TENNESSEE. 



TERRITORIES. 



781 



freedmen, and report to the Bureau at Nash- 

 ville. Addresses were also agreed upon, to the 

 colored people and white citizens of the State. 



The following, in relation to the habits of the 

 freedinen, is from the " Knoxville Whig " of 

 September 27th 



Thousands of free colored persons are congregat- 

 ing in and around the large towns in Tennessee, and 

 thousands are coming in from other States, one-third 

 of whom cannot get employment. Indeed, less than 

 one-third of them want employment, or feel willing 

 to stoop to work. They entertain the erroneous idea 

 that the Government is bound to supply all their 

 wants, and even to furnish them with houses, if, in 

 order to do that, the white occupants must be turned 

 out. There is a large demand for labor in every sec- 

 tion of the State, but the colored people, with here 

 and there a noble exception, scorn the idea of work. 

 They fiddle and dance at night, and lie around the 

 stores and street corners in the daytime. 



Gov. Brownlow, in his October message, 

 avowing himself deeply impressed with the ap- 

 prehension of future troubles, growing out of 

 the antagonism of the races, advocated the re- 

 moval of the negro population to a separate 

 territory in a climate adapted to their nature, 

 and there settling them as a nation of freedmen. 

 With regard to the question of granting them 

 the elective franchise within the State, he said : 



I think it would be bad policy, as well as wrong in 

 principle, to open the ballot-box to the uninformed 

 and exceedingly stupid slaves of the Southern cotton, 

 rice, and sugar fields. If allowed to vote, the great 

 majority of them would be influenced by leading se- 

 cessionists to vote against the Government, as they 

 would be largely under the influence of this class of 

 men for years to come, having to reside on and cul- 

 tivate their lands. When the people of Tennessee 

 become satisfied that the negro is worthy of suffrage, 

 they will extend it, and not before ; and'l repeat that 

 this question must be regulated by the State author- 

 ities, and by the loyal voters of the State, not by the 

 General Government. 



He advocated the admission of freedmen to 

 testify in. the courts, urging that much of the 

 repugnance to negro testimony was the result 

 of education and habit. " It is required of the 

 white witness," said the Governor, % 'that he 

 shall be disinterested, and shall have sufficient 

 intelligence to ' understand the obligation of an 

 oath.' Let the same be required of the negro. 

 He is now subject to the same penalties for 

 perjury that the white man is ; and as he is re- 

 ligiously inclined, he will no doubt take the 

 proper views of the penalty in the world to 

 come. Again, it must be remembered that our 

 juries are the exclusive judges of the weight of 

 evidence, and that they will not fail to take 

 into consideration the degree of intelligence, 

 and the character for honor and veracity of the 

 witnesses, whether white or black." 



It appears from the books of the Government 

 undertaker at Nashville, that since the Federal 

 occupation, 12,284 Federal soldiers and Govern- 

 ment employes, who had died from wounds 

 and disease, were buried there, besides about 

 8,000 Confederate soldiers and 10,000 refugees 

 and contrabands. The cost to the Government 

 was five dollars for every soldier buried, the 

 name of each and the number of his regiment 



being plainly marked on a substantial board at 

 the head of his grave. During the same time 

 the bodies of about 5,000 officers and soldiera 

 were sent home, secured in metallic cases. 



TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

 The public domain of the United States lying 

 west of the Mississippi River is comprehended 

 within nine territorial governments, viz. : Ari- 

 zona, Colorado, Dakota, Idaho, Montana, Ne- 

 braska, New Mexico, Utah,'and Washington, to 

 which may be added the district set apart for 

 the Indian tribes removed from the old States 

 of the Union, known as the Indian Territory. 

 A bill was introduced into the Thirty-eighth 

 Congress to form a new Territory, to be called 

 Wyoming, out of the southwest part of Dakota, 

 but failed to become a law. In anticipation of 

 the admission of Colorado into the Union before 

 the publication of this work, that Territory has 

 been described under its special head. 



Arizona. The general lines of this Territory 

 are thus defined in the organic act, approved 

 February 24, 1863: "All that portion of the 

 present Territory of New Mexico situated west 

 of a line running due south from the point where 

 the southwest corner of the Territory of Colo- 

 rado joins the northern boundary of the Terri- 

 tory of New Mexico." This region embraces 

 an area of 120,912 square miles, or 77,383,680 

 acres, which is three times as large as the State 

 of New York. While it has some barren and 

 desolate country, no mineral region belonging 

 to the United States, not excepting California, 

 has, in proportion to its extent, more arable, 

 pastoral, and timber lands. The climate is de- 

 scribed as singularly adapted to physical health 

 or to agricultural and mining pursuits. The 

 valleys of the Gila and Santa Cruz, the San 

 Pedro, and other streams, are large, and equal 

 in fertility to any agricultural district in the 

 United States. The San Pedro Valley, over 

 one hundred miles in length, is, perhaps, the 

 best farming district south of the Gila River. 

 The Sonoita Valley, which opens into the Santa 

 Cruz near Calabazas, is some fifty miles long. 

 Prescott, the Territorial capital, is the heart of 

 a mining district of remarkable productiveness. 

 The first house was erected in June, 1863, and 

 now the town has some hundreds of inhabitants, 

 and the country for fifty miles about, including 

 a dozen mining districts and farming valleys, is 

 largely taken up by settlers. The valleys will, 

 it is thought, produce good crops without irri- 

 gation, as the rains in this region are frequent 

 and heavy. Of the mining interests in the 

 vicinity of Prescott, the Hon. Richard C. 

 McCormick, Secretary of the Territory, speaka 

 as follows : 



The surface ores of thirty mines of gold, silver, and 

 copper which I had assayed in San Francisco, were 

 pronounced equal to any surface ores ever tested by 

 the metallurgists, who are among the most skilful 

 and experienced in the city, and, so far as ore has 

 been had from a depth, it fully sustains its reputa- 

 tion. The veins are large ani boldly defined, and 

 the ores are of varied classes, usually such as to DO 

 readily and inexpensively worked, while the facilities 



