Among them, the most prominent and the most extensively engaged in the work, is the American Missionary Association, sustained mainly, though not exclusively, by the Congregationalists, with its headquarters at New York. Beginning at Fortress Monroe, it opened, on the 17th of September, 1861, the first freedmen's school ever opened in America. It took its share in the work on the Sea Islands, and early opened a school in Norfolk, Virginia. Before the close of 1862, it had flourishing schools at Fortress Monroe, Hampton, and Newport News, at Norfolk and vicinity, at Washington, D. C., and at Cairo, Illinois. Generously sustained by the sympathy and contributions of the people, it followed closely the advancing armies of the Union, and held itself in readiness to occupy any eligible position, not occupied by others, where schools could be established; its working force some years reaching as high as five hundred teachers and missionaries, and its receipts three or four hundred thousand dollars. At this writing it reports its cash expenditures for the freedmen to have exceeded two and three quarters million dollars, besides an incalculable amount of clothing, books, and other supplies. Latterly the character of its work has been somewhat changed. Though it has not entirely discontinued its primary schools among the freedmen, it has devoted its efforts more to schools and institutions of a higher grade and more permanent character, designed rather to raise up and qualify teachers for the freedmen than to commission and sustain, as at first, teachers among them. In a "History of the American Missionary Association," published in 1874, there is an account and list given of eighteen "Graded and Normal Schools," in the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas, with one hundred and eightyfive teachers, over five thousand pupils, and property esti mated at one hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars. It also gives the names of seven "chartered institutions,"Berea College, Kentucky; Normal and Agricultural Institute, Virginia; Fisk University, Tennessee; Atlanta University, Georgia; Tougaloo University, Mississippi; Talladega College, Alabama; Straight University, Louisiana. These

institutions, though as yet hardly answering to the imposing names given them, and still in their infancy and compelled to labor amid many discouragements and against many opposing obstacles, are not without cheering results already attained. But their chief significance and historical importance lie in their promise of good when these hindrances shall be removed. When better counsels prevail, when the cruel reign of caste shall be broken, when the hitherto dominant class shall cease their persecutions, when all accept the situation, and with honest and earnest purpose seek to rebuild what has been so ruthlessly destroyed, and repair the places made waste by the triple scourge of slavery, rebellion, and war, then will these institutions become the most potent agencies in the work of improvement, the important factors in solving the difficult and momentous problem of Southern reconstruction.

committee.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

FREEDMEN'S BUREAU.

Drawbacks. — Hostility of the military. — Need of authority. — Convention at Indianapolis. - Memorial to the President. - Others. Eliot's bill.-Select - Act reported. - Minority report. Eliot's speech. - Democratic opposition. Cox, Kalbfleisch, Brooks, Pendleton. Passed. — Sen - Bill reported. — Opposed by Davis, Hendricks, Buckalew, and McDougall. Postponed. Next session. - Committee of conference.

ate.

Amend

ments. New bill. - Speech of Kelley. - Senate. Sumner, Grimes, Henderson, Hale, Conness. Failure. Mr. Wilson, conference, and new bill. — Debate. — Passage. — Division of sentiment. — Experimental.

THOUGH there was much in Northern efforts for the freed men, individual and combined, highly creditable to human nature, there were revelations less worthy of commendation. Though the rapid and wide-spread multiplication of freedmen's associations, with their prompt and generous contribu tions; the numbers of cultivated men and women leaving their pleasant homes for the war-bestead South, with its discomforts and dangers, furnish examples of thoughtful sympathy and heroic sacrifices which greatly relieve the otherwise dark picture of those days, there were exhibited examples of personal self-seeking and weakness less pleasant of review. While, too, there were many army officials who were earnest and prompt in co-operation, others at best looked coldly on, if they did not actively oppose. Sharing in the prevailing prejudice against color, and fully committed to the assumption that the war was for the Union and not for Abolition, and that it was no part of their business to "fight for the nigger," they did not accept kindly anything that pointed in the opposite direc tion. And as the presence of fugitives harbored in their camps, cared for and instructed by organized Northern efforts,

seemed a practical refutation of their oft-repeated dogma, they did not look with favor upon either them or the policy that would protect and provide for them.

From these combined causes resulted both waste and friction. The self-seeking and incompetence of some of the professed workers for the freedmen, the differences of opinion. and policy of others, with their not infrequent conflicts of jurisdiction and rival claims, could not but interfere with the successful prosecution of the purpose in hand. It became, therefore, increasingly manifest, as the work widened in its dimensions and increased in its difficulties, that the agency of the government should become authoritative as well as eleemosynary, and that the arm of the military should guide somewhat as well as protect the efforts made in behalf of these wards of the nation. None felt this more than those brought by official relations in close contact with the work itself.

On the 19th of July, 1864, there assembled in Indianapolis, Indiana, a convention of delegates from seven Western freedmen's associations. Its sessions continued two days, and its utterances, if not authoritative, revealed the general aspect of the work at the time, and the attitude of those connected with it. Its call, after mention of its purpose to increase their sympathies and to promote a better mutual understanding, "to prevent friction in our operations, and disagreements among our representatives in the field,"-"the most extended field that ever invited humane and benevolent effort," and still increasing, adds: "Its very magnitude demands the most efficient application of the contributions of which we are made almoners. Difficulties arising from the nature of the work, the condition of society in the South, our relation to officers and agents of the government, and other circumstances have embarrassed us from the first, and will continue." One of the results of the convention was the adoption of a memorial to President Lincoln. After speaking of the general purposes of their association, and recognizing the aid and protection afforded by the government and officers in charge "at many points," they still complain that they had been "thwarted in some instances by the negligence, and in others by the

opposition, of officers having charge of posts where the freed people were collected." They thus illustrate and intensify this general charge: "In many instances our schools have been interrupted by what seemed to be unnecessary and uncalled-for changes in the camps; in some cases they have been entirely broken up by military orders, expelling the colored people from towns and cities, and herding them in corrals even, when many of the victims had been living in their own habitations, and supporting themselves." They therefore urge upon the President, as commander-in-chief, to require, by military order, officers in charge "to give to our agents and teachers all necessary aid and co-operation, to enable us to effect the purposes of our organization." Though admitting that in most instances they had been "able to co-operate pleasantly and with some efficiency with the agents of the War and Treasury Departments," they had "at all times been conscious that there was no person in the field to represent both the government and our associations." They therefore respectfully request the President to appoint a "supervising agent of freedmen's affairs in the West, who, clothed with proper military authority, should represent both." They further urge such appointment, because, they add, "of the failure, on the part of Congress, to establish a bureau of freedmen's affairs, to which the management of their interests would have properly belonged."

Though this convention was held subsequently to most of the discussions referred to in this chapter, it revealed very distinctly the facts and the necessities of the case as seen and comprehended at the time by men with the largest opportu nities for understanding them, and with the most honest purpose and desire that the wisest course should be adopted.

As from the first the popular thought and anxieties were turned to the subject by the early escape of slaves to the Union lines, and the subsequent legislation of Congress concerning colored soldiers and their families, this problem of the nation's duty was early brought to the notice of Congress. Only twelve days after the Proclamation of President Lincoln, making the slaves free on the 12th of January, Mr. Wilson