788 



TEXAS. 



No persons formerly slaves will be permitted to 

 travel on the public thoroughfares without passes or 

 permits from their employers, or to congregate in 

 buildings, or camps, at or adjacent to any military 

 post or town. They will not be subsisted in idleness, 

 or in any way except as employes of the Govern- 

 ment, or in cases of extreme destitution or sickness ; 

 and in such cases the officer authorized to order the 

 issues shall be the judge as to the justice of the claim 

 for such subsistence. 



Idleness is sure to be productive of vice, and hu- 

 manity dictates that employment be furnished these 

 people, while the interest of the Commonwealth im- 

 peratively demands it, in order that the present crop 

 may be secured. No person, white or black, and 

 who is able to labor, will be subsisted by the Gov- 

 ernment in idleness, and thus hang as a dead weight 

 upon those who are disposed to bear their full share 

 of the public burdens. Provost marshals and their 

 assistants throughout the district are charged with 

 using every means in their power to carry out these 

 instructions in letter and spirit. By order of 



Major-General GRANGER. 



R. G. LAUGHLIN, Lieutenant-Colonel and Provost 

 Marshal General, District of Texas. 



A similar order was issued by Colonel G. "W. 

 Clark, at Houston, where, according to the 

 "Telegraph," nine-tenths of the crimes brought 

 before the courts were perpetrated by negroes. 

 Of the freedmen who continued at work, most 

 remained with their old masters. The follow- 

 ing is the testimony of the editor of the Hous- 

 ton "Telegraph": 



We have just returned from a trip to Washington 

 County, and found the drought had nearly ruined the 

 corn crops, and it is estimated that only one-half a 

 crop will be made this season. The same will prove 

 true of the potato crop. Cotton looks well, and we 

 have been informed by old citizens that they have 

 never before seen such a fine and heavy yield as this 

 . season. We hear loud complaints everywhere of 

 the scarcity of hands to pic'k and save it. And we 

 saw acres of the finest cotton that ever grew, drop- 



Eing out of the bolls and wasting for the want of 

 ands to save it. The planters made contracts with 

 their former slaves to remain with them and save 

 the crops, but they proved unfaithful and deserted 

 the first opportunity. Thousands of bales of splen- 

 did cotton will be lost in Washington County by this 

 cause-and the neighboring counties are no better 

 off. We have heard good judges estimate the loss 

 by this cause throughout the State to be 40,000 bales. 

 It is a deplorable sight to witness large cotton fields 

 wasting. 



Subsequently a better spirit and a more cor- 

 rect understanding as to their new privileges 

 began to prevail with the negroes. This was 

 Baid to be owing in a great measure to the in- 

 defatigable exertions of General Granger, who 

 travelled among them for six weeks, addressing 

 them in plain terms with regard to their duties 

 as well as their rights. More than half the 

 freedmen in the lower part of the State had 

 entered into contracts for 1866 by the 25th of 

 December, and were ready to go to work after 

 the holidays. The contracts were various; 

 some were for specific monthly pay, with food, 

 clothing, medical attendance, and the use of an 

 acre of land ; others were for monthly wages 

 and board only ; others were for a share of the 

 crops. In some instances the payment of wa- 

 ges was made monthly, in others quarterly, 

 and in others the first quarter's wages were to 



be paid at the end of six months, and the bal- 

 ance at the end of the year. The plantations 

 were mostly cultivated by their owners, though 

 large farms were rented both by Northern and 

 Southern men. 



A committee, consisting of ex-Governor E. 

 M. Pease and Mr. Swante Palm, appointed by 

 Governor Hamilton to inquire into the condi- 

 tion of the State Treasury, made a report, ac- 

 cording to which the debt in November was as 

 follows : 



Eight per cent State Bonds and Interest to 1st 



Jan., 1866 $998,440 00 



Seven per cent. State Bonds and interest 211,130 88 



Due to School Fund 1,187,406 66 



Due to University Fund 283,514 22 



Fund accrued from estates not collected 21,870 90 



Fund accrued from escheated estates 2,688 71 



County Tax Fund 8.592 61 



Special Loan Tax Fund 6,675 11 



Assessors' Fees 976 66 



Ten per cent interest Warrants, outstanding, 



estimate 180,00000 



Treasury Warrants outstanding. 1,8S8.897 90 



Debts due from appropriations not drawn 150^000 00 



Estimated amount due for Militia 150,000 00 



Estimated amount due for Soldiers' pay and 



supplies and transportation 8,000,000 00 



Debt of the late Republic of Texas 110,618 23 



Amount due J. M. Moore by Military Board. . . 7,091 14 



Amount due Oliver & Bro.'s by Military Board. 10,042 62 

 Amount due W. S. Eeed & Co. by Military 



Board 2,048 00 



Probable amount that will be claimed by indi- 

 viduals for cotton lost under Gov. Mur- 



rah's cotton operations, say 80,000 00 



Total $8,194,082 68 



To which may be added amount placed to the 

 credit of the several Special Funds in the 

 Treasury in Confederate notes, as before 

 stated 519.988 09 



Total $8,714,065 6T 



There is probably no State in the Union 

 where railroads can be constructed with so lit- 

 tle labor and expense as in Texas, the grading 

 being comparatively light, or where they are 

 more needed to convey to a market the vast 

 product of hogs, sheep, cattle, flour, and grain, 

 for which the home consumption is not ade- 

 quate to take up a thousandth part. The rail- 

 roads already constructed, and in running order 

 in July, were the Houston and Texas Central, 

 from Hempstead to Brenham's, thirty miles; 

 the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado road, 

 from Harrisburg to Alleyton, eighty miles ; the 

 Houston Tap and Brazoria road, from Houston 

 to Columbia, forty-five miles; the Galveston, 

 Houston, and Henderson road, from Galveston 

 to Houston, fifty miles ; the Texas and New Or- 

 leans road, from Houston to Beaumont, sixty- 

 five miles; and that from Shreveport, Louisi- 

 ana, to Marshall. Railroads were also in the 

 course of construction from Brazos Santiago to 

 Brownsville, about thirty miles, and from Indi- 

 anola to Victoria, about forty miles. The roll- 

 ing stock on these roads was, however, unre- 

 liable and unsafe, having been much abused 

 during the war. 



The resources of this great State, six times 

 as large as Pennsylvania, and containing thirty- 

 three thousand square miles miles more than 

 France, are only very partially developed. It 

 is reasonable to suppose that when political 



