The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1865-11-15

REPORTS AS TO TIE FREEDMEN. Mr..
Conway, lately ageut of the freedmen's
bureau in Louisiana, has arrived at Wash
ington. He does not speak well of the
spirit manifested by white Louisianians
towards the negroes. The bureau also
has Information from the Mississippi and
White rivers that many negro soldiers ~ c
killed when they are disch irgcd and sent
back into the country. The arrest of
Capt Peck of the frecdmens bureau. in
Copiah cocnty, Miss, was much regret
ted by Gov. Humphreys A guard was
Sent to ptotect Capt. Peck, but the sher.
III OF the county anticipated their arrival
and set him free. The captain is now IN
the discharge of his duties Col. Thomas
has met the committee of the Mississippi
legislature on irecdmcns aiTiirs and is
understood to have found them proposing
10 do better for the lrccdtncn than was
anticipated.
a letter from Alabama points to a
new danger for the freedmen. which is
their union with the mean whites in n
lite OF ldlencss, theft and vice There is
already II tendency that way. The wri-
ter says -
during the past four months, it is
sale 10 say, one half OF the freedmen who
have lett their homes have fuunl new
ones with this class of or population
and this absorption of the freedmen will
- on almost Indefinitely. How it is
done no one can tell, but the poorer and
- hcconnt man has been, the more
freedmen he has got abont MIN. a home
OF his own or living in one is all the ne
gro thinks OF. A few hours's work IN
the pines eives him cabin and a home
rnd few days work through the year
will enable him to live. The amount of
labor tor this pause alone that will be
withdrawn from the cultivation of cotton
Is, in my opinion, very great; for if he
can live without raising cotton, he will
do 50. lie will thus become "A vagabond
and - nonproducer; and living with the
white man, more or less his equal, will
fall into his vices and habits. r =
l might fill pages with accounts of their
(the treedmen's) idehess, vagrancy, mean
ness and utter want Of honesty in regard
to their contracts. 1t all must be seen
to be understood, for it enters every ac;
OF their lives. They eat lazily. walk.
work, res; lazily. Stealing is all the RAGE
all over the country. They steal every
thing they can lay their hands on"
Rev. Dr. Massie Of London, lcctured
on freedmen at Cooper Institute. New
York, Tuesday evening, and gave as the
result Of his recent observations in the
South, the opinion that they ought to
have the right of suffrage, and Of testi.
mony in the courts.
Gtn Baird a. arrived mt New Or
leans, to succeed Gen. Fullerton as conn
missioner of freedmen lie Louisiana. Gen
Howard was at Nicksburgh ON the 10Th.
n circular has recently been issued bv
Col. y. Brown, assistant commissioner of
of the treedmen's bureau in Virginia. call
ing the attention of the agents of the
bureau to their neglect of duty in not en-
forcing upcn the freedmen in their dis
trlcts, the necessity of entering into and
fulfilling contracts for labor with planter.
and others who have employ ment for them.
lie then adds :-"Wherc employment is
offered on terms that will provide for the
comfortable subsistence of the laborcrs.
removing them from the vices OF idleness
and from dependence on charity, they
should be treated as common vagrauts if
they do not accept tt, and the rules of the
bureau, applicable in such cases, must be
rigldy enforced.
a Columbia, S. c., letter saws that
some members OF the South Carolina leg.
lSlaturc express strong approximations OF
"A negro Instruction, and bills have been
reported for the purpose Of empowering.
the state officers to seize all firearms
found IN the possession OF the freedmen.
to prevent them from henretorth becorn
Ing possessed of arms, and to punish with
severity any white person who proposes
to sell arms to them. Measures are ais,
proposed TO shut up the shops kept by
the freedmen and to prohibit any whit.
person emplo. ing II negro servant without
the written consent of his or her former
master having first been obtained. The
South Carolnians are very anxious for
the removal from their midst of all nat
tional troops and the organization of their
state militia.
Reports show that the mortality among
the negroes during the war varied from
30 to 40 per cent, and disease is making
about the same fatal inroads among them
now as then During 1864 the deaths
of negroes in the interior of North Caro-.
lima amounted TO so per cent of the whole
colored population of those sections The
medical department of the freedmens
bureau complains that it is powerless to
stay the progress of disease while the sur
geons are scattered so widely apart
the southern country, and
funds are not provided requisite for the
employment OF local practitioners.
A letter from Kansas says: