Litchfield enquirer., 1867-06-06
AN INTERESTING LETTER FROM
 ALABAMA

to the New York Herald some interesting comments on the Mobile riot and on other matters connected with that portion of the South. His letter is dated at Montgom- cry
 From the window of my room in the Ex- change Hotel-a house of many historic memories-can be seen the state capital, standing on an elevation. It was here that Jeff. Davis was inaugurated C President of the Confederate States" it was from this house that the order was sent to the Alaba- ma delegation to withdraw from the Balti- more Convention of 1860; it was from the of Independence of the Confederacy was read, and it was from one of the parlors now occupied by General Swayne, United States military commander of Alabama, that the official order was sent to the reb els at Charleston to commence the attack on Fort Sumter, which opened the war. The first flag hoisted in the Confederacy was raised by the wife of the proprietor.
 Nothing can be more ingeniously false than the accounts which the Mobile and Montgomery papers give of the riot Tn the former city on Monday night. They per sist in calling it ''negro riot, although the fact Is that the negroes made no res1s- tance except that, it might be to strike up the murderous hands that presented pis- tols at them. I witnessed the whole scene, from the firing of the first shot till the last, in the most conspicuous position at the 1neeting-the very front of the stand, winch was the chief object of attack-and 1 as- sert that the statement of a voiley being fired from the stand by a body Of blacks IS untrue. The negroes were stricken with panic, both on the stand and in the street. The Mobile papers say it was an accident, and not premeditated. l fail to find the individual who does not believe that the attack was melted by such articles as this, which appeared the day before, and others of similar character which were publish ed for several days previous. I quote from the Mobile Times, owned by one of Lr. Johnson's oficeholders, Colonel Mann
 There is rllmor that certain notorious radicals, travelling through the country in the interests of a faction, are ill our midst on their way. We deem that ignoring these men and their mischeivous objects is the proper policy of the south. We are on ly glad that the chivalric feelings of the south should be illustrated by the utter in- difference manifested at the presence of men bent upon creating civil and domestic dissensiors, and the security which sur rounds them forms bright contrast with the mobs which, after having torn up alive the brave Irishman who, as United States Marshal, was enforcing the Fugitive Slave bill were waiting on Boston common for Brooks, whom Q certain Massachusetts Senator had chivalrously offered to fight in Canada If he could succeed in running the gauntlet of the friends of higher law to reach the appointed place We feel satis- fled that the longer the rope allowed these agitators the sooner they will trip them selves and rid the country dangerous infu- ences'
 The appeal to the passions of the Irish is palpable, although the facts are wholly un- true. The Irish element controls the cleo tions in Mobile, and the rebel journals have been for a long time striving to bring it in to collusion with the negroes and create bloodshed.
 But I will quit this unpleasant theme, to touch upon more agreeable scenes here. l visited the colored schools of Montgomery to-day, of which there are nine or ten en- rolled branches and six hundred enrolled scholars found wonderful development of intelligence in the pupils, who range in age from six years to twenty. The number of adults of both sexes is quite surprising, and the eagerness to master the mere rudi- ments of spelling, side by side with the youngest children, was an evidence that they are in earnest
 The progress of these schools is the more gratifying when we remember that there is no common school system in Alabama, and that the private schools for the education of whites were all closed during the war, and have not been resumed since. Thus six years in the educational life of the white people have been lost. We cannot wonder that the census shows thirty three thousand whites in this state who cannot read, nor is it difficult to forsee that within few years the negroes and mulattoes will be the dom- lnant class in intelligence and education. In every part of the city in the morning you meet groups of little colored children of all shades, from the white octoroon to the dark est Congo, trudglng to school with their books and slates This sight so charming g to the eye'of the philanthropist, was such an offense to the white population when the bureau was first established that they pro tested they would not submit to the out rage. But they have got used to 1t now, and the sober minded class are rather pleas ed at the advancement of the negro for they see that they must depend upon the labor and industry of the blacks, unless i'm migration should increase, and they are convinced that labor based upon intelli- gence is the most available after all In this regard, therefore, 1 note a revolution ln southern sentiment.
 One of the negro school-houses on Mar ket street had been for many years an auc- tion mart for the sale of negroes. The basement with its heavily barred windows, was the pen in which the unfortunates were crowded, the sick and the healthy together. Possibly the parents of many of these little ones were sold in this very room. But where the auction block stood is now the teachers desk, and the walls that echoed so often the fatal stroke of the auc- tioneers hammer, that separated husband from wife and mother from children, now resound with the tiny voices, of the little emancipated ones syllabling those words which are the stepping stones to q knowl- edge of Gods word and the laws of the land which Is now their own.
 There are seventy thousand colored vo- ters In Alabama. Of these the radical pol lticians calculated to secure all but ten thousand, which may be lost by the various influences brought to bear upon them on the plantations; but they think that they will carry the state handsomely at the next election. have conversed with many ne OrOeS in the SOuth and bovn n Ot vol fOrD1