From the Richmond Daily Dispatch December 30, 1865:
The freedmen’s Bureau of Virginia.
The reader will find in this morning’s paper the purport of the report of Colonel Brown, Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau for the State of Virginia, made to his superior, Major-General Howard. It is a remarkable paper. Fair in some things — not at all so in others.
In the preface to the report as to the condition of society in Virginia [this poor society of Virginia is become the subject of a great deal of investigation!] the Colonel, in very strong language, represents the state of the black population, of half a million, as anything but encouraging to those who came here” to provide “for their protection, elevation and government.” “Suddenly freed,” he says, “from the bonds of a rigorous control, acquainted with no law but that of force, ignorant of the elementary principles of civil government, and of the first Duties of Citizenship, without any provision for the future wants of themselves and families, and entertaining many false and extravagant notions in respect to the intentions of the Government towards them.” [For which latter, according to GeneralGrant, we are in a great degree indebted to the Freedmen’s Bureau and its agents!]
This is a very strong statement of the condition of the blacks when they fell into the hands of the Bureau. It is too highly colored even to be just to them; for they were acquainted with other influences than force. They were familiar with kindness and the stimulant afforded by persuasion, gentle usage, abundant food and clothing, and even generous rewards for good conduct. They knew as much of all the humane stimulants to good conduct and faithfulness as any laborers on the face of this earth.
Nor were they so entirely ignorant. But what is proposed as a remedy for these poor beings who are ignorant of the elementary “principles of civil government and the first Duties of Citizenship?” Why, to confer upon them the Right of Suffrage! Does Colonel Brown think that would heal them? We imagine not, from the portrait he has drawn.
With reference to the conduct of the citizens towards these unfortunate people, Colonel Brown is not just. He transposes his paragraphs — makes the majority a minority, and inputs to the majority the conduct and policy of the minority. He states, with rather the air of complaint, that the citizens generally afforded no assistance in meeting the “difficulties” presented by the negro. Yet he answers his own complaint by confessing immediately afterwards, that, being “stripped, to a great extent, of their resources by the operations of the war, they were unable to allow these people their just dues, much less any charitable assistance.”–Had he made the expression stronger — had he stated that the people were stripped of nearly everything: all their money; all their valuables; their horses and cattle; nearly all their provisions; and had not enough to supply their own wants, to relieve their own sufferings, he would not have exceeded the fact. Yet, these people must have assisted the blacks. For how else did they live? They did not, it is true, assist those who rushed to the camps and the cities. They became a burthen to the Government and the objects of the protecting care of the Bureau.–But those that remained in the country, and assisted to cultivate the farms and to produce something to keep themselves as well as others from starving, enjoyed with the owners a part of the scant supplies left by the war in the country.
The meetings alluded to by Colonel Brown, fixing rates and making pledges about renting lands to freedmen, must have been few indeed. We never heard of more than, probably, two, possibly three, and those only small neighborhood affairs. Whatever was the policy, the people of Virginia are in no wise responsible for it.
Colonel Brown truly describes the conduct of the people of Virginia when he speaks of a “numerically small” class, who “not only accepted the situation, but, with a wise foresight and a noble patriotism, were ready to co-operate with the Government for the speediest restoration of tranquillity and law.” This was the majority–not a “numerically small” class. Colonel Brown either speaks from prejudice, or he has not had the opportunity of seeing the people and judging them fairly. We know nothing of Colonel Brown whatever, and do not presume that he would wailfully misrepresent this people. –But unintentionally, we suppose, he has done injustice to them.
The people of Virginia have as much kind feeling for their late slaves as any other people in the United States–not even excepting that unparalleled race of philanthropists who live east of the Hudson river; and any representation of facts which is inconsistent with this, is both unjust and untrue. The people of this State know the negro better than any other — they know his capacity and his wants, and can now take care of him better, and settle him down in his new relation with as much consideration for his welfare, and more forecast and judgement than any of those persons in other States who are making him their everlasting topic — and the everlasting cause of accusation and vituperation of the people of the South. When is this sort of warfare to cease? Are we never to have rest? Is it not enough that the slave, originally imported by Northern men in Northern ships and sold to the South, is set free? Is it not enough that we, submitting to results, are struggling in earnestness and sincerity, as well as in poverty, to restore plenty and order to the land — that order and plenty without which there is no rest, no satisfaction, no support for white or black? Is it not enough that we submit to the Constitution and the laws, and have solemnly and irrevocably abolished slavery and involuntary servitude from the land? Will not all this do? And must we still be assailed — our peace and quiet, and the safety and order of the country, disturbed by this execrable crusade? What do the people who are enlisted in it desire to do? Do they wish to continue the breach between the sections? Do they wish to perpetuate hate?
We trust and believe that the better judgement of the majority will soon put an end to this state of things. We even hope that the men who control the Freedmen’s Bureau will, through their intercourse with the South, become liberalized and enlightened on the policy that is best for the negro and best for the country. Let them but emulate the unprejudiced judgment, the fair and earnest disposition, of General Grant, and they will honor themselves and truly subserve the peace and welfare of our country.
