ment of my assistants throughout the State, but in mcst cases they were found to be the doings of lawless and wicked men-the same material that furnished the guerilla parties of the late army of the insurgents—and not sanctioned by the intelligent and respectable portion of the community. In every instance of this kind measures were promptly taken to arrest the offenders and bring them to justice, and where necessary the military authorities were called upon for assistance. In all cases such assistance was cheerfully given.

The prejudice against the negro may be as strong as ever, but the prompt and energetic measures taken at the outset to redress any wrongs committed upon freedmen has had its effect, and I am most happy to say that instances of oppression, injustice and wrong are becoming more and more rare every day.

Matters were progressing very satisfactorily in the State, and improving daily at the time of the transfer of the affairs of the freedmen to the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands appointed for the State.

The following extracts from reports of my assistants are respectfully submitted as indicative of the progress and condition of affairs in their respective districts:

EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF CAPT. H. M. CRYDENWISE,
ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT AT DEMOPOLIS, ALA.

OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF FREEDMEN, Į
Demopolis, Ala., June 20, 1865.

Mr. T. W. CONWAY, Gen'l Sup't of Freedmen, Dep't of the Gulf:

Sir-I have the honor to make the following tri-monthly report of my duty or action as Assistant Superintendent of Freedmen for Demopolis and vicinity for the ten days ending June 20, 1865.

Finding it necessary to have more than one plantation as a Home Colony, I have leased another for the remainder of the year. This plantation contains about one thousand acres of land. There are on the plantation about three hundred and forty acres of corn, ninety acres of cotton, pea patch, potatoes' etc. I take everything growing on the plantation, and give as hire twenty-five hundred bushels of corn and one-half of all cotton grown. I made an inven tory of the farming implements, stock, etc., left on the place, with the as sessed value of each, and am to return the same when the plantation is turned over.

Everything is working quite as well as I could hope. I have held meet ings at Era, Greensborough, Morristown and Dayton. These were very largely attended, and much interest manifested.

There are at present on the two plantations about two hundred of those who could not care for themselves. This number is increasing.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. M. CRYDENWISE,

Captain and Assistant Superintendent Freedmen.

BUREAU OF FREE LABOR, Montgomery, Alabama, June 1, 1865. S

T. W. CONWAY, General Superintendent Freedmen :

Sir-I have the honor to submit the following report of the working of the Free Labor system under my supervision for the month ending 31st day of May, 1865.

As this is the first report that will come under your notice from this section, and as the system is not yet fully inaugurated, this report must resemble, of necessity, an extended letter more than an official communication.

ASSEMBLIES OF COLORED PEOPLE.

On Saturday, 27th ult., the day after your departure, I sent for a delegation of the principal men, including the pastors, from each of the colored congregations in the city. I explained to them my relations to their race, and appointed an hour at which I would occupy their pulpits, and in the course of my sermon explained and read your labor regulations. On the next day (Sunday) I spoke three times to not less than two thousand colored people. I told them plainly that they were free, and that the Government would maintain their freedom. No abuse, no personal violence, no selling, no buying, no breaking up families by force would be allowed.

They were not free to be insolent, to be idle, to pilfer, to steal, or do anything contrary to good order. They were free to come under the restraints of law; free to toil and claim the fruits of their own industry. At the same time I pressed upon their minds the binding nature of contracts and the vast importance of at once seeking employment. They received it all with joy, and the effect has been most happy. The city has been far more quiet, many less idlers in the streets, and mutual confidence between employers and the freedmen, on a just basis, has been created.

During the day I met several of the clergymen of the place, who waited upon me on Monday morning last, and owing to the pressure of business at the time an interview was appointed for the evening. After tea they called at my office, and we entered into a conversation which lasted till midnight. I talked plainly and earnestly with them, and finally, when we parted, they pledged all the assistance in their power to aid in carrying out our new system. They asked many questions in a captious spirit, which were answered with the conscious feeling that the right and the power were and are on my side.

Upon the whole our interview was cordial, and I never felt more satisfied with my success in defending the right and justice of our course.

THE PLANTERS.

Planters from all sections have rushed to this office to ask countless question; about contracts. Our method is so different from anything they have

been accustomed to that they cannot comprehend it at first. Many of them are men of limited business experience, accustomed to raising corn and cotton by slave labor. They have shown much candor in most cases, and have asked their thousands of questions from a sincere desire to know what we wished them to do, and that they might be right. In all such cases I have answered their questions with great patience and fulness till my tired lungs pain me. But few have shown any disposition to treat the freedmen unjustly. In one instance I refused to let one man hire freedmen. But he soon came to terms.

ORDER IN THE COUNTRY DISTRICTS.

In a number of cases I have furnished guards for plantations, where the freedmen were disorderly. Their presence restored order at once. This necessity has now passed away and order is being rapidly restored, and vagrancy is much diminished. In some cases, where disorder was reported, I have sent an officer to investigate the cause, and, if possible, settle the disturbance.

GOVERNMENT PLANTATIONS.

I have been delayed in securing plantations upon which to work our idle hands to-day. This delay was caused by my inability to get a report from Headquarters. I have now authority to use such abandoned plantations as I may select. I have selected such plantations as have crops already in the ground. I have done so for two reasons: 1st. There is a risk in planting at this late season unless the soil is well adapted to late crops. A crop planted now would probably be light. The result, I think, would be better if I were to expend our labor on corn now a foot high, even if I were to give a small portion of crop for rent, than to plant now and pay no rent.

2d. We have not the stock to plow the ground. We have not been able yet to draw a team for our own use. So I have selected two thousand acres of land now planted to corn, which I intend to work with the hands whom we are now feeding and hold in idleness. I hope this will meet with your approval. The proposition I telegraphed to you but failed to get a reply.

CONDITION OF THE CAMP.

The camp remains unchanged-some going, some coming, constantly. The aggregate is 3200. Sickness is light, though our surgeon is nearly out of medicine. A requisition was approved to-day, and more will be drawn as soon as medicines arrive at the Post.

Our surgeon ought to have more help. I shall make an effort to this effect. The camp will be much decreased, as to-morrow, after rations are drawn, some will be taken to plantations. I shall also need more help at the office.

I wish very much that First Lieutenant A. R. Mills, 47th Regiment U.S Colored Infantry, might be detailed to record the contracts made with planters. He would be an excellent man for the purpose.

At first the planters seemed anxious to have the freedmen removed from

their plantations, but they have changed their policy now, and retain all they can support, even keeping the aged and helpless children. This is accounted for in two ways. 1st, Through attachment in many cases. 2d. Through fear of scarcity of labor the coming year, and the planters are willing to keep more than they want this year for the sake of having them another year on their plantations, ready to be hired at the opening of the season.

A few are so deluded and so inseparably connected with the cursed institution of slavery that they think the institution will be revived some day, and God will give them their rights.

CITY PASSES.

I have two clerks who spend their whole time in giving out city passes upon printed blanks. These are citizen clerks, and, being acquainted with the people of the place, know whose certificates are reliable.

CONCLUSION.

I hardly know how I am going to enforce the regulations in districts re mote from the city. Men come here from a distance of seventy and a hundred miles. My time will be entirely occupied here in the office for some weeks yet. I shall, however, take short trips into the country soon, talking to the colored people on large plantations and in small towns. Society never existed in such a chaotic state as bere. No law, no order. To bring good order out of such confusion is a work from which one of my capacity might well shrink. Yet I am sustained by the thought that nothing is denied to well devoted labor. My days and nights have been given up to the urgent demands of my situation.

Hoping I may be able in my next report to convince you of progress in our work.

T. W. CONWAY, General Superintendent of Freedmen :

Sir-I have the honor herewith to submit my report for the month ending June 30th, 1865.

The past month has been one of great change in many respects. The condition of country districts, as well as the order and industry of the city, has vastly improved. There is much less vagrancy on the part of freedmen, and far less abuse and ill-treatment on the part of their late masters. Since the publication of President Johnson's Amnesty Proclamation, and since his interviews with different delegations from Southern States have been

made public, our citizens have been more open and frank to acknowledge that slavery is forever dead.

Some relinquish their hold reluctantly, and are hardly willing to bury the corpse from their sight. A few, the more rebellious, prefer to kill the negro than to see him free. But events hasten. Our victory urges on to new achievements. Those who one week ago yielded up their slaves to freedom, and accepted the new order of things with cheerfulness, are now agitated afresh by fears of negro suffrage. Thus it is by the will of Heaven, by Divine right, that the nation's freedmen are coming, surely and speedily, to occupy their rightful position-equality with white men in the eyes of the law

HOME COLONY.

The application for the assignment of lands to be used temporarily for the colored people made by you to the military authorities, was returned to me on June 7th, designating seven plantations which might be rendered serviceable for our purpose. I at once examined these plantations, and moved from camp two hundred and fifty persons upon one of them, in order to save the crop, as the season for corn culture was rapidly passing away, this being the only crop of any importance raised in this portion of the State. Two other plantations, as we were moving on to them, were released and given back to the owners. Afterwards two more were released. One other was so near town as to be unserviceable to us, as straggling into and out of town would greatly annoy us, and disturb the industry of the place.

This left us with but two plantations under our control, and one of these was small, having but few quarters, no house, water scarce and poor, crop small, and on the whole useless for our purpose. I decided not to use it. We have, therefore, held on to the first place, embracing one thousand acres, and saved about five hundred acres of corn. But owing to the fact that the corn was entirely neglected in the early part of the season, when it ought to have been worked, coupled with a severe drouth, and being unable to draw any mules, General Smith having given out to citizens all his old stock before my arrival here, our farming operations will not be so successful and profitable as I could wish. Had we commenced our operations on May 1st, instead of June 1st, our results would have been far more encouraging. In the meantime while some have been engaged in agriculture, others have been busy erecting cheap and plain houses at the Home Colony to protect women and helpless children against the coming fall and winter storms. This undertaking has been delayed for the want of a sufficient number of common tools. Lately, however, the Post Quartermaster turned over to me fifty axes, and before this report shall have reached you, the last vestage of the freedmen's camp across the river will be broken up, and they, with the unemployed negroes in town, will be made comfortable on the plantation eight miles from the city.

I have made extra effort to remove this camp before, but I saw no object in moving it till I could improve the comfort of the colored people in it; and