Year: 1879

lear OF the Leaguers, but they SEM


some one each day and night to watcl


for the boat that will take them, anC


then, on signal, they will go to tn,
river"


Another letter is from Natchez


Miss, and was forwarded by Govern
ment official at St. Louis. 1t is dateC


June 81. The writer was sergean
in one of the fifty black regiments or
ganized by Gen. Banks when he com
manded in New Orleans.


He says: THE white people Of this
section is worse and worse. One day
the planters say they will treat the
colored people better, but then they
gets drunk right away and forget:
their promise and goes out at night {
shooting the poor colored folks just
the same. Every day some comes tC
Natchez, but they get told that the
white people of Natchez won't lei
them go, and so they goes above
Natchez to where the camp is, and &c
to waiting like the rest. The camp
was raided by the mask white men the
other night and six was killed Then
the camp changed and is now in the
other county where the sheriff is no
inhuman. They says the colored
folks brake their contract. The con-
tract was always all by the planters
side and the colo: people was tole to
sign their cross or go to the chain
gang. So them is the kind of con-
tract what the color folks is going
away from, all on one side. | ask you
| IS ~ NJ
and Por Hudson for. Now is it going
to be always as so Or is the color folks
going to get no chance?" | quote
from the letter exactly as written.


A letter of June 26, just received
from an old army friend in Vicksburg,
tells me that ION the opposite side of
the river there are several thousand
colored people who have come from
the interior of northwest Louisiana
who are in pitiable condition. Com
ing up from New Orleans the other
day | noticed that they would come
to the boat officers and beg in the
most pitiable way to be taken on board,
saying the Leaguers are coming and
will kill US The officers told them
the boat was loaded-that they had
all they could carry, but | noticed they
carried all the white passengers who
applied"


Let me suggest, Mr. Editor, that |
know something of this matter. IF |
were not thoroughly convinced of the
truth of all that | say on this subject
| would not leave my home and fami-
ly and work and toll and plead and
sacrifice as | do for these poorest Of
all Gods poor. Let me suggest also
that this cruelty will prove costly to
the Nation that allows it, just as sla-
very did. Surely if these poor people
were white, or if God had not made
them black, [ would be blessed instead
Of cursed for striving to give them re-
lief.


We are Christians We send mis-
sionaries to China. Would it not be
well for us to send a missionary in the
form of a boat Of deliverance to these
bull-dozed, terror-stricken friends of
Christ on the banks of the Mississippi?
Ought we not care for those who are
Christians as well as for the heather?


Last year | engaged in sending help |
to the yellow-fever sufferers; then | |
was praised by some of the Southern |
newspapers, but now, for helping the
suffering colored people, [ am threat
ened by one Of the bull-dozing organs
with the fate of John Brown, if | at
tempt to go down the National High
way on this perfectly lawful business.
By the help of God, and backed by
good men, [ am going.


In the second place, you asked
whether any good end would be ac-
complished by chartering special boats
for the gratuitous transportation of
negro emigrants? We have never
yet been informed that any of the ne
gro emigrants desired 'gratuitous"
transportation. They all offer to pay
their way like other people. 1t may
occur lit would be strange if it did
not) that some of those who have been
long in waiting have spent their pass
age money for bread. | do not think
it would be reprehensible to give such
persons free passage, but, ON the con-
trary, | think it would be just as char
table as sending help to the yellow
fever sufferers. What we mean is to
supply the kind of transportation
which the regular boats have been
compelled to refuse. What good will
come from this is not problematical.


If you or | had been working for
years in the South, without pay, and
suddenly good wages were offered us
in the West, what good would come
from our going to the latter section?
The negroes are not FOOLS They made
good soldiers. They had sense enough
to handle guns and face rebels. And
| know they have sense enough to
know that ten or fifteen dollars per
month, with board and house-room,
on Western farms, with kind and fair
usage, is better than no pay and much
of ill-treatment in the South.


wish our editors could understand
that the exodus is caused by the
wrong-doing of Southern white men,
not by any influences from outside the
South.


Lastly, you ask, How | would feel
if | were a planter with crops half
grown, and an expedition We're organ
lied to entice away my hands and leave
me to RUM" Well, i'll reply, | will
say, your question is not pertinent to
the case in point. We do not propose
an expedition to ''entice' anybody
On the contrary, if any enticing
should occur at all, during our trip, it
would be to all who are fairly treated
and honestly paid, to stay where they
are. If | were planter, with half
grown crops in my field, and if, year
after year, | had oppressed and swind-
led my laborers, and helped shoot
some of them for voting the Republi-
can ticket, | should say it would serve
me about rinht II some one MOuld