with nothing more at our expense; nor shall we pay any further drafts that may be made for their support." The report of the special agent says: Upon my arrival at the island I was informed that the company [the contractors with the Government] had ceased to give the emigrants either employment or wages since the 5th day of November, forty days before my arrival. I found that there was but a small stock of provisions upon the island, and but a small portion of these suitable for the sick." Another part of his report states: "I found there surviving of that party (a few of the number at Aux Cayes) three hundred and seventyeight souls. The residue of the four hundred and thirty-one mentioned in the journal of one Bernard Kock, who accompanied the emigrants, had either died or returned to the United States. My information is that the number of the latter was eight. Of the number on the island, thirty-one were seriously sick, and numerous others more or less disabled from the effects of poisonous insects in their feet. Four died before leaving the island." According to the instructions he had received, the special agent immediately assumed charge of the emigrants, furnishing them with the necessaries of life, and ameliorating their condition in every feasible way. He found upon inquiry that the Haytian Government was unwilling that the emigrants should remain upon the island, and they, on the other hand, were thoroughly dissatisfied, and of one desire to return to the United States. As soon, therefore, as the necessary arrangements could be made, the Secretary of the Interior sent a vessel to bring them back, and on the 4th of March, 1864, CH. XVII. 1863. CH. XVII. the survivors sailed from the island on the ship Marcia C. Day, casting anchor in the Potomac River opposite Alexandria, Virginia, on the 20th of the same month. March, 1864. The statements of both sides are so conflicting that it is impossible to form a satisfactory judgment whether under better management this experiment of colonization would have succeeded. The company alleged that their agents and superintendents, by actual trial, demonstrated the essential unfruitfulness of the soil; the Government's special agent declared that "The Island of A' Vache is inconceivably fertile, and as well watered as could be desired - very healthy, considering the latitude, . . . and well calculated to support the emigrants and yield a large surplus of the most valuable products. . . During my stay on the island the colonists, under my direction, neatly dressed a field of about twenty acres of cotton then just springing from the ground, and I had the pleasure, before my departure, of seeing this cotton beginning to ripen, having obtained a growth far beyond any I had ever seen, though I have visited and been acquainted with the best cotton-growing regions of the United States." To this statement he, however, adds the further opinion, for the formation of which his observations and experience would seem to have furnished him good opportunities: "There are, in my judgment, reasons which will, for many years to come, render abortive all attempts at colonizing the free colored people of the United States in the republic of Hayti; prominent among which are the great dissimilarities which exist in language, religion, education, and government." But aside from theories that might be faulty, or reports of obser- CH. XVII. vations which might prove inaccurate, the events of the war had already moved the question forward beyond the stage of judicious experiment. No further effort at colonization was made by the President, at Large," and by an act approved July 2, 1864, Congress repealed its appropriations for that object. "Statutes Vol. XIII., p. 352. CHAPTER XVIII CH. XVIII. April 10, 1862. W. R. Vol. VIII., MISSOURI GUERRILLAS AND POLITICS HEN Halleck went from his department headquarters at St. Louis to take command of the Union armies in Tennessee and begin his Corinth campaign, he left with General Schofield as his sole instruction the brief injunction to “take care of Missouri." Practically, Schofield had already for some months been charged with this duty by virtue of his command and supervision of the Missouri State Militia, which he had organized under the special agreement between the Governor of that pp. 454-456. State and the President. The Missouri delegation in Congress, foreseeing the troubles likely to arise, Lincoln to asked the President to give Schofield independent command in the State during Halleck's absence. Lincoln referred the request to Halleck. Halleck's jealousy of authority comes out strongly in his Halleck reply: "I would rather resign than to have him given an independent command in my department." Nevertheless, as Halleck not only remained in the field, but was in the following July transferred to Washington, the change was so far made as to 1862 R. erect Missouri (except three southeastern counties) Vol. XIII, into a separate Military District of which Schofield Halleck, May 1, 1862. to Lincoln, Ibid. Kelton, p. W. was given command. |