Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-01-14
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
THE CONDITION or rae FREEDMEN.

W!thin our military lines, especiaIiy iu iho oouln
west, for the purpose Of expressing the hope that
Congress or the pco le would speedily devise some
system f,r their relief We showed that, accord
ing to the representations OF army chaplains and
members of the Christian and SAINT. nv Commits
sons the negroes in this quarter were daily dying
by hundreds from sheer hunger or from neglect in
sickness.
We also briefly referred to the evils admitted to
be attendant on the Lessee Systera,' as at pre-
sent managed, and engaged to adduce further tes-
tmony under this lead Since our allusion to the
topic we observe that the Hon. HENRY T. Blow,
q rad cal emancipation member of the present
j. .ouse of Representatives from the State of Mis-
souri, has published letter, IN which, while adj
voca,ing change Of policy in the system, he
makes the following incidental reference to the
treatment Of the freedmen by many lessees. tic
says:
Il determined to pursue The subject N all It's branches
with view Of urging Government To more compre
b.nsiye policy aud system the leasing and working OF
these lands and that would to the coored la
borer not only protection for bis person but fair remu
psraton for bis services regret that our Government
has not finished its Investigations and extended its policy
as am satisfied that the freedmen the section where
plantations worked are
grossly mareated and swHded and that II the facts were
known a long record Of Imposition would be made against
parties who shou have treated them with humanity and
fed and paid them fairly
We have already made citations from a letter
previously published by Mr.. Blow, emanating from
q military officer Of the United States in the South
west We now learn that this officer Gen. J.
p Hawkins Among other statements Gen Haw-
J.. Ia Ia fo1I fatiap
Was it The meaning 81 the President when he declared
freedom the eusayed that they should be placed under
such masters and barely allowed the neceasares o. life,
say nothing OF the rights OF reeuen' To The negro
this district The emancipation proclamation has TINS Jar
yrorsd rnockery and farce Was the eud intended by
Government in leasing these plantations the filling Of the
pockets OF the INSCRIPTIONS specuats who are not Only
willing Cypress the colUred race, but ready 10 sell
their country for gold There are Of course honor
able exceptions to the general ne in the treatment Of the
negro few there who have desire to the
treated justly but the j5ry Of lcssees
who under other circumstances would be cotton specu
stnrs dealers cnnrabsnd goods followers of tho army
ready to pounee like vutures upon any opportunity for
speculation that the Chances of war might develop"
A correspondent OF the New York Times,
recently writing on the torlorn condition of the
freedmen in Louisiana, makes the following state
ment, after alleging, the authority Of the army
surgeons, that great many negroes in the contra
band camps die daily from home sickness, or, in
scientific language nostalgia:
The negroes here are at work and earning wages and
they not liable 10 sickness but many al them when
they first came compelled to lie for several days
the levee in the cold aud rain There shelter for
them They by hundreds 10 seek the protection Of
troops Many oi them necessarily died from exposure
aud the memory Of thore days o suffering and death -t
fingers among them Under these circumstances in
evtabe that there should be great deal II discomfort and
complaint among the negroes
As relating to the same subject we need but re-
call to the recollection Of our readers that few
days before Congress adjourned for the holydsys
President Lincoln laid before that body letter
addressed TO him from committee Of the Freed
mems Aid Societies of Boston, New York, Phila-
d.lphia, and Cincinnati The document was en-
dorsed by the President coming from "genlle-
men Of known ability and high character" among
whom we recognise the names Of Rev. Henry w.
Beecher and Rev. Henry w Bellows, of New York.
In it Mr.. Lincoln is asked to establish Govern
ment Bureau Of Emancipation, regularly consti-
tuted, "with all the military and civil powers of
the Government behind it, with all the existing
machinery Of transportation, commssary stores,
and quartermasters' facilities with all the ON
nipresence Of the national agencies co-ordinated
and brought to bear upon the treatment Of the
case" From this address We extract some moving
statements in regard to the deplorable effects Of
immediate emancipation. The committee say:
Do the beet the united energies Of Government and
the people fearful per cenfas ~ noraiiy and
distressing amount al suffering does not yperci
y k Is Ia attend the transition OF the oppressed
humanity Of tue negro fran of forced labor
To condition Of voluntary industry The prospect 81 this
misery deferred for atom The ympHtes Of those
who dread physical suffering than moral wrong and
famine disease, and death than intellectual degrade
uOD moral blindness aud spiritual rum from lending their
countensnce 10 The rising sentiment of liberty for the
negro"
Are we then to understand that famine, dis
ease, and death are the inevitable concomitants
o. consequences Of immediate emancipation If
so, we find il difficult to draw the deduction Of
the committee when they proceed to add
With all tie misery that attends and must attend the
sudden liberation ~ millions o slaves God shows that he
prefers that misery with it's glorious and cnnse.
quencer to all tbs comfort content which ever
society"
1t will be seen that this gratuitous deduction
assumes that the only choice lies between the
"sudden liberation Of millions Of slaves" and their
continued retention in unrelaxing bondage The
possibility Of gradual EN- ncipstion" is excluded
With how much or reason this is done the
reader may infer from the following statements Of
The committee