Vicksburg, (accompanying document No. 36,) together with a letter from
Colonel Thomas, in which he says: "You will see by the city ordinance that
a drayman, or hackman, must file a bond of five hundred dollars, in
addition to paying for his license. The mayor requires that the bondsmen
must be freeholders. The laws of this State do not, and never did, allow a
negro to own land or hold property; the white citizens refuse to sign any
bonds for the freedmen. The white citizens and authorities say that it is
for their interest to drive out all independent negro labor; that the
freedmen must hire to white men if they want to do this kind of work." I
found several instances of a similar character in the course of my
observations, of which I neglected to procure the documentary evidence.

It may be said that these are mere isolated cases; and so they are. But
they are the local outcroppings of a spirit which I found to prevail
everywhere. If there is any difference, it is in the degree of its
intensity and the impatience or boldness with which it manifests itself.
Of the agencies which so far restrained it from venturing more general
demonstrations I shall speak in another part of this report.

EDUCATION OF THE FREEDMEN.

It would seem that all those who sincerely desire to make the freedman a
freeman in the true sense of the word, must also be in favor of so
educating him as to make him clearly understand and appreciate the
position he is to occupy in life, with all its rights and corresponding
duties, and to impart to him all the knowledge necessary for enabling him
to become an intelligent co-operator in the general movements of society.
As popular education is the true ground upon which the efficiency and the
successes of free-labor society grow, no man who rejects the former can be
accounted a consistent friend of the latter. It is also evident that the