Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-08-13
GOVERNMENT OF FREEDMEN.

appointed some time ago by the Secretary of War
to inquire into the condition and capabilities of
the African freedmen who, in the progress Of the
war and in pursuance of the policy adopted by the
Government, are brought within our military lines.
This Commission, which has its Office in the city
of New York, has just made preliminary report
on the subject committed TO its care. The report
is preliminary, because, as the members of the
Commission state, their researches and investiga
thorough TO justify them in suggesting definite
system for the ultimate solution of one of the
gravest social problems ever presented to a Gov
eminent" Certain measures, however, they sug-
gest, are, in the present emergency evidently de-
manded, not merely from considerations of COM
mon humanity, to alleviate the sufferings caused
to non combatant laborers by the forced derange-
ment of industry consequent upon our military
operations, but also in virtue of the fact that
great and radical industrial and domestic change,
every hour in progress, and ultimately involving
the eradication of = labor system which has been
the growth Of more than two centuries, needs, for
time to which we cannot yet assign definite
limit to be- to q certain extent, facilitated and d.
rected by Governmental assistance and control"
ForcseeiDg that the work upon which the present
Administration has entered in seeking to remodel
the labor system" of the South is one to whose
duration eve cannot yet assign definite limit"
and that it needs to be " facilitated and directed
by Governmental assistance and control" the
members Of the Commission propose to establish
a distinct Bureau of the National Government
which shall be charged with the superintendence
of freedmen. This bureau they think, should be
substantially separate from and Except when mill
tary exigencies intervene) independent of the or
binary military administration of the army; and,
in confirmation of this view, they state that, being
Especially DESTROYS to propose no plan which might
endanger a conflict of authorities" they have
taken pains to submit this feature to Generals
commanding departments whenever they had op-
portunity-as to Gen Schenck, at Baltimore; to
Gen. Dix, at Fortress Monroe; to Gen. Viele, at
Norfolk; to Gen. Peck, at Suffolk to Gen. Hun
ter, at Hilton Head; and to Gen. Saxton, at Beau
fort Each of these officers, they add, e when
such a separation was suggested, approved it in
unqualified terms, usually adding that it would be
the greatest relief to themselves to be freed from
all care and responsibility in regard to refugees"
We can readily understand that all our military
commanders find Themselves greatly embarrassed
by the negro policy which it has become a part Of
their duty to administer while conducting their
active operations, and as 1t Is known to us, from
testimony Of the most trustworthy kind, that the
homeless refugees gathered within our lines at
several points have already fallen into the greatest
restitution, and become moral pest to themselves
and soldiers, it is to be hoped that the Govern
ment may speedily devise some system for the re-
lief and protection of this unfortunate race, far
as the fortunes Of war shall bring them under Its
control Thus fer the experiment upon which the
Administration has entered is SO incomplete and
unsatisfactory that the Commission regard it as an
open question whether the freedman viii be able
to maintain his new rights and protect himself
against undue ascendancy from the white race. On
this point they say
'The two labor systems-namey, that Of involuntary
slave labor and that OF free abor-are in
spirit and 10 result so thoroughly at variance that the
transition from the to the other by four millions Of
people cannot safely be left undrected and upcared for
10 on at according
the chance setting Of the current of daily events The
transition has not yet so far proceeded nor have it's effects
July developed themselves to supply reliable data
whs rsupon to base Judgment to the exact extent
duration OF the guardianship which the freedmen may
require. The system Of apprenticeship in the English
Wet Ind es appears to have worked badly, aud
brought to termination before the time originally fixed
by law but the defect may have been, to certain
tent, in ito details TO all which the Commission hope
hereafter to be able satisfactorily report The question
remains open whether and how soop the American freed
man. with the dependence engendered by the slave system
still clnping TO hm-and what Is worse weighed down
in HE efforts t. rise by that prejudice which prompts
to despse whoever has long been their nerior-wil be
able peacefully TO maintain his rights and TO protect
himself against undue ascendancy and imposition from the
white man. Coming into competition with another
the most energetic probably 10 the wodfor the FIRST
time in the history of our country, something like
equal terms he WILL IL left to himself be overborne and
crushed And n he should be- will he bear IL patiently
in bis capacity as freedman he has borne under sub
lection as slsyef"
II Is In view Of such unsolved problems forced
upon the country by the policy which has been
adopted in the conduct of the war that the Com
mission recommend the erection of special de-
psrtment, to be charged with the regulation and
care of freedmen. The organization proposed for
this end will be found in another column contain
ing an extract from the Commissions preliminary
report under this head The complexity of the
will not fail to strike overy mind, butt
is very complicated subject which the Commits
sion we're called to handle.
Tn no FT ita 4. n.