FREEDMEN" AND REFUGEES. 



377 



EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS, OCTOBER 81, 1865, 



General Howard visited Virginia, North 

 Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 

 Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennes- 

 see, on a tour of inspection, in October and No- 

 vember, 1865. A strong conviction exists that 

 free labor, notwithstanding the sudden eman- 

 cipation, and the thousands of causes of dis- 

 turbance incident to the war, will prove suc- 

 cessful ; but in order to hasten this result, 

 every effort must be made by officers of the 

 Government, and all others concerned, to 

 secure confidence between the holders of prop- 

 erty and the freedmen, and restore that confi- 

 dence wherever it has been impaired. On the 

 part of the freedmen, they are looking for jus- 

 tice and privileges with perhaps too exalted 

 notions ; yet their confidence cannot be obtained 

 without a reasonable extension to them of the 

 rights and privileges of free men. On the part 

 of the property-holders, great complaint is made 

 of want of security of labor, the majority seek- 

 ing some compulsory process; that is, some 

 substitute for slavery. " There are so many 

 examples of complete success of free labor that 

 I bring them as an answer to such complaints; 

 and I believe that the causes of complaint are 

 due as much to the prejudice of the employer, 

 and want of practical knowledge of any other 

 system than the one under which he has been 

 brought up, as to the ignorance and suspicion 

 of the laborer. 



" I therefore earnestly advocate equality be- 

 fore the law, trusting to time and education to 

 overcome prejudice and ignorance." 



He advocates the continuance of the Bureau 

 or some substitute for it of a national character, 

 for a variety of reasons, all of which were 

 deemed satisfactory by Congress, who passed a 

 bill continuing it and enlarging its powers, in 

 February, 1866, which was, however, vetoed 

 by the President on the 20th of that month. 

 Some of these reasons were of great import- 

 ance; such were the following : 



The Government has set the slaves free, and bound 

 itself to make that freedom an undisputed fact. Some 

 guarantee, beyond any existing ordinance in any 

 State I visited, is essential to secure the actual and 

 continuous protection of life and property to the 

 freedmen. Where legislation is constrained, as it 

 now is in the Southern States, for the most part, from 

 several causes, there is danger of the statute law being 



in advance of public sentiment, so that where there 

 is the most liberality, ill consequences would be likely 

 to result if Government protection should be imme- 

 diately withdrawn. 



Where the Bureau fails to afford this protection, it 

 is yet a means of exposing to the Government, and 

 to the public, acts of injustice and oppression ; and 

 in this way it affords a moral check against their 

 commission. 



A want of mutual confidence between the white 

 employers and the colored employes actually exists 

 to a large extent. This can usually be traced to cir- 

 cumstances connected with the war, and it is increased 

 by the peculiar prejudices and education of all per- 

 sons under the slavery system. 



The Bureau officers actually dp restore this confi- 

 dence, as a general rule, when fairly met. 



With scarcely any exceptions, the freedmen ex- 

 pressed the utmost confidence in its agents, and are 

 only alienated where agents prove themselves untrue 

 to their interests. 



Wherever the planters have taken advantage of the 

 aid afforded by the Bureau, the best results have fol- 

 lowed. This work will require time for its comple- 

 tion. 



Education is absolutely essential to the freedmen 

 to fit them for their new duties and responsibilities. 

 1 find many enlightened and learned men in every 

 State, advocating the necessity and wisdom of estab- 

 lishing a system of education; yet I believe the ma- 

 jority of the white population to be utterly opposed to 

 educating the negroes. The opposition is so great that 

 the teachers, though they may be the purest of Chris- 

 tian people, are, nevertheless, visited publicly and 

 privately with undisguised marks of odium. This 

 Bureau fearlessly superintends and fosters these 

 schools, which it is believed will, in time, by their 

 success and good influence, bring over all fair men, 

 at least, to their support. 



Every colored man I met, of any considerable in- 

 telligence, pleaded earnestly for the continuance of the 

 Bureau, as his only hope of justice and privilege cor- 

 respondent to the necessities of his new position. 

 Therefore I should fear an almost universal disturb- 

 ance among the freedmen, as a consequence of its 

 removal, till society had become more settled and 

 State action more liberal than at present. 



The absolutely indigent, as orphans, sick, aged, 

 and infirm persons, now aided by the Bureau, have 

 no present prospect of local aid. 



The Bureau, with its agencies, affords a means of 

 constant and reliable information essential to Con- 

 gressional and Executive action, till hostility against 

 the Government shall have more completely subsided, 

 till free labor shall have become more palatable, and 

 till the rights of negroes to full protection by the 

 laws becomes more generally believed in than now 

 appears. 



The Bureau, in conjunction with the military force, 

 is at present a means of encouraging immigration to 

 the different Southern States. Union men of the 



