The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-08 00:00:00

WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED,

While the generosity and toleration shown by the
Government to the people lately in rebellion has not met
with a corresponding generosity shown by those people
to the Government's friends, it has brought forth some
results, which, if properly developed, will become of value.
It has facilitated the re-establishment of the forms of civil
government and led many of those who had been active
in the rebellion to take part in the act of bringing back
the States to their constitutional relations ; and if nothing
else were necessary than the mere putting in operation of
the machinery of Government in point of form, and not
also the acceptance of the results of the war and their
development in point of spirit, these results, although as
yet incomplete, might be called a satisfactory advance in
the right direction. There is at present no danger of
another insurrection against the authority of the United
States on a large scale, and the people aro willing to re-
construct their Sate governments and to send their senators
and representatives to Congress.

GENERAL IDEAS AND SCHEMES OF WHITES CONCERNING

THE FREEDMEN.

Some of the planters with whom I had occasion to con-
verse expressed the determination to adopt the course
which best accords with the spirit of free labor ; to make
the negro work by offering him fair inducements, to stimu-
late his ambition, and to extend to him those means of
intellectual and moral improvement, which are best cal-
culated to make him an intelligent, reliable, and efficient
free laborer, and a good and useful citizen. Those who
expressed such ideas were almost invariably professed
Union men, and far above the average in point of mental
ability and culture. 1 found a very few instances of original
Secessionists also manifesting a willingness to give the
free labor experiment a fair trial. I can represent the sen-
timents of this small class in no better way than by quot-
ing the language used by an Alabama Judge in conversa-
tion with me :—" I am one 'of the most thoroughly
whipped men in the South," said he ; "I am a genuine
old Secessionist, and I believe now, as I always did, we
had the constitutional right to secede. But the war has
settled that matter, and it is all over now. As to this
thing of free negro labor I cannot believe in it. But I
will give it a fair trial. I have a plantation, and am going
to make contracts with my hands, and then I want a real
Yankee to run the machine for me—not one 9f your New
Yorkers or Pennsylvanians, but the genuine article from
Massachusetts or Vermont, one who can not only farm,
but sing Psalms, and pray, and teach a school—a real
Abolitionist, who believes in the thing, just as I don't
believe in it. If he does not succeed, I shall consider it
proof conclusive that you are wrong and 1 am right."

:NGNESS TO WORK.

That there among the negroes a good many consti-
tutionally lazy individuals is certainly true. The pro-
pensity to idleness seems to be rather strongly developed
in the South generally, without being confined to any par-
ticular race. It is also true that the alacrity negroes put
into their work depends in a majority of cases upon certain
combinations of circumstances. It is asserted that the
negroes have a prejudice against working in the cultiva-
tion of cotton, rice, and sugar. Although this prejudice,
probably arising from the fact that the cotton, rice, and
sugar fields remind the former slave of the worst expe-
rience of his past life, exists to some extent, it has not
made the freedmen now on the plantations unwilling to
cultivate such crops as the planters may have seen fit to
raise. A few cases of refusal may have occurred. But
there is another fact of which I have become satisfied in
the course of my observations, and which is of great sig-
nificance. While most of the old slaveholders complain of
the laziness and instability of their negro laborers, most
of the Northern men engaged in planting, with whom I
have come into contact, speak of their negro laborers with
satisfaction ; and these Northern men almost exclusively
devote themselves to the cultivation of cotton. r A good
many Southern planters, in view of this fact, expressed to
me their intention to engage Northern men for the mana-
gement of their plantations. This circumstance would
seem to prove that, under certain conditions, the negro
may be expected to work well. There are two
reasons by which it may be explained : —First, that
a Northern man knows from actual experience what
free labor is, and understands its management, which
the late slaveholder, still clinging to the tra-
ditions of the old system, does not ; and, then, that the
negro has more confidence in a Northern man than in his
former master. When a Northern man discovers among his
laboring force an individual that does not do his duty, his
first impulse is to discharge him, and he acts accordingly.
When a late slaveholder discovers such an individual
among his laborers his first impulse is to whip him, and
he is very apt to suit the act to the impulse. 11l treat-
ment is a doubtful encouragement for free labor, and it
proves more apt to drive those that are still at work away
than to make the plantation attractive to others. But, if
the reasons above stated are sufficient to explain why the
negroes work better for Northern men than for Southern,
it will follow that a general improvement will take place
as soon as the latter fulfil the same conditions; that is, as
soon as Southern men learn what free labor is, and how
to manage it in accordance with its principles, and as

soon as they succeed in gaining the confidence of the
colored people.

EXTRAVAGANT NOTIONS.
In many localities I found an impression prevailing
among the negroes that some great change was going to
take place about Christmas. Feeling uneasy in their pre-
sent condition, they indulged in the expectation that the
Government intended to make some further provision for
their future welfare, especially by ordering a distribution
of land among them. To counteract this expectation,
which had a tendency to interfere seriously with the
making of contracts for the next season, it was considered
necessary to send military officers, and especially agents of
the Freedmen's Bureau, among them, who, by administer-
ing sound advice and spreading correct information, would
induce them to suit their conduct to their actual circum-
stances. While in the South I heard of many instances
in which this measure had the desired effect, and it is to
be expected that the effect was uniformly good whenever
judicious officers were so employed.
Impressions like the above are very apt to spread among
the negroes, for the reason that they ardently desire to
become freeholders. In the independent possession of
landed property they see the consummation of their deli-
verance. However mistaken their notions may be in other
respects, it must be admitted that their instinct is correct.

RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO RACES.
There are whites in the South who profess great kind-
ness for the negro. Many of them are, no doubt, sincere
in what they say. But as to the feelings of the masses, it
is hardly necessary to add anything to what I have already
stated. I have heard it asserted that the negroes also
cherish feelings of hostility to the whites. Taking this as
a general assertion, lam satisfied that it is incorrect. The
negroes do not trust their late masters because they do not
feel their freedom sufficiently assured. Many of them may
harbor feelings of resentment toward those who now ill-
treat and persecute them ; but as they practised no revenge
after their emancipation for wrongs suffered while in
slavery, so their present resentments are likely to cease
as soon as the persecution ceases. If the persecution and
the denial of their rights as free men continue the resent-
ments growing out of them will continuo and spread. The
negro is constitutionally docile and eminently good-
natured. Instances of the most touching attachment of
freedmen to their old masters and mistresses have come to
my notice. To a white man, whom they believed to be
sincerely their friend, they cling with greater affe,:tion
even than to one of their own race. By some Northern
speculators their confidence has been sadly abused. Never-
theless, the trust they place in persons coming from the
North, or in any way connected with the Government, is
most childlike and unbounded. There may be individual
exceptions, but lam sure they are not numerous. Those
who enjoy their confidence enjoy also their affection.
Centuries of slavery have not been sufficient to make them
the enemies of the white race. If in the future a feeling
of mutual hostility should develope itself between the races,
it will, probably, not be the fault of those who have shown
such an inexhaustible patience under the most adverse
and trying circumstances.

In some places that I visited I found apprehensions
entertained by whites of impending negro insurrectione•
Whenever our military commanders found it expedient to
subject the statements made to that effect by whites to
close investigation they uniformly found them unwar-
ranted by facts. In many instances there were just reasons
for supposing that such apprehensions were industriously
spread for the purpose of serving as an excuse for further
prosecution. In the papers annexed to this report you
will find testimony supporting this statement. The negro
is easily led ; he is always inclined to follow the advice Of
those he trusts. I do, therefore, not consider a negro
in-
surrection probable as long as the freedmen are under the
direct protection of the Government, and may hope to 00
their grievances redressed without resorting to the extreme
means of self-protection. There would, perhaps, be dan-
ger of insurrections if the Government should withdravr
its protection from them, and if, against an attempt on the
part of the whites to reduce them to something like their
former condition, they should find themselves thrown back
upon their own resources. Of this contingency I shall
speak below.