The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-05-23
FTeedmen's Bureau Courts a UsuT-
patton.
We copy the following from the Sa-
vannah (Ga } News and Herald of the

| Freedmcu'5 Bureau in the Southern States,
held an interview last evening with some
| twenty-five or thirty OF our most respected
citizens, representing all the various inter
ests and professions.
General Ste5dman opened the conference
by stating briefly the objects Of his mission
TO be 20 inquire into the operations Of the
| Freedmen's Bureau-to learn the influence
it exertad upon the relations of the two
races whether its tendency was to produce
harmony or sntsgonism between them;
whether, in general, its effect was for harm
or for gOOi, and whether 1t was necessary or
/ eXpedIcut to continue its existence. He IN
| vited the gentlemen present to state what
| they knew Of the evils Of the management
Of the Bureau in Georgia.
Mr.. j. NJ. B. Lowell said that he had been
! requested as a member of the Bar to call the
attention o the Commissioners to the Freed
mems Court. The action Of this court, in
which both civil and criminal cases We're
adjudicated without 3 jury, while all the
| other courts was open and equal rights for
| the blacks and whites were guaranteed by
| the laws Of the State, were calcu ated to fOs-
| ter a feeling of anJag0nsm between the
! races. If a white man assaulted another
! white man he was allowed a trial by jury;
if he assaulted a negro he was denied that
manifest right. :
General steedman replied that he was
unaware that the agents Of the Bureau were
exercising judicial functions that he had
not contemI lated their doing so when he
| gave General TillsOn authority TO apply TO
| the State Convention for the appointment
| of civil agents Of the Bureau. lie would
| examine iuto the matter when he reached
I Augusta and have the Freedmen's Courts
| abolished in Georgia.
| General Fullerton remarked that the
/ 4 L'-rr. I
| mems Courts was, that the freedmen cannot
| obtain Justice in the civil courts, as the local
! Judges refused to receive testimony from
negroes, and that this opinion had obtained
/ a very general belief in the North through
| the representations Of newspaper CORES
/ pondents.
Also inquired whether any attention was
paid TO the rules Of evidence in taking tes-
| timony in the Frcedmen's Courts. Mr..
! Lowell replied, none whatever; that OIL
| GERS had filled the bench of the court who
! had no legal education, and who had not
! the capacity, even if they had the best in
/ toutions, to conduct examinations in accord
| ance with the established rules Of courts Of
! justice.
! Also inquired whether penalties were in
/ aicLed by the Judge III accordance with the
| laws of the State. Judge VIM. Is. Fleming
| answered that the penalties were often at
variance with the laws of the State; that
! for the same Offcnse for which a white man
was sent to the peuitentlary, negro was
| sentenced to labor a short period on the
streets.
Hon. S. Cohen went on to say that the
action Of the Freedmen's Court IN this re
| spect had a more deleteri9us influence on
| the negro, leading him to feel that he had
a SPECIAL protection and license, and that it
| gave rise to jealousy and anlmOsity be-
| tween the races. He was confident that the
| better class Of citizens and the well feeling
! of all classeI were disposed to recognize
! fully the new relations Of the negroes to
! them-the laws of Georgia showed it.
General Steodman asked if any COM
! plants had been made of unjust discrlmln-
! alton in the decisions rendered by the civil
! courts.
| Judge Fleming said he had heard of none;
| he promised for himself that the negro
| should have the same justice meted out to
| him in his own court as the white man.
Rev. Mr.. Wynn was here introduced. He
| spoke Of the convention Of ColOred clergy
men, now being held in this city, composed
| of delegates from the neighbOring States /;
he had been pleased TO observe the feeling
that prevailed in this convention; it had
been publicly avowed in set Of resolutions,
as the sense of the convention, that a bad
and dangerous feeling was growing out Of
| thesinterference, in their relations with
| their former masters, of strangers coming
among them pretending to be their friends.
| The resolutions also thanked the citizens Of
| Charleston for their uniform kindness to
the colored people; in the language of the
resolutions, they hurled back the hbels
upon the Southern people who were their
true friends, and condemned the conduct of
the Northern 'emissarIes who had come to
incite insurrectlon Mr.. Wynn said he had
been greatly impressed with the sensible
and manly tone of the convention, which
would have done credit to any deliberative
assembly. In the discussions and the pro-
ceediugs generally an intellectual ability
was man tested far in advance OF what he
had looked for.
Gen. Stecdman remarked that the ne
groes, wherever he had passed, had borne
testimony to the kindness Of the intelligent
people of the South they regarded them
as their friends, and had no complaints to
make Of them, excepting Of certain class
in the cities whom they denominated
| "rOughs"
Judge Law spoke at considerable length
! He said the great deSidcratDS at the pres
| eut time is a maintenance of kindly feel
ing between the two mutually dependent
classes whatever tended TO produce the
contrary state Of things was deleterous and
! would cause "dcl8y IN the return OF pros
perity." The happiness of the country de-
ponds on their coming together IN their
mutual relations. There was difference
| in their conditions social and natural we
cannot expect an obliteratIon OF this differ
ence at once, if ever, but mutual interests
| would inevitably bring them into the kind
" relations which had existed heretofore
| As for the results of the operations Of :he
Bureau, be knew only what his former ser
wants had told him-thst they had been ad-
vised not to make contracts, to wait for the
Government land bounties, and the conse-
auence was that while he and his neIghbors
had 90 or - acres of rice planted, instead
of 400 or 500 acres as formerly, Northern
men in the same neghborhoot had from
500 TO 900 acres under cultivation, with
pleptv of labOrers. He mentioned this to
show that the Southern people would be
compelled from interest TO treat the freed
men we'll Meanwhile, thoy should not be
prejudioed against their old masters nor the
latter inhamed against them by outside
pressure. Mutual dependence would estab-
Iish the true relations between the races II
they were lett 10 themselves. But the Blu.
reau had produced alienation on account Of
the distinction which it made.