Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-09
as of old the thrall and bond-servant of his

one of the saddest features of it is the stupid
peryersity and blindness of the North, which
made it the unconscious abettor of Southern
oppression and cruelty. The sentiment of
the South in regard to the manhood OF the
negro caused the Freedmau's Bureau to be
regarded with intense adherence and hatred.
The officers Of the Bureau were the FIRST who
insisted that negroes testimony was to be
taken even as against white mans. They
would not allow the whites to cheat and abuse
the negroes. They even imprisoned and fined
white men for assaulting negroes. And the
result was that the Bureau came to be looked
upon as a hellish institution. This was
not SO surprising as that the people
of the North should presently allow
themselves to be persuaded by South
ern representatives that the Freed
mans Bureau was indeed a corrupt and
iniquitous institution. Judge Tourgee shows
how Southern prejudice and clamor
were accepted as trustworthy evidence on
this head at the North. and how consequently
this institution, which was Offered almost
entirely by federal soldiers, and which had
really done an Immense deal of good by
standing between the exasperated Southern
whites and the dazed and helpless freedmen
until both parties had begun to grow accus-
toned to the new situation, lost its reputa-
ton, and was bounded out of existence with
out any just reason whatever. Says Judge
L. Is
Northern sentiment to the domination of
that mastery will which characterized the
South of the old regime was never better
Illustrated. Curse me this people = said
"the Southern Balak-of the Abohtionist
first, of the Bureau-offieer next, and then
of the Carpet-bagger. The Northern
"Balaam hemmed and paltered, and then
cursed the children of his IONS I"
So the Ffeedman's Bureau went down, and
the Black Codes went up. The North, hay
ing freed the negro, having for time recog-
nized his claims upon it, having then exposed
him to the full hostility of his late masters by
comforting upon him equal political
rights, at this point reached the con-
clusion that it had done all it was
called upon to do, and so withdrew
from him every protection, and "left him
naked to his enemies It was no doubt
a philosophical conclusion that unless he was
made self dependent he never could learn to
defend his rights, but it was not sufficiently
perceived that generations of slavery had nee
essarily weakened the moral stamina Of the
race, and rendered protracted course of
training and education indispensable TO its
satisfactory discharge Of the new duties forced
upon it, The negro was prematurely thrust
into the world. He was simple, ignorant,
and tinlid. His very joy at the new political
rights conferred up him tended to exasperate
the whites, for they regarded such mani
festations as menaces. The negro neverthe-
less endeavored to stand upright. There
were many black men of vigorous mind
who naturally became local leaders, and
whose examples were beneficial and bracing
These taught their followers that hard and
steady work was the condition of independ-
ence. They established little colonies. Natur-
any tiAS Cb4uiCu pttPlS SAbLS sc5SSASAt AL
their old masters were sullen or angry, and
would have nothing to do with them. Then,
under the Bureau, humane Northern people
helped them to build schoolhouses and
churches, and Northern women and girls left
comfortable and even luxurious homes to so
South and instruct the freedmen. The
Southern whites viewed all these movements
with growing jealousy. Opposition to negro
education had always been one of the condi-
tons of slavery. 1t was still kept up. The
Northern women who devoted themselves so
heroically to the elevation of the race which
had suffered so long martyrdom were ex-
posed to all the sneers and insults that
Southern IS chivalry could invent.
Judge Tourgee thus describes the pub
lie treatment of two Northern teachers
in North Carolina by their own sex
% they were regarded with that calm, unob
&c serving indifference with which the modern
"lsdy treats the sister who stands without
"the pale of respectable society. So far as
the ladies of Horsford were concerned,
"the niger teachers at Red Wing stood
"on the plane of the courtesan-they were
seen but not kaogn. The recognition which
they received from gentlemen of Southern
'sbirth had in it not little of the shame
"faced curiosity which characterizes the
intercourse of men with women whose rep
''utations have been questioned but not en-
" tirely destroyed. They were treated with
g apparent respect in the sehool-room, upon
"the highway, or at the market, by men
"who would not think of recognizing them
"when in the company Of their mothers, sis
''ters or wives.'' This was the manner in
which the noblest womanhood of the North
was treated by the Southern people. This is
the way in which Judge Teurgee's own wife
was treated by that arrogant, intolerant. I'M
civilized community.
In "Bricks without Straw we are given
picture Of the operation of all the in
fuences and tendencies we have thus far de-
scribed. The hero is negro of more than
usual intelligence and energy. He serves in
the Union army, earns little money, buys
piece of land from his old master twho
swindles him by bad title) and around him
little colony grows up, prosperous, peaceable
and happy The heroine is Northern girl,
whose brother, an officer in the Union army.
dies down South, aud who stops there, at first
for her health, and then as teacher of negro
school at Red Wing. Upon this pleasant
and hopeful picture supervenes the Kuklux
era Encouraged by the success which had
attended the attack upon the Freedman's |
Bureau. and believing that with one resolute
effort the negroes could be dragoonsd into
a submission which would deprive their new
political endowments Of all significance. this
secret organization was formed, and shortly |
swept over the South like nightmare. Red |
Wing did not escape. Nimbus Desmit, the |
negro hero, and his intimate friend Eliab Hill, !
a crippled colored preacher, had been marked
down as dangerous and desperate y men,
because they were determined to insist upon
what the lazy and the Constitution gave their |