The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1866-02-15
Letter from Gov. Orr.

| Governor Orr, OF South Carolina, under
date of January 10, 1866, addressed a
long letter to the, President, in relation
to the sea island lands from which the
following extracts are made: In the lower
part of the State scarcely acontract has
been, or can be, made. The delay in car
rying out your Instructions of last octo-
Der positively, which has continued from
General Howard s visit to Captain Ketch-
um's return, within the, past few days,
renders the freedmen, as a body, incredu-
lous of any restoration. They have in
many places quietly but firmly refused to
accept any terms; but, I regret to say,
that within the last few days they have
in somess instances resorted to violence:
burning down dwellings, destroying
bridges, entrenching themselves in their
quarters and refusing either to contract
or give way to those who will. And in
these eases, it is proper to say, that the
contracts offered them have been APPROX
ed by the United States authorities as lib
eral and just. This is not unnatural, for as
long rs the freedman has reason to be-
lieve that the Government will give him
homestead of forty acres, he will not
voluntarily work for wages. It cannot,
think, be denied that the action of the
Freedman's Bureau in this State has
largely contributed to this unfortunate
result. Without entering into the min
ute detail of its administration, | am con-
strained to say that there is, to my mind.
sufficient evidence of an unwillingness to
cooperate cordially with the policy of
the Government. Certificates of titles
have been in some cases granted to per
sons filling none of the conditions even of
Gen. Sherman's order, and have been
given to chance visitors to the islands for
lands, not only for themselves, but for
their friends who have never been away
from their homes in the interior. Great
delay has been interposed in the execu-
ton of the forms necessary to restoration,
and the bureau has, indeed, gone far to
defeat the very object of your orders, for
it has decided that where a freedman re-
fuses to contract on any terms, however
lust, that in such case there can be no
mutually satisfactory arrangement, and
his refusal acts as bar to restoration.
In addition to this, the whole of the
Parish of St. Helena, and a great portion
of st. Luke's, comprising the body of the
estates which, in intrinsic value, in their
former amount of product, cannot be sur
passed by an equal extent of country in
any State of the Union, have been ap-
propriated by the Government under the
provisions of the direct Tax Act. These
lands are occupied by Freedmen; some
under the pretence of allotment; some
under the pretence of purchase; some
under pretence of Gen. Sherman's order,
and most under no pretence at ALL The
Tax Commissioners charged with the exc
cution of these acts have manifested these
sympathies as the agents of the Freed
mans Bureau, and this whole section Of
country is held out as not only home OF
the refugees, but is land of promise for
every indolent freedman in the State.
Finally, bill has been reported to
Congress, and is now under discussion,
by which the titles granted under Gen
Sherman's field orders are to be confirmed
for three years. do not think, there
fore, that I am risking either an extreme
or doubtful opinion when I say that the
chief cause of our difficulty, in finding a
solution of this question of labor, proceeds
from the action of the Government en-
couraging the belief that the sea coast
region of S. Carolina is to be coniscated
for the purpose of establishing system Of
independent colonization for the freed.
men. If this is not SO, then the interests
of this State require that this impression
SO generally prevailing, should be authori.
tatively denied, and that those who, tol
purposes of personal interest or political
agitation, are ondeavoring to prolong and
to exaggerate our present embarrassment
should be deprived of SO effective means
of mischief. Can apyeasreason be found
why the planter on the coast, who was
driven from his home in 1861 or 1862
should now have his lands appropriated
for distribution, while his fellow-citizenf
of the middle or upper districts, whose es
tates have been undisturbed, but has par
ticipated as fully and heartily in the war