Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-09-06

L
fully 10 carry out and make sure the
predictions Of some protested friends,
who expatiated on the wonderful capacity
of the negro for elevation and
improyement, which was the pre-
dioied result Of the very
system and privileges which the Bureau
was established 10 afford them1 These
are not the results which were promised,
but the actual facts which have obtained
from near three years trial, and the
most lavish expenditure. What is the
matter Is the Bureau IN fault, or the
plan Of operations, or the negrof Has
not the Bureau had its own way, without
interference from any quarterf How is
it then, the negroes being free, and sup
ported largely, and privileged to vote,
and to hold property, and retain all the
wages of labor. and to accumulate and
become good and happy aud prosperous
citizens, that they are growing more and
more. incorporate and dissolute and
criminal, and indolent and vagrant than
they were ever known to be as slaves !
And how is it that they do pot care for
their own offspring, nor raise as many
freemen of their own progeny as they
formally did slaves for their masters
These suggestions may be avoided and
put by and treated as the language of
partisan or an enemy, but they are stub
born truths, nevertheless, which it is
not in the power of man to gainsay.
Should they not then be we'll reflected on,
and the system be either changed or
abolished altogether, which, judged by
its fruits, has fallen so far short of &C.
complishing any real good to the freed
men 2
We all know how the Bureau works
here. How it is in Kentucky, where its
advantages are certainly not less, may
be seen from the subjoined extract from
the Louisville Courier:
The reasons why the Freedmen's Blu.
reau should be abolished are many and
patent to all who have witnessed its Pc
culiar workings In the first place it
totally fails to accomplish the object for
which it was ostensibly created. When
Gen. Ely first undertook the manage
ment of the Bureau in this State, his
proclamations and special orders to the
u xrnlt, and fro
quent. They we're exhorted to seek
homes in the country, and were forbidden
TO huddle together in towns and cities.
Did the negroes heed these high sound
ing edicts2 Not at ALL They did hud.
die together in towns and cities, and are
now budding and starving and stealing,
and dying Of diseases engendered by
filth Where sleeps the potent Bureau ?
It's thunders have been silenced
for many months, and this 81.
lence is of itself an eloquent
confession of the Chief of the
Bureau of his utter inability to carry
into practice the pompous performances
he at first promised to execute with his
Hatent machine. The people of Louis
vile need not be told of the wretched-
ness among the pauper blacks who rush
from all parts of the country to the city.
They will not live in the country. They
are too lazy to work unless they can get
situations as walters in hotels, or some
similar congenial employment involving
as much play as work. During the last
harvest we saw dozens of farmers in the
city in search of help. They offered
these lazy and able.bodied negroes ex'
travagant wages for few days work,
and all to no purpose.
Does not the experience of Memphis
people confirm every word of this And
who in the country will doubt that the
effect in the country is any thing but
advantageous to this class of populationf
The Bureau was instituted for the benefit
aud protection of the blacks Does it
benefit the blacks to be encouraged In
idleness, disoluteness and vice2 Are
they not growing daily worse and less
useful as an element OF society2 Does
any one believe that if left to scuffie for
themselves as white men are compelled
to do, they would not work better and be
happier2 Does any one believe they
would be worse treated by white people
who desire their labor, and their eleva-
ton as elements of southern society
Let them have the same laws, and the
same protection with the whites, and no
more. The result will be that they will be
treated with lenience, that whites and
blacks will become more friendly and
mutual helpers, and that the negro pop
ulation will be controlled to a sufficient
extent to make them somewhat more in
dustrious and obedient to just laws by
which all should be bound. A system
which whether so designed or not) in
its practical results encourages vagrancy
and is impotent at least for the proven
ton of crime is bane to any society
10 the world, and is at this time the
peculiar burden of tyrrany and the curse
of the South. There is no good and
sufficient reason why the whole thing
should not be abolished at once. We
attribute nothing to Encouragement or
inelIiciency Of the officers of the Bureau
here or elsewhere, be the facts as they
may. 1t is wholly unnecessary to look
into that question. The evil Of the sys-
TEN is in the thing per Sc, ineradicAble
and unavoidable except by its abolition.
RsS- The telegraphic report of the