The Portland daily press., 1864-02-01
The Freedmen's Village on Arlington
Heights.
.ASUINGTO,

Senate resolution instructing the Special
Committee on Slavery and the treatment oil
Freedmen TO enquire into the condition OF the
freedmen at Freedmen's Village, Arlington
Heights. The result of that enquiry will as
tonish the nation. 1t will appear that on this
spot the most difficult political problem con-
nected with the social revolution already be-
gun at the South, has been attempted and
solved, and the solution practically verified.
As the war moved on, slowly but surely we
were brought as a nation face to face with
the solemn fact, that God willed slavery to
cease in the land. Behind this fact lay the
question: How shall these slaves be trans
formed into men and useful citizens? To
some Americans the transformation seemed
thing so impossible, that they resolutely turned
away their eyes from the fact behind which
the troublesome question turks aud declared
that slavery must continue. Even to Presi-
dent Lincoln the undertaking seemed hope
less, and he suggested instead the deportation
of four millions of laborers. How profound
must have been the despair which accepted
this gigantic task as the easier alternative! An
other proposition was to sequester the State
Of Florida, or part oft, for the sole use of
the freedmen, establishing them there in semi
barborous isolation TO share the fate of the
Indian tribes OF the West, plundered and OPP
pressed to the point of savage revolt and then
massacred.
There were thus three distinct attempts to
elude the memorable question, and each was
in its turn rejected 10y the common sense of
the nation. No one as yet could tell how,
but to all it seemed to grow daily palmer,
that the aborers of the South must be freed
and must remain where they are. What to
do with them during the dangerous period OF
transition from the old to the coming system,
no one rightly knew. To the fears OF many it
seemed that the change must inevitably be ac-
companied by thronging horrors, which
doomed CHASTITY through the pervadng fog of
uncertainty. The progress Of our arms re-
vealed everywhere urgent necessity Of do
ing something. Wherever our soldiers
pitched their tents, there the contraband camp
sprung up hard by. There these unhappy
people herded together in sloth and filth, soon
followed by want and disease, and all around
plantations were lying fallow. There they
died - starved persisted in numbers that
would be frightful, could we but see them
through this binding mist that rises to our
eyes as we turn from the almost daily list Of
killed and wounded in some new battle. And
so at least we do not discover for ourselves by
any political foresight but find actually thrust
upon ms in most imperative fashion the first
element of general plan for anelorating the
condition of our freedmen. There is employ
ment for them in the military service Of the
United States not with shoves only but with
the musket. When they have learned the
manual of arms, their education for freedom
will be well nigh complete. So we mustered
them in presently at Port Royal and New
Orleans, tried them next at Port Hudson, and
the whole world knows the result and will
never forget it. From that time every able
boiled freedman was sure of remunerative
employment. He could enlist.
There were still three millions OF the aged
and infirm, Of women and children, to provide
for. Massachusetts, moved first, as she moved
first in those memorable April days OF 1861.
The men and women whom she sent TO Port
Royal, have done a noble work. but work in
its whole conception local and transient, not
selfsupporting but dependent from beginning
to end upon charity. 1t was the first mani
festation of a national impulse setting blindly
but nstinctively in the right direction.
What was wanted now was an organizing
mind, to lay hold of this New England idea
and deduct from il a plan of of operations, no
longer local and transient but universal and
permanent.
Such a plan was last spring proposed to
Secretary Stanton. Its outline contemplated
gathering of all fugitives in the Department
OF Washington upon the deserted plantations,
and their education under q system OF paid
labor SO arranged that the little society should
by tax on wages bear its own burden OF
pauperism and become wholly sefsupportipg.
The specifications will sufficiently appear from
an account of the experiment l find materials
for this account in an excellent article pub
lished in the Sunday Chronicle of the 10Th
December and attributed to Mr.. Samuel Wiki
kinson, the accomplished Washington editor
of the New York Times.
The Arlington estate OF General Lee had
been fifty designated by the Secretary Of
War, aud there in June the scheme went into
operation. The Freedmen's Village sprang
up there in sixty days-iourteen two-storied
dwellings, church, a hospital, and home
for the aged and infirm, streets regularly laid
out and named, and park planted in the
centre The foundations have been prepared
for hundred and twenty-five houses, which
before the end of March will be occupied by
families still remaining in eontraband camps
north of the Potomac. These dwellings are
built four under each roof, each having two
rooms, well lighted and ventilated, with
cooking stove, yard, and access to a well.
The ciylizing influence of this decent separa-
ton of families is wonderful. The New Eng
land Sabbath is strictly observed. The hospital
is divided into separate rooms for men and
women and has room for lj9 beds. Not one
had been spread in December. The home for
the infrm is arranged for separate family
groups, if need be. There is school with
accommodations for 600 pupils, and which had
135 in actual attendance q month ago and
making surprising progress in the rudiments
Of education.
H. 4.