Chapter VIII: Conclusion (4)

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.