The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-06-23


hundred to a thousand dollars per week,
and they will inform you that with these
salaries they could obtain more of the ne
cessaries of life than they can now for for
ty or fifty dollars perweek in grcenbacks.
We see many farmers from the country,
and they mostly appear cheerful and
hopeful of the future. Their only trou-
bic is the indisposition of the negroes to
work and the scarcity of money to re-
new their stock and farming imple-
ments, still they do not despair of being
able to produce something like order from
the present chaotic state of affairs.
Some of the merchants are furnishing
them with the necessary implements of
industry on pledge of their crops,
which is very good as well as very
old plan in the South. Long before the
war it was the custom of planters to
mortgage their growing crops for sup
plies.
In political affairs there is very little
discussion among the people. They
were of course all secessionists, and gave
full faith and creditto their leaders, as
long as they had soldier i'm the field ;
but when the crash came, and further re-
sistance was shown to be hopeless, they
quietly and gracefully succumbed to
what they accept as the fate of war, and
yield with scarcely murmur. There is
but little of that sullenness that we hear
spoken ofdisplayed by any class. They
are more sorrowful than angry. A set
tied gloom or melancholy pervades the
souls of the people; they mourn for their
heroes slain, and their departed wealth !;
but they will not admit that they have
lost anything on the score of honor, or
that any should he attainted with treason.
They wish to return quietly to the walks
of private life, and desire never to hear
the beat ofdrum, blast of bugle, or roar Of
gun again. They want no more war;,
nor will they have it, if in their powerto
prevent such calamity in future. They
think, however, that the people of the
North should cease to mock at their ca
lamity, and that magnanimous nation
should treat fallen and conquered, but
gallant and heroic foe, with less severity
than some are disposed to do. Their re-
spect for Generals Lee and Johnston, is
veneration itself, and they are grieved
lest Davis, whom they all esteem,
should be treated with undue harshness.
Although they acquiesce in the fact
that they have been overcome, and ex-
presSa willingness toperform all the du-
tiesofgOod and law abiding citizens, they
do notexpressany sorrow orregret forthe
part they have taken in the past. They
are Union men now, but do not desire
to make any hasty or boisterous display
of their renewed loyalty, or loud-mouth-
ed recantation of their late alleged
errors. They are satisfied with the re-
stored Union, but would have preferred
Southern Independence; they acknowl-
edge slavery to be dead, but wouldrather
it had lived. Allthey ask is that they may
be let alone in their sorrows, till the days
of their mourning be finished-and that
none shall intrude upon the privacy of
theirgrief. With opening trade and closer
connection with the people of the North,
and with the establishment of sympa-
thizing political party, and gradual
decay of the hatred engendered by the
late bloody strife, good feeling may again
return-but the people of the North must
bide their time with patience, while they
continue the work of Cancellation, which
a majority Of them have so happily be-
gun and with such good results.
There are but few negroes in Rich
mond, and those here are mostly en-
ployed. They are quite temperate
in spirit and fast returning to reason.
The soldiers treat them sometimes a lit
tie harshly, and Sambo consequently
tries to keep out of the way of the blue
jackets. We have no police, and no
civil authority, save that of Governor
Pierpont, and he does not pretend to ex-
ercise any police jurisdiction. A mounted
PATROL occasionally rides through the
city, and here and there sentinel slow
ly walks his post; but they do not inter-
fere with any of the citizens. Thous-
| ands of returned Confederates are in the
city, who have dotted the grey, and
quietly retired to the walks of private
life, and are seeking employment as a
means for gaining livelihood. The
people and the Federal soldiers and the
returned prisoners fraternize, and freely
associate, and the best feeling seems to
exist. Every soldier in Richmond might
safely be removed and no disturbance
would take place. The rights of all
would be respected, and Governor Pier
pont would need no other protection or
body-guard than the fast increasing re-
spect of the people.
In the neighborhood of the Spotswood
Hotel business is quite brisk, and things
generally have a lively appearance. A
goodmany new buildings are being erect
ed in the vicinity, and a number of enter
prising capitalists from the North are
opening stores and preparing for BUSH
ness. On Broad street, where the centre
of traffic has been established since the
fire, considerable trade is done. Here.
too, there is a magnificent theatre, the
new Richmond, built during the war