Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-08-11
GEN. BANKs's DEPARTMENT.

| OF Gen. BANKS In Louisiana has been made tar
get of constant attack by portion of the Republi-
can press. Weneed not say that it is his dealings
with the emancipated blacks Of his department
which constitute the gravamen of all the bitter ac-
cusations brought against him. If we might trust
the representations of these journals it would re-
quire the vehemence and the eOquence of mo-
dern Burke to do justice to the enormites of this
modern Warren Hastings in his treatment of the
poor freedmen of Louisiana.
BY those who know Gen. Banks these imputa-
tons on his personal honor and humanity will be
received with the incredulity they deserve. 1t
will be no easy matter to persuade his friends
that in his conduct towards the subject population
of the State he has been venting in any of those
obligations imposed by his own character and by
the dependent condition of the suffering class for
whose welfare he has been called to consult Those
who make him the object of their reproaches fail,
we presume, to take into account the difficulties of
the problem which he is required to treat.
The social system Of Louisiana has been reduced
to chaos within the lines of our army. The Ma
tional Government, through its military authori-
ties, and its provost marshas, and its superinten
dents of freedmen and its managers Of the socaled
lessee system, has now taken the place of the in
dividual master in the oversight of the slaves 1t
is no fault of Gen. Banks that he cannot insure
the comfort provide for the protection of oil the
homeless and landless blacks who are thrown upon
his hands, but it is in great part the fault of the
system which he is called to administer. Such
are the defects of this system under the supern-
tendence of military officials and Government agents
that we do not doubt, as our contemporaries repre-
SENT that the suferings of the blacks under their
present regimen cause them to sigh for he flesh.
pots" of their recent bondage. 1t Is easy to COM
prehend that if their former masters chastsed them
with whips, the provost marshals and the managers
of the lessee system chastise them with scorpions.
finger of military Legree on the plantation is
found thicker than the loins Of his predeces-
sor and prototype. The barbarsm of war excels
the barbarism of slavery, and SO long as the blacks
Of Louisiana are placed under the tutelage of men
whose school of morals is the camp, or of men
whose god is mammon, we do not expect to con-
graduate the freedmen on any material alienation
Of their condition as the result of their change Of
masters.
On this point the New York Tribune cites, in a
recent number, the testimony of Mr.. McKaye, one
of the Commission appointed by the War Depart
ment to inquire into the condition and prospects
of the " freedmen" Mr.. McKaye, as quoted by
the Tribune, says:
IAN upright and competent Witness whose testimony
herewith submitted says am free TO declare that the
uarsnas have not done Justice to the abores
the plantations. They do not Gen. Bankss orders
carried On many plantations, WHIPPING is still per
mtted More thsn one instance of great neglect injus
Iceland abuse has come to the knowledge OF the Com
mission
And that these evils are inherent in the system
| which Gen Banks is called to administer, and are
not attributable to his official delinquency, becomes
apparent, we think, from the following obscrva-
tons of Mr. McKaye, though the Tribune cites
them for the purpose Of impeaching the conduct of
General Banks. Mr.. McKaye, speaking of the
freedmen" says
"Their previous life of slavery Injured them to daily
hsbtua sueng and up to this hour their initiation into
freedom has been attended with little else than danger i'll
usage deprivation sickness, and bereavement. The
taity among them in the Valley of the Mississippi has been
| friphtfu The most competent Judges compute it at
not less than twenty-five per cent in the last two years
With few exceptions they have under the control
Of incompetent and otherwise unfit officials Often here
here they have fallen prey 10 tae syscious and
interruptions. In many nsances clothed in rags With
out wholesome sufficient food lodged night without
beds or bedding they toed for months and in the
end have been turned of with little no compensation
The great exposures to which they hare been subjected
gave rse to and fatal diseases among them In which
they were Left ia eases, without proper care or me-
dical attendance Great mortality natural cOuse.
qusnce Much deprivation and suffering were under The
favorable circumstances inevitable 30 the
in which they placed by the But should fail
in my duty If gec to declare that in my udpmen
many of the injuries OF which they have been victims
and great deal Of their suffering hare resulted from The
failure of the national aShori,s provide proper and
uniform system for their care and protection"
We cite below from the columns of the New
York ribune of Friday last the following letter,
contributed to that paper by correspondent who
seek, to reinforce the representations it hes repeat
eddy and recently made with regard to tho alleged
Encouragement of the Department of the Gulf by
Gen Banks. That all the abuses described by the
writer really exist in that department we do not
doubt, for they are fully confirmed by our own
information on the subject, but we submit in
all fairness that Gen. Banks should not be
held personally responsible for the evils which be-
long to the system he is called to administer under
the difficulties and the endorsements entaed by
mixed civil and military policy in dealing with