and who now continue to treat them as free laborers in the same manner.
There are now undoubtedly many plantations in the south on which the
relations between employers and employees are based upon mutual good will.
There are certainly many people there who entertain the best wishes for
the welfare of the negro race, and who not only never participated in any
acts of violence, but who heartily disapprove them. I have no doubt, a
large majority can, _as to actual participation_--not, however, as to the
bitter spirit--I offer a good plea of not guilty. But however large or
small a number of people may be guilty of complicity in such acts of
persecution, those who are opposed to them have certainly not shown
themselves strong enough to restrain those who perpetrate or favor them.
So far, the _spirit of persecution_ has shown itself so strong as to make
the protection of the freedman by the military arm of the government in
many localities necessary--in almost all, desirable. It must not be
forgotten that in a community a majority of whose members is peaceably
disposed, but not willing or not able to enforce peace and order, a
comparatively small number of bold and lawless men can determine the
character of the whole. The rebellion itself, in some of the southern
States, furnished a striking illustration of this truth.

GENERAL IDEAS AND SCHEMES OF WHITES CONCERNING THE FREEDMEN.

Some of the planters with whom I had occasion to converse expressed their
determination to adopt the course which best accords with the spirit of
free labor, to make the negro work by offering him fair inducements, to
stimulate his ambition, and to extend to him those means of intellectual
and moral improvement which are best calculated to make him an
intelligent, reliable and efficient free laborer and a good and useful
citizen. Those who expressed such ideas were almost invariably professed
Union men, and far above the average in point of mental ability and