The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-05-10
r.st,m.nv Of Hon. Bedford Brown.
Of North Carolina, before the Reconstruction
COnanaittee.

C0nanaittee.
Hon. Bedford Brown, formerly United
States Senator from North Carolina, was ex
amined in respect to that State Although
he had served the people OF North Carolina
in a legislative capacity, during the war, III
had always been Union, and non-secessionis
on principle He thinks two-thirtls OF three
fourths of the people of the State unitedly
oDposed to secession. The masses of the
people at the time of Lees surrender were
more gratitied than otherwise, because they
saw that the result was inevitable. Many OF
them were for peace, and believed there was
no safety out oft Union. They were graf
flied that the question had been settled in
some way Of late they had became very
despairing, perhaps in part from the loss of
slave property, though chiefly from the long
delay in being admitted to the Union. There
is a wide feeling of discomfort even among
Union men, The great mass OF the people
are exceedingly anxious to have the relations
between the State and the Federal Govern
ment restored. Some few persons would
perhaps, be gratifed by a foreign war, but
the great mass are perfectly willing to live
under the laws of the United States, provided
they can have political equality with the other
States.
The longer this is procrastinated, the
worse the feeling of discomfort will become.
Some portions of the people, in the event of
a war with Great Britain or France, would
probably engage i'll another attempt at seces-
sion, and the establishment of Southern in
dependence; but a great majority would
suppress such an attempt if there were rea-
sonable expectations that they could be adj
mitted to equal political rights in the Union.
The best way to remove this feeling OF dis
content among the people would be to de
clare the State member of the Federal
Union, and admit her representatives to
their seats, Congress, of course, Judging OF
the members presenting themselves separate
ly. Disloyal men should be excluded; but
men should be admitted even if the great
majority of their constituents were actual
disloyalists. The question of admission
should depend rather upon the character and
qualification of the claimant than upon those
of his constituents. If his district was mani
festly disloyal beyond all question, it would
perhaps be a justification for his exclusion.
The witness thinks a majority of the people
would be willing to pay the Federal debt,
though the taxpayers do not regard 1t as a
pleasant subject.
Avery decided and overwhelming majority
would be opposed to the payment of the
Confederate war debt. He does not know of
any combination open or secret to make |
further resistance to the Government or to |
renew the war in any shape. He believes |
that Northern men going into North Carolina |
to invest capital In lands manufactures, &c., |
would be received in friendly manner, and |
treated with justice in the State courts. The |
freedmen in his part of the State were acting |
very well, and the general sentiment among |
the farmers and planters is to treat them with
fairness. There is Discrimination for pro-
miscuous schools for whites and blacks
But the better class of people do not object |
to schools for blacks separately. The officers
of the Freedmen's Bureau have generally
been liberal toward both the freedmen and
white people; but he hardly thinks there is
any further necessity for maintaining the
Bureau, as black men would stand as good
chance in the State courts as white men if
they were of good character, and there are
no particular preiudices against them. The
poor whites are generally considered as hav
ing higher claim to credibility than the
negroes. Universal negro suffrage would be
regarded as very Objectionable and wholly
inadmissible; but "a good many persons
would have no objection to seeing qualified
negro suffrage. He does not think it possible
to establish restricted suffrage among the
whites, and thinks none of them would ever
surrender the right to vote if they could
help it.