of slavery was more liberal in this respect, for such "permission to hire
his own time" "shall never extend over seven days at any one time." (Sec.
4.) The sections providing for the "_summary_" enforcement of the
penalties and placing their infliction into the hands of the "chief of
patrol"--which, by the way, throws some light upon the objects for which
the militia is to be reorganized--place the freedmen under a sort of
permanent martial law, while the provision investing every white man with
the power and authority of a police officer as against every black man
subjects them to the control even of those individuals who in other
communities are thought hardly fit to control themselves. On the whole,
this piece of legislation is a striking embodiment of the idea that
although the former owner has lost his individual right of property in the
former slave, "the blacks at large belong to the whites at large."

Such was the "organization of free labor" ordained by officials appointed
by Governor Wells, and these ordinances were passed while both the
emancipation proclamation and a provision in the new constitution of
Louisiana abolishing slavery in that State forever were recognized as
being in full force. It is needless to say that as soon as these
proceedings came to the knowledge of the Freedmen's Bureau and the
department commander they were promptly overruled. But Governor Wells did
not remove the police boards that had thus attempted to revive slavery in
a new form.

The opposition to the negro's controlling his own labor, carrying on
business independently on his own account--in one word, working for his
own benefit--showed itself in a variety of ways. Here and there municipal
regulations were gotten up heavily taxing or otherwise impeding those
trades and employments in which colored people are most likely to engage.
As an illustration, I annex an ordinance passed by the common council of