The Van Buren press., 1866-02-10

tuc utigllt vi lH2TALllNue I'D men Mip !!isst
risked character and reputation for the
patriotic cause of cotton, and ten or
twelve thouscnd year. Your commit
tee concurred entirely in his opinion
While in Atlanta your committee
heard many expressions of sentiment,
which go to show how far Gen. Grant is
mistaken in what he says in his report.
On one occasion,we heard what convinc-
ed us that the lava of secession still bur
ned in the southern bosom The case
was that Of a young gentlemen from
Massachusetts who had come to the
South in the capacity of freedman's
school-teaclicr. He had casually made
the acquaintance of a southern lady of
two score and ten, whose husband had
fallen under the rebel flag, leaving her a
widow of handsome estate. The young
gentleman, desirous Of matrimony and
the plantations, pressed his suit, and was
progressing, as he thought, most favora-
bly,, when one evening the widow told
him at a tea party, in the presence of a
large number of people, that she'd
rather be buried alive than marry Yam
kee." The patriot school teacher no
longer piled the rod Of chastisement over
refractory freedmen. The star of his
hope has gone down, and he has gone
to Boston, wreck of his former self
p" Your committee went to Montgome-
ry, Alabama, where, as at Richmond, the
coiored population focked to meet us,
and We'd with each other for the carrying
of cur baggage. We paid them fifty
cents a carpet sack from the depot, and
they were enthusiastic in their demon
strations Of loyalty, in receiving the cur
eency from us. In this city evidences of
disloyalty meet us on every hand. A Yer
mont missionary had been insulted few
days before our arrival for attempting
to introduce John Browns Body and
Well hang jeff Davis on Sour Apple
Tree; as Sabbath schoolhymns. A hop
had Just taken place at the leading hotel,
to which whites only were invited, and
from which the freedmen were excluded
on account Of color. The consequence
was an indignation meeting of the freed
men, at which equal rights were demand
ed. A repetition Of balls and hops,
exclusively white in their character, will
lead to Jamaica instructions and Hay
tien rebellions magnifed thousand times
in their dreadful results. At Montgome-
ry, as at Atlanta, we met a Treasury agent
who was opposed to immediate re- union,
and warmly in favor of territorial con
dition forthe Southern States. He men,
toned, incidentally, that he had a son-in-
law in New Hampshire who would make
an excellent Provisional Governor and
cousin who would do for territorial del
egate to Congress. Above all things he
hoped Congress would not listen to the
hypocritical cries of Alabama loyalty
He assured us that there was no LOYALTY
in the State, except in his office, and said
it would be base injustice to supersede
him till he had finished the making of
100000. ia a,
Wenext proceeded to Charleston South
Carolina. Here we had long interview
with a northern gentleman whom we
knew to be in every way reliable. He
had responded to his country's call in
the early days Of the war, with suffers
wagon full of Yankee notions, and had
been unvarying in his devotion to the
cause ever since, except at intervals when
Gen. Grant had ordered suffers to the
rear Since the cessation of armed hos
tility he had been down South to see
what could be done in the way Of buying
southern lands. He had found the peo-
pie Of South Carolina SO rebellious at
heart as to refuse to sell their plantations
for twenty cents an acre, Federal curren-
cy. He convinced us that an armed force
ought to be kept in Charleston for many
years to come, and that he ought to be
appointed stitler, as he had much expert
ence in the business He found in this
bot-bed Of secession and cradle Of rebel
lion, a decided preference for gray over
blue, which extended itself even to the
ladies petticoats, many Of which your
committee carefully examined 1t pro-
per to state that the articles thus scruti-
zed were hanging on line to dry, and
had no ladies in them.
N9" Your committee next visited Savan-
nah, where they found disloyalty mani
Testing itself Enthusiastically on all sides.
We met an agens of the Freedman's Bu-
reau, who gave it as his opinion that the
war was only half over, and that unless