle in their devotional exercises, we attended one of their meetings on first-day afternoon. And here we would say, before introducing a description of these occasions, that we have no wish to bring a shade of ridicule over them, but merely to convey to unfamiliar minds some idea of the simplicity and originality of the people, — and, by sometimes giving their own language, to increase the force and interest of the narrative. Many people were assembled when we reached the meeting-house, and more came in afterward, — in all probably about three hundred. They were singing when we entered; but soon one of the ministers opened his sermon with the words, " The Lord is my rock and my foretrust; for thy name's sake I will not fear," — a text of his own arranging; and his exposition of it was marvellously energetic. He went rapidly from one point to another of the Psalmist's experience, and gradually brought it down to personal application, — asking his hearers if they "had not often known their own feet brought out of the snares that were sot so prevalent for them, and fixed upon this Rock?" There was something really touching in his appeals to those who had so lately known, with himself, what it was to wear the chain of the oppressor, and to be torn from mother and from children, never more to meet. He told of his own loving mother torn away and sold from him, and of the awful retribution which met the person who bought and carried her away,— how, directly afterward, the child of that man was standing so near the fire that her clothing caught, and she was soon enveloped in the flames; yet the mother, looking on, was so paralyzed with fear that she could not even call for help, and the child perished. The preacher seemed to think a lukewarmness was creeping over his brethren; that the fervor they had shown when under constant terror of the lash was already beginning to subside, —and he recalled to their remembrance how often they had met in secret places, not daring to assemble openly, for fear of their masters, and, with stifled groans and moans, had called on the Lord to send them deliverance; and now he had sent it, he was calling upon them to be more earnest and devoted, instead of less so. Through all this, and much more which was really good, and delivered with great earnestness, there were occasional shouts and groans on every hand around us. But these increased wonderfully when the next speaker rose. His sermon began without any text, — the subject uppermost in his mind appearing to be the difference between professors of religion and true possessors. The development was something after this manner. "Dere's a great many Christians in dis world, — may be as many as dere was in Sodom, — but when a dey come to be counted, dere wasn't enough to save de city. I can tell a real Christian far, far off, —far as I can see him; but I can't tell a church-member at all. If I was to see a vessel way off on de 'Lantic, and wanted to know whether she b'longed to England, or de 'nited-States Gov'ment, how'd I know? how'd I give de countersign to de captain, if I was so fur off I couldn't speak wid de trumpet? could I tell her by de hulk? no; for all de hulks might be painted alike. I'd tell by de flag ! Just so wid Christians, — know 'em by de flag dey carry! Now, dere's plenty of folks to praise Mr. Wesley, and to sing his hymns; but whar's de flag"? whar's all de little flags Mr. Wesley put on his little barks, when he freighted 'em 'wid heavenly treasure? I don't see 'em, —de flags don't show!" Some of this man's illustrations were quite original, and his mode of expression so characteristic, that he seemed quite a representative character altogether. Speaking of faith, he said, "it must be even-spun, to go right through the eye of a cambric needle, — like when you sew muslin, you know, if you ha'nt got an even thread it makes holes in your muslin; so if your faith ain't even-spun, — if your sins make bumps on it, it'll make great holes in your 'ligion. Lay all your camel-burdens down, and go right through." He said it was " hard to be a Christian in dis world, because every thing belonging to heavenly things on this side was so ugly, and Satin draws such

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fantastic scenery, which leads us away." Speaking of the importance of having all the roots of sin exterminated, he launched out into an elaborate description of the general practice of cutting off the stumps even with the ground, and smoothing the earth over, " and den say die mighty putty, — dis ground all smoove away, — all right; but when de spring-time come, and de soft airs blows on it, den up comes all de little green sprouts, and de old roots jist as much alive as ever. Bruth-ring, dis won't do, —de roots must be all dig up." But one can have little idea of the effect of these things without seeing the violent gesticulations, and hearing the tones which accompanied them; yet there was such a manifest sincerity,— such a feeling, that to the mass it was devotion, that we could only hope a blessing might rest upon them in their strange, almost alarming, mode of worship, until He who formed their impulsive hearts shall see fit to bestow upon them further light and instruction.

At another time we visited one of their evening "class-meetings." These are held in the basement of the church; and we found the people rapidly assembling in the small rooms into which it was divided, where the several " leaders " were in waiting. The effect was most singular, as we passed along the dimly-lighted hall, past one closed door after another, and heard the perfect clamor within, — hands and feet keeping time with shouts and groans, — while here and there could be distinguished the voice of prayer, above all.

We were courteously received by Captain Brown, who offered us the use of a government boat, to carry us up the river to the Wise farm, about ten miles distant; so we hurried back to the hotel to get our bags of tracts, and sundry other things, and were soon on board the " Fairy," bound for an excursion quite novel to us all. The weather was delicious, and every thing favorable; so we set off in excellent spirits, having no one on board beside our own party, except the captain, whose orders were to wait until we were ready to return. When we reached Governor Wise's farm, and looked around on the negro-huts scattered over it, we began to realize a little more fully where we were. After a hasty glance at the picture of John Brown, hanging in the parlor of the mansion, with minds full of the strange reflections awakened by it, we took our places in that odd conveyance, — stowed closely as possible, — all standing, of course, and with a negro driver for the four lank horses that drew us. In this picturesque manner, we jolted and pitched along, over rough, muddy roads, sometimes swaying to one side, sometimes to another, at the peril of breaking the slender bars which kept us within bounds. The variety of this ride was amusingly increased, as we halted every little while by a group of cabins, and gathered swarms of little children around us to receive the candies, books, dolls, pictures, &c, with which oar bags were filled.

Returning northward, we passed a day at our Orphan House at Hampton; and, although the visit furnished us with no incidents appropriate to this narrative, it will doubtless be interesting to our friends to learn that we found it in a truly satisfactory condition; the children in the enjoyment of good health, and the household conducted in a manner creditable to the matron, and to her daughter, who has been a most acceptable assistant. The improvement of the children gave evidence of much care on the part of the teachers, and was such as might encourage all who have contributed to the support of the institution. In Washington, we visited the first day-school, conducted by Eli Jones, in the schoolhouse under the care of New-England Friends. On account of various delays, the usual exercises were concluded before we arrived; but, as the pupils were not dismissed, we sat down amongst them, whilst our friends, E. J. and E. Y., proposed various questions, which required more activity of thought, and elicited many curious and shrewd replies. The company consisted mainly of children; but there were a few young women, and two or three old gray-haired men, who appeared deeply interested in all that was said, and, by their devout manner, added much to the impressiveness of the occasion. Old "John the Baptist," an aged pilgrim of some eighty years, very reverently expressed his surprise that he should have lived to see his people free.

This precious boon was to be of little value to him, for the sands of life were nearly run, and he had long been thrust aside as useless; but for years and years he had been praying for this great deliverance, and, now that his own eyes had beheld it, he could lie down in peace. "My old missus," he said, " was a mighty good woman: she could read, and she know'd what was in de good book; and she used to often tell us de Lord was gwine to sot us all free, some day, —and she told us so again on her death-bed, dat she seed it all plain afore her; de time wasn't come yet, but it would come, for she seed all about it in de book, and now de Lord showed it to her again. My old missus was mighty pious, and she didn't keep none o' dem tings from her slaves,—she use to talk to us often about 'era." Some one remarked, "Yet she did not feel it right to set you all free before she died?" "No, no, she said de Lord 'ud do dat, byme-bye; but she was mighty good to us, — only when we got old, like me, and wasn't no use, we was turned out, like an old worn-out beast, to take care of ourselves; but dat was allers de way whar I come from." At this point our friend E. J. introduced some illustrations of the fact, that the aged

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often thrust out in their helplessness, and compelled to provide for themselves, or perish in the attempt. One, of a number which had fallen under his own notice, was the following: —A feeble old man, who had been forty-five years in the service of one master, was informed the family had no further need of him, and that he must leave the plantation, where the vigor and energy of life had been expended under the bitter stimulus of the lash, and seek sustenance elsewhere. Very earnestly he entreated to remain, but in vain: he was driven peremptorily away. With great effort he found his way to Washington, presented himself at the door of his master's son, who resided in that city, and besought a little relief: the young man turned away in disdain, and an appeal was then made to his wife, for a morsel of food to appease the hunger of a wasted, weary, desolate fellow-creature. A little bread was given, and the aged wanderer departed, helpless, homeless, and ready to perish. The hand of a "good Samaritan" was afterwards placed in his, to lead him to a "wayside inn, " where his few remaining days might be soothed, and his simple wants provided for.

Our friend, E. J., endeavored, in a serious conversational way, to impress upon the freedmen before him the importance of uniting their efforts for the improvement and elevation of their own people under this new blessing of freedom. He said there were some present who could exert a very powerful influence for good, if disposed to put shoulder to shoulder, and work together; adding, "When I was at home, working on my farm, I have seen oxen yoked to a plough, and, when the boys undertook to start them, one would move forward promptly and eagerly, but the other would not stir; the consequence was the plough stood still." As an instance of the readiness with which these people appropriate the lesson of the hour, directly afterward old "Uncle Solomon" knelt in prayer, and, amongst his fervent petitions, uttered amid sobs and groans, we caught the words, " Oh Lord, make us like a yoke of Pharaoh's hosses in de olden time, dat we may all pull together!" At the request of one of their teachers, they sang us one of their native hymns. The peculiar melody of the notes is indescribable, — there is a pathos and a sweetness deeply affecting about some of them; and on this occasion, when, with a solemnity most striking, the children blended their young voices in the refrain, "I'm gwine to keep journeyin' on, — for Christ's a comin' on de fiel' byme-bye, — Christ's a comin' on de fiel' byme-bye," it was quite impossible to repress the tears, so touchingly did the mind realize that these poor outcasts were pressing on to meet their Saviour, with perfect confidence that he is ready to prove himself their double Deliverer. Blessings and praise already fill their mouths, for redemption from the oppressor's yoke, in answer to the prayers of many generations; and they now look joyfully forward to an inheritance incorruptible in the "promised land. "

We were much interested in visiting the inmates of the cabins around the New-England Home. In one we found a poor consumptive girl, to whose case E. J. had been first attracted by her coming to the store, languid and emaciated, to say that she had four pennies now, and wanted to buy some bread. Disease had followed exposure and privation, and, as we looked and listened, the deepest sympathies of our hearts were stirred. Yet the cruel treatment she had borne was light compared with that inflicted on her poor father, who was driven before the lash until he fell lifeless on the hard field; and, when the overseer would have struck him another blow, it was found that death had mercifully come to his relief. In this room was another poor woman, whose fingers were terribly swollen and distorted by rheumatism, — yet she had been compelled to do her portion of weeding and hoeing, though nights of sleepless agony often followed the daily labor, for weeks together. Yet these women, like most we saw, were trying to count their blessings, and, in the midst of trials, were struggling against despondency.
In Alexandria we visited the Colored Hospital, and found there many deeply interesting cases. It was most instructive to see the young and the aged alike stirred with devotional feeling, and to observe how that blessed Comforter, who is "no respecter of persons," was soothing many a lowly, untutored heart, and softening many a dying pillow. One poor, stupid, almost loathsome-looking, youth, said he had been waiting on an officer in the navy, and had taken his sickness from sleeping out on the boards in all kinds of weather. He appeared to be one revolting mass of disease; yet his poor parched lips whispered his love for Jesus, and a little gleam of light spread over his swollen features when one spoke to him of this precious Friend of the friendless, and he said, in broken accents, " I tinks of Him often, — He all de comfort I got, " A few of these men had learned to read since their emancipation; but most were yet unable. One old man, whose heart seemed aglow with love to the Redeemer, but whose only outward knowledge of him had been gained from their own class-meetings, amongst people probably as ignorant as himself, was asked if he would like to have a copy of the New Testament, from which any visitor could read ft chapter or a few verses to him in passing. He started back, with a sort of holy horror, at the thought of any thing new in religion, — asking if it was different from the good book that told about Jesus and he did'nt want any thing else. When

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assured that this was a part of the Bible, and would tell him all about the Saviour, — how he suffered and died for us, and is now in heaven, ready to plead for and to save all who come to him in sincerity, — the poor old man eagerly accepted the proffered volume, saying he had children, and would leave it to them when he died.

At Freedman's Village, near Arlington, were many whose stories were full of interest. One poor child had just been recovered, by her parents, from a master whose cruel hand had left its trace in many scars upon her head and shoulders. A fellow-servant told us the slaves all pitied the children on that plantation so much, — they were beaten so often, and had salt applied to their bleeding wounds. She said it was "the business of one old aunty to oil them all afterward." We observed deep scars on her face, as if pieces of flesh had been removed, and were struck with the peculiar dullness of her expression; but this was explained when our informant told us that sometimes this child's head had seemed "almost beaten to a jelly, " — extravagant language, but the evidences of cruelty were unmistakable.

In happy contrast to such fearful inhumanity, we found many who assured us they had kind masters, who did not allow them to be beaten severely, and did not forbid them to meet together for worship, as was the case in too many places. Still, in all cases, their labor was unrequited, and their families liable to be torn apart and sold for debt, or from circumstances beyond the control of their owners. And such contracts were often made without the knowledge of the slave, —so that the purchased were hurried away without parting interviews with those to whom they were bound by the tenderest ties of nature, and whom they might never again hear from or behold on this side the grave.

In the "Old-People's Home," at Freedman's Village, are numbers of aged men and women, who now rejoice in the comforts which surround them. One of these sadly needed the shelter of such a home, for both limbs had been frozen so that amputation was necessary at the knee; and it was pitiful to see her moving herself about on the floor, without any ability ever again to stand upright. Yet she seemed cheerful, and spoke of her troubles without repining; as did also another woman, older than she, whose sunken eyelids attracted our notice. This was a tall, energetic-looking mulatto: she had been blind for eighteen years, but said, in reply to our inquiry whether she was required to work after losing her sight, "Oh yes, I could'nt live without work; I did all the ironing in Massa's family, and hemmed all the table-cloths, besides doing parts of the coarser sewing." This seemed incredible; but some of the other inmates of the house confirmed her statement, by saying she made all her own clothing now; and we saw that it was well made. This woman assured us she had never received a stroke by way of correction.

The school at this place was an object of interest to us. Everywhere the eyes of the children sparkled with the joy of being free; and this feeling seemed heightened here, by the peculiar character of the songs they sang, — all having reference to this cherished boon. One of them, called "Uncle Sam's School, " was sung with a perfect gusto. It is full of capital allusions to the provision made by Government for educating the freedmen, and the schoolroom rang when happy-voices swelled the chorus: —

"So come bring your books and slates,
And don't be a fool;
For Uncle Sam is rich enough
To send us all to school. "

In many places we found the little ones eager to show the rapidity of their progress; some had learned to read in two months, some in one; and the various grades were commended with a sincerity which was quickly reflected in their own beaming faces. No one who wishes to give pleasure to those who have had but little to enjoy thus far in life, should go amongst these people without an ample supply of all such things for the children, — not forgetting little niceties for the sick; and, for the women, such articles as may be of use in their scanty beginnings of a self-supporting condition. Pins, needles, buttons, cottons, all were received by them with the most gratifying delight, though dispensed in ever so small a measure. They cannot appreciate small pins, —the larger the better; "we likes to feel 'em. " One old woman turned to her friend in subdued exultation, and said, "I was just wishin' for dese yer, — wonder if dis lady knowed I wanted 'em?"

We found no instance of regret, or of a wish to return to the old way of life; although in many cases hardship and trouble have been redoubled to them in the transition state. So many have lost husbands, wives, and children; besides being brought to the gates of death themselves, by the great privations they have endured whilst escaping and since. One poor woman told us she had as kind a master as a slave could have; but the thought of freedom was sweet, and she escaped with her husband and seven children. These had all died since of fever, and she had been so wretched, that sometimes, in the beginning, she was ready to wish they had never come away; but she wished that no longer.
All agreed as to the efforts used by the slaveowners to impress their people with a terror of the North; telling them "the Yankees had horns, --would cut off their right arms and make them draw ploughs in the place of horses, or sell them

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all to Cuba." When we asked if they believed these things, some said, "yes," others, "no;" and some, that at first they did, "but byme-bye we said we'd try, ony way, — couldn't be no wuss off dan we was," and then they would laugh in their own peculiar, chuckling way, to think how different the realization had been.

The points of interest in this brief journey, as might be supposed, were many and varied; although only one feature has been depicted here. But as the object of the Association in culling for this sketch was understood to be simply to supplement, by anecdote and incident, the graver statements of those who necessarily deal chiefly with statistics, it has been confined to such details; and is now presented with the hope that it may be acceptable to some who are laboring diligently in remote places for the poor, struggling freedmen.

 

COLORPHOBIA IN WASHINGTON.

CONGRESS, last year, passed a law containing a special provision that the municipal authorities of Washington shall set apart, from the school-fund, such a proportionate part thereof as the colored children, between the ages of six and seventeen years, bear to the whole number of children. Considering that, for years, the free colored people had been taxed for school purposes, without being allowed to receive any fair equivalent therefor in any way, the measure was regarded, by the country, as an act of simple justice. But the City Council of Washington, incredible as it may seem, resorted to the pitiful expedient of abolishing the school-fund entirely, and supported the white schools out of the general proceeds of taxes, without having any special fund. In this way the black children are, for the time being, cheated out of their schools. But this poor juggle will be short-lived. If its authors do not retrace their steps before Congress shall have another opportunity to act, the upshot of the matter may be easily conjectured. Referring to this affair, the "Washington Chronicle," says: —

"We are strongly inclined to suspect that they forgot, in the midst of their glee, that Congress possesses the legal, constitutional power to make voters of colored men in the District. They must have left out of their calculations the fact that Congress would, naturally indignant at this piece of petty chicanery, be very strongly induced to put the power of righting their own wrongs into the hands of the colored men themselves, by giving them a right to a voice in the election of the men who make a tax-levy, as well as to assign its proportions to different interests. If a stronger argument could be brought to the attention of the next Congress for granting the right of suffrage to the blacks of this District than the true history of this little transaction affords, we wish some one would call our attention to it."

THE COLONEL-SHAW ORPHAN HOUSE.

MR. REDPATH established in Charleston an Orphan House, which he named after the young hero who "lost his life and gained his immortality on the ramparts of Fort Wagner." It has received sixty-three children, and has now over fifty of them living in it. The Philadelphia, New York, and Boston Societies have sent contributions of clothing to it; and the New-York Society has agreed to pay the salaries of the employees until October. As the House was entirely furnished without cost to the Societies, the only expenses of supporting it will be salaries, medicines, and clothing; and a portion of these charges will probably be defrayed, if Mr. Redpath returns, by the colored people of Charleston. A juvenile library for the orphans is needed, and books will be forwarded by the Boston Society, if contributed for this purpose.

For the last three months the orphans have been domiciled in the elegant mansion of a Mrs. Ross, on East Bay Street; but as she is a non-combatant, and has taken the oath of allegiance, they have been forced to move, and are now occupying the splendid and stately residence of the aristocratic Mr. Memminger, ex-Rebel Secretary of the Treasury.

General Hatch furnishes rations for the Home, and has taken a practical interest in it from its inception. All clothing sent to the Orphan House, if not needed by the children in it, is distributed to destitute pupils of the public schools. Shoes for children from six to sixteen will be greatly needed during the autumn months. The Freedmen's Employment Office, established and supported by this Society since last winter in Washington, D.C., and under the efficient management of Mr. A. E. Newton, has been assumed by Col. Eaton, Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in that District.

 

We regret that want of space prevents us from giving some account in this number of the very valuable services of Mr. Newton among the Freedmen in Washington, during

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the past year, both as Superintendent of the Schools of the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association, and as agent of this Society in charge of the above office.

The Washington "Daily Chronicle" gives an interesting account of the examination of the Colored Schools under Mr. Newton's superintendence. It says:

" The success of this occasion must tend to deepen the interest of both pupils and their parents in the schools. The teachers and Superintendent, most or all of whom are from the North, are surely worthy of great credit for the results they have produced, under the disadvantages with which they have been obliged to contend."

Mr. Newton is a judicious and unwearied worker.

 

EXTRACTS FROM TEACHERS' LETTERS.

 

RALEIGH, N. C, Sept. 2,1885, TEACHERS* HOME.

Our school is kept in two rooms in an old hotel. Not a day passes but what we have some new scholars, as our school is the only one in session now, and we closed yesterday for a vacation of two weeks, given to us by Mr. Fiske the superintendent. The scholars read from charts, under Miss H.'s instruction, until they become familiar with the sounds of the letters and can read short sentences; when they are formed into classes, ¦which I have charge of. I am surprised at the ease and aptitude with which they learn. Many of them learn the alphabet much quicker than any scholar that I have had in schools at the North. We have a boy in school named Boston (and he reflects credit on the name) who is jet black, and a living impersonation of fun, but who is one of our smartest scholars; for when we came he could not tell a single letter, but can now read well in the middle of the National Primer. He was such a rogue at first that we despaired of making any thing out of him; but now he is a most exemplary pupil. I must tell you a little incident which occurred in school the other day. The class were reading a lesson which they had read once before, and a boy was reading who had an idea of reading according to the sense rather than the words: he came to the sentence " The Lord is on my side," which he rendered, in a very distinct and deliberate tone, " The Lord is on my hip." In the evening school Miss H. and I have taught every evening since our arrival. It is attended by all sizes, from little boys to grayhaired men; and each and all think it the ultimatum of their desires to learn to read. We also have a large Sunday school, about two hundred pupils I think, under the charge of Mr. Leland. He has a S. S. concert once a month, after the Northern fashion, which interests and pleases both parents and children. But I must tell you that we have at last found a house which we have rented for a home, and are now settled in it. Though our furniture is " few and far between," and we have slept on the floor for two nights, yet we are so glad to leave the hotel, whose proprietor was of strong secesh proclivities, and who only endured us for the sake of the " greenbacks," that we can put up with most anything.

We hope now to live on a more economical plan, and not need such a heap of greenbacks as we have heretofore to meet our expenses. Yours very truly.

E . G. B.

 

TOWSFIELD, Aug. 23.

I was assigned to the care of this school the last week in March; but on my arrival, found the people in a very destitute condition as regards clothing, and nearly all suffering from a cutaneous disease which required active medical treatment. Therefore it was necessary in the first place to devote the time to improving their physical condition. For this reason the school could not be commenced till the second week in May; and then it was under great disadvantage, the only books furnished being a limited supply of Christian-Commission Primers, containing mainly quotations from Scripture, incomprehensible to the undeveloped intellects of my pupils. The school also met with other interruptions,—the farm-work frequently requiring the services of all who would be most benefited by the instructions and discipline of school.

In the latter part of June, having to depend chiefly on the oral method of instruction, I discontinued the school for a short time, being wholly occupied in cutting and making garments for the people, from generous supplies furnished by the New-England Freedmen's Society. The first of August we received from the Society a box which had been months on the way and which contained an ample supply of alphabet-cards, books, charts, slates, pencils, and crayons, and can now reply to your question as to their aptness for learning. During the two weeks in which we have been using these cards, the progress of the pupils has been most gratifying. I am surprised at the facility with which they acquire and retain ideas, when properly presented. Three weeks ago hesitating over words of three letters, —now they lire reading in words of two or three syllables,— are somewhat familiar with the Arabic and Roman numerals,-several tables,- and can answer intelligently quite ft number of geographical, political, and miscellaneous questions. This is not true of all. There is the usual proportion of dull scholars that would be found in the same number of white children, and a few appear decidedly imbecile; but the majority are, as I

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have said, bright, eager, and intelligent. Largest number of pupils present at one time, sixty; average, thirty-five.

We very much need a blackboard, but as yet have none; and I must also urge the humanity of more comfortable seats, those now in use being merely rough benches. It is almost cruelty to compel a child to maintain an erect position on a seat which affords not the slightest support to the spinal column; yet a teacher's sense of order is constantly outraged by seeing a portion of the school in a recumbent position. Backs to the seats, a few desks, and a blackboard would add much to the order, comfort, and efficiency of the school.

Respectfully,

P. G. B.

To Capt. LORD, Assistant Superintendent of Ref. F. &, A.L. &c.

 

JACKSONVILLE, FLA.., Sept. 8,1865

. . . . Opportunity offering, I visited the different settlements on the St. Johns, for three hundred miles up to lake Melon. But few of the colored people remain at these places; but such as there are, are doing far better than those who Have given up their homes and are crowding into the large towns. After my return here, I visited as many of the little settlements made for these people as our limited means of transportation would allow, and of these I wish to write. They can have all the land they need, and generally manage to get some kind of shelter up. There they stop, — settle down with the comforting assurance that God will not see them starve,—draw their rations, and—vegetate. The men get what work they can. The women are too far from town to get washing; and some of them, if they chance to have an old hoe, start a little garden; but this is all they can do. A few potato-slips are set out, a few garden-seeds sown, if they can get them. Now here is where I wish help. It is now time to make Fall gardens. This month and the next will do; indeed they can plant as late as December, and some vegetables do well; but the people have no garden-seed. So this golden opportunity is slipping away; and by and by every one will see the fatal mistake, as the slight crops of corn and sweet potatoes are exhausted, and starvation comes close up to so many doors. Now, if the means could only be supplied, much of this suffering could be avoided; but there are no garden-seeds here, or none to mention; and what there are, cost about a cent a seed; so it is out of their reach. I would like, if possible, to have some of our Northern Societies send us garden-seed so that the people can be at work, and help to sustain themselves the coming Winter and Spring, besides giving the women and children honest work.

Mr. P. C. Dennett, who has had charge of the affairs of the Freedmen here during the past year, has been lately removed, and Colonel Osborn is in charge as Acting Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau. He has lately arrived. I visited some of the settlements with him. He is a man of much ability and with great firmness of purpose,—formerly a Democrat, but now believes that universal suffrage is the only true basis for reconstruction.

If you think it advisable to try and do any thing for the people in the way I suggest, perhaps it would be better to send to me at Hilton Head; and, if need be, I would come down and see to the distribution of the seed if it came in time,—that is, before the re-opening of the schools. All kinds of garden-vegetables do well, when planted in the Fall,—cabbages, turnips, peas, Irish potatoes, tomatoes, &c. Respectfully yours,

B. H. H.

 

CIRCULAR.

THE Circular below it is proposed to distribute widely at the South:—

NEW-ENGLAND PREEDMAN'S AID SOCIETY TO THE COLORED PEOPLE OP THE SOUTH.

Letter from. Gov. Andrew of Massachusetts.

FELLOW-CITIZENS, — As the time approaches for re-opening the schools for freedmen, we call upon you to come up to the help of this great work of education.

The North must furnish money and teachers,— must send out the noblest of her sons and daughters to teach your sons and daughters. We ask you to provide for them, whenever possible, schoolhouses and subsistence. Every dollar you thus save us will help to send you another teacher. Time presses. The enjoyment of every right hangs on education. A free, self-supporting, intelligent people must and will secure equality of political and civil rights: no power can prevent them. Abraham Lincoln decreed your emancipation from slavery; let us complete the work, and emancipate the mind from ignorance. Liberty means a fair chance to win all the honest prizes of life; means the opportunity to be and become all that our own faculties and our own good purposes may command. You are now free to receive help in becoming intelligent citizens. But not even God can make you so unless you help yourselves.

You can supply the teachers' homes with corn, eggs, chickens, milk, and many other necessary articles; provide forage for horses; work on the needed repairs. Work an extra hour to sustain and promote your schools. The teachers will toil many an hour for your children. A school supported or even aided by yourselves will do you tenfold more good than a school wholly maintained by the charity of others.

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Thus far, the colored people have nobly fulfilled the hopes of their true friends. Keep on, and never fail. When the free school of New England is spread all over the South, then our people will become one people, dwelling together in unity; they will become great and powerful, mutually respecting and helping each other, and an example to all the world. God speed the time!

JOHN A. ANDREW, President. BOSTON, MASS.,

Sept, 1, 1865.

 

FREE LABOR AS A MISSIONARY.

IT is a wise provision of Divine Providence that even the selfishness of man is made to minister to the progress of society. Political economy rests on laws which deal with the relations of capital and labor; yet these in their action produce moral results. The mechanic works for his day's wages, the capitalist builds his factory for a profit; but the result of their efforts is a blessing to others. The desire for wealth is one of the strongest and most powerful in the breast; it often prompts men to do very wicked things in order to get rich; nevertheless, in a broad, historical generalization, we see that this desire is one of the most powerful incentives to civilization. This deep inborn desire gives rise to industries. Out of it spring agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. This law begins to operate at the South and soon will be still more powerful. Here is a case in point:—

A short time since we saw it stated that the demand for labor was so great in Maryland that efforts were making to get negroes from Virginia to go into the former State. The inducements offered are better pay and treatment. Let this fact be generally known, and the current of colored labor would flow in* Maryland. Thus Virginia would be drained of valuable sources of wealth. We call attention to this fact because it illustrates a very important feature in the re-adjustment of the South. This section can become prosperous only through the products of its labor united' with capital. To reach the desired result, cotton, tobacco, sugar, and rice must be grown. The emancipation of the slaves has made labor free. How do the manufacturers at Lowell and Lawrence proceed now that they are great stress for hands'? They offer every inducement to operatives. Besides liberal wage care is taken that they have comfortable boarding-houses; schools are established for the children, and various provisions made for their comfort. Will it be any different on the hanks the James, Savannah, or Mississippi, than on the Merrimack? Suppose Maryland, starting with a liberal and sagacious policy, should offer higher wages to the freedman, allow him testify in court, and grant him more privileges than he has in Virginia: the consequence can easily be seen. The laborers of the Old Dominion would at once cross the Potomac, 'he same rule would apply if Georgia or Florida should thus offer the black man better terms than the Carolinas. The laws of supply and demand are inexorable. South Carolina cannot rise from her prostration without turning her wasted and desolate lands into fruit-bearing fields. She must raise cotton and rice. As the lash and the chain are not allowed on the plantation, new motives and inducements must be offered. For years to come, the crops of the South must be raised to a great extent by the black man. He has done this for centuries. He is there on the spot; and desires, if well treated, to remain. What can the Northern cotton-manufacturer do to-day without operatives? The planter's needs are no less imperative; and the practical question will soon arise in each of the Southern States, How shall we keep the freedman at home? The idea of eliminating from a community its whole laboring population is a monstrous delusion, which no wise practical business-man would seriously entertain unless he lets his passions override his judgment. The whole South will not commit financial suicide, and doom themselves to perpetual poverty. The large number of Northern men who will go there with thrift, industry, and business foresight, will solve the problem. Already many of the plantations under the direction of Northern men are the most profitable. The planters, to compete with him on equal terms, must follow his example. The case seems to us very plain. When society settles down into its normal condition of peace, there will be a great demand for labor; and each State will be vitally interested to keep all it has and to get more, just as now the cotton-manufacturer is compassing sea and land for operatives. Soon the merchant in Charleston and Richmond, the farmer on James river, the planters in the Carolinas, in their stress will ask the practical question, Will this narrow and unjust policy towards the negro pay?

We here recognize one of the most impressive lessons of the wisdom and goodness of God in the arrangements of the world. The

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rights which many would not grant on the plea of justice, are conferred from motives of self-interest; and, though the good accomplished does not have for those who do it the sancity and flavor of virtue, let us rejoice, and thank God in behalf of those who are benefited. We also think a deeper insight into the great laws on which political economy is based would increase our reverence for God. We would then recognize the profound religious meaning of toil, and discern those moral results which follow from the great industrial arrangements of society.—[ Christian Register.]

 

HARD TO PLEASE.

The New York " Daily News " writes : " The working classes of the South are exposed, more than those of this section at present are, to the pressure of negro competition. The equality of the two begins its assertion there, in a form more threatening to the white laborer than even in the case of the North. The progress of the struggle at the South may therefore be watched by the working-classes here as a study of what is, as yet, but in progress of development among themselves."

It is difficult to satisfy men who are determined to grumble. We have been confidently assured, at different times, by the " Daily News " and its friends, the malignant pro-slavery men,—

First, That the free negro will not work at all; but

Second, That he will work so much better than the white laborer, that the latter will be injured by the "pressure of negro competition."

Third, That the country will be ruined by the idleness of the free blacks ;

but Fourth, That the negroes are so eager for work as to leave none for white workmen.

Fifth, That the negroes are a curse to the country; but

Sixth, That the slave-system, which made negro-breeding a regular and profitable business, and thus increased their numbers at an abnormal rate, was a divine institution, and a blessing to the land.

Seventh, That the negro is naturally an abject coward; but

Eighth, That he is a most dangerous creature, capable of rising and murdering a community double his numbers and with a hundred times his strength in arms and all preparations for defence.

Ninth, That the negro can only live in a warm climate, like that of the Southern States; but

Tenth, That now he is set free there, he will immediately rush North, and take the bread out of the mouths of the white workingmen here.

Eleventh, That white men cannot work in the Southern fields, which can be cultivated only by negroes; but

Twelfth, That the negroes ought all to be colonized in Africa, or driven off to some remote corner of this continent-

Thirteenth, That the freedmen are so stupid and ignorant as to be dangerous to the republic; but

Fourteenth, That they ought not to be instructed or permitted to acquire knowledge.

Fifteenth, That it would be a curse to Northern workingmen to have the negroes flock into these States; but

Sixteenth, That Northern workingmen ought not to favor a policy which would make the negroes contented to remain in the South.

Seventeenth, That the workingmen of the Northern States are the most intelligent, the most capable, the most industrious, and the most virtuous in the world; but

Eighteenth, That they will inevitably be ruined and deprived of work by the competition of ignorant and idle negroes.

Nineteenth, That the presence of the blacks amongst us will always be a source of difficulty and trouble; but

Twentieth, That the Emancipation Act is wrong, chiefly because, under its operation, the negro race is likely to die out, like the Indians.

These are some of the curious contradictions into which men fall who ignore all general principles, and follow only the will-o'-the-wisp of their prejudices. It is not only in relation to the negro-question that they are thus blinded: their folly extends to other affairs. For instance, they assert very earnestly, that a merchant ought to be free to sell his goods wherever he wants; but they will not have a laborer sell his labor as freely, though that labor creates the goods. They insist that we shall buy calico in the cheapest market, but not labor, They laugh at the absurdities and crudities of " protective legislation," and yet cry out that white workmen

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must suffer unless protected against "the pressure of negro competition." They welcome immigration from abroad, at the same time that they try to persuade workingmen here that the labor-market is already overstocked. These are the same men who, before the war, declared the negro a beast, a monkey, possessed of every vile quality, and a terrible danger to the community, and yet urged the re-opening of the African slavetrade.—-N. Y. Evening Post.

 

The Assistant Commissioners Freedmen's Bureau at Little Rock, Arkansas, reports 3980 freedmen at work in that city ; males at from $25 to $50 per month, and rations ; females, at $15 to $18 per month, and rations.

 

BRANCH  SOCIETIES.

The Secretaries of Branch Societies are requested to send us, as soon as possible, a list of officers for the ensuing year.

ROXBURY. (Lincoln Freedmen's Aid.)
President, Mrs. L. C. Bowles.
Secretary, Miss Anna C. Lowell.

W. ROXBURY.
President, Mrs. Charles W. Dabney.
Secretary, Miss Emily Greene.

CHICOPEE.
President, Mrs. John Wells.
Secretary, Miss Sarah Stackpole.

WEST NEWTON.
President, Mrs. J. A. Newell.
Secretary, Mrs. Edward Hinckley.

WOBURN.
President, Mrs. A. G. Carter.
Secretary, Mrs. S. R. Pippy.

DORCHESTER.
(Barnard Freedmen's Aid Society.)
President, Daniel Denny.
Secretary, Mrs. William Pope.

BROOKLINE.
President, Rev. William Lamson.
Secretary, Miss Ellen M. Wellman.

BOSTON YOUNG LADIES.
President, Miss Annette Rogers.
Secretary, Miss Lilian Clark.

AUGUSTA, ME.
Secretary, Miss Eliza Judd.

NORTHAMPTO.
Secretary, Miss Mary A. Cochran.

BEVERLY.
President, Mrs. Samuel D. Herrick.
Secretary, Miss Eliza Choate.

SOMERVILLE.
Teacher,   Sarah E. Foster,

LEICESTER.
President, Samuel May, jun.
Secretary, A. H. Cooledge.

GRAFTON.
President, Mrs. M. H. Jewett.
Secretary, Miss Emily Moulton.

HINGHAM.
President, Rev. J. Young.
Secretary, Mrs. L. B. Lincoln.

HOPEDALE.
President, E. D. Draper.
Secretary, Jerome Wilmarth.

OLD CAMBRIDGE.
President, Miss Maria Bowen.
Secretary, Miss Sarah Ropes.

MAYHEW SOCIETY, IN BOSTON.
President, Mrs. Charles G. Loring.
Secretary, Miss Horatia Ware.

PLYMOUTH.
President, Rev. Edward H. Hall.
Secretary, Miss Mary E. Kendall.

HAVERHILL.
President, Mrs. W. H. Hewes.
Secretary, Ellen F. Johnson.

THE LITTLE SOCIETY.
Secretary, Bessie Lehmann.

BILLERICA.
President, Dr. Frank Bundy.
Secretary, Miss Anne R. Faulkner.

OLD SOUTH CHURCH, IN BOSTON.
President, Mrs. Blagden.
Secretary, Miss Abby Walley.

ARLINGTON-STREET CHURCH, IN BOSTON.
President, Mrs. Henry Grew.
Secretary, Mrs. E. W. Forbush.

THEODORE-PARKER FREEDMEN'S AID.
President, Mrs. Sarah B. Otis.
Secretary, Miss Sarah O. Babcock.

DR. NEHEMIAH ADAMS'S SOCIETY, IN BOSTON.
President, Mrs. Arthur Wilkinson.
Secretary, Miss Gray.

DANVERS.
President, Augustus Mudge.
Secretary, John S. Laroyd.

SALEM.
President, Prof. Alpheus Crosby.
Secretary, Thomas H. Johnson.

FITCHBURG.
President, J. M. Steele.
Secretary, E. Foster Bailey.

FITCHBURG LADIES' SOCIETY.
President, Mrs. Sarah W. Boutelle.
Secretary, Mrs. S. A. Norcross.

---

168.

LAWRENCE.
President, Rev. George Packard, D.D.
Secretary, Rev. A. J. Church.

LEOMINSTER.
President, Samuel H. Virgin.
Secretary, John B. Greene.

MALDEN.
President, J. W. F. Barnes.
Secretary, Rev. Mr. Reed.

PLYMOUTH, N.H.
Secretary, Miss Mary E. McQuesten.

WEST BROOKFIELD.
President, William B. Stone.

EAST BOSTON.
President, Edward F. Porter.
Secretary, E. M. McPherson.

PORTLAND..
President, W. W. Thomas.
Secretary, M. A. Blanchard.

CONCORD.
President, Hon. George M. Brooks.
Secretary, John Brown.

SOUTH DANVERS.
President, Mrs. D. C. Perkins.
Secretary, Miss H. F. Osborne.

WESTBORO.
President, T. A. Smith.
Secretary, H. L. Peters.

GROTON.
President, Col. Daniel Needham.

BRATTLEBORO', VT.
Secretary, Anna S. Higginson.

JOHN-WOOLMAN SOCIETY.
Secretary, Frederick Frothingham.

NEWTON LOWER FALLS.
Secretary, Mary A. Murdock.

EAST CAMBRIDGE.
President, Adson Hooker.

WlNCHENDON.
President, Mrs. Oliver Adams.
Secretary, Mrs. C. P. Fairbanks.

SPRINGFIELD.
President, Mrs. E. Farrar.
Secretary, Mrs. E. B. Hooker.

WALTHAM.
President, James C. Parsons.

CAMBRIDGEPORT.
President, J. M. S. Williams.
Secretary, J. N. Barbour.

GLOUCESTER.
President, W. C. High.
Secretary, Henry A. Parmenter.

LOVEJOY SOCIETY
Secretary, Frederick Frothingham.

DORCHESTER AND MILTON LOWER MILLS.
President, Henry L. Pierce.
Secretary, Mrs. J. Y. Pettee.

NEW BEDFORD.
President, Mrs. Loum Snow.
Secretary, Mrs. John Hastings.

INDIANA-STREET CHURCH.
President, John H. Stephenson.
Secretary, Miss Tolman.

SOUTHAMPTON.
President, N. B. Fellows.
Secretary, Edson Hannum.

MONTPELIER, VT.
Secretary, Mrs. A. R. Reed.

HARTFORD.
President, Professor C. E. Stowe.
Secretary, Mrs. F. W. Cheney.

RUMNEY, N.H.
President, Miss Kate Merrill.
Secretary, Mrs. A. M. Ruggles.

MATTAPAN (DORCHESTER).
President, Mrs. George Hollingsworth,
Secretary, Miss C. E. Cook.

NORTON
President, Mrs. E. B. Wheaton.
Secretary, Miss M. E. Peabody.

MILFORD, N.H.
President, David Heald.
Secretary, Miss E. A. Livermore.

CHELSEA
President, Mrs. James W. Yerrington.
Secretary, Mrs. J. 0. Hollis.

LUNENBURG.
President, W. A. Mandell.
Secretary, N. F. Cunningham.

SOUTH BOSTON
President, Rev. Frederic Hinckley.
Secretary, Captain Henry W. Wilson.

PORTSMOUTH.
President, Mrs. M. H. Haven.
Secretary, Miss Isabella Morgan.

FLORENCE.
President, S. L. Hill.
Secretary, Geo. T. Cutter.

CLARKSON.
Secretary, H. G. Frothingham.

FRAMINGHAM
Secretary, Mrs. C. Upham.

HOLLIS, N.H.
President, Mrs. T. G.

WORCESTER.
Secretary, Mr. M. B. Day.

Our corps of Teachers is being re-organized for the work of the coming winter. We shall give in our next number a list of our Teachers and of the Societies which support them.

Printed by John Wilson and Son, 15 Water Street.