instances in which this measure had the desired effect, and it is to be
expected that the effect was uniformly good wherever judicious officers
were so employed.

Impressions like the above are very apt to spread among the negroes, for
the reason that they ardently desire to become freeholders. In the
independent possession of landed property they see the consummation of
their deliverance. However mistaken their notions may be in other
respects, it must be admitted that this instinct is correct.

_Relations between the two races_.--There are whites in the south who
profess great kindness for the negro. Many of them are, no doubt, sincere
in what they say. But as to the feelings of the masses, it is hardly
necessary to add anything to what I have already stated. I have heard it
asserted that the negroes also cherish feelings of hostility to the
whites. Taking this as a general assertion, I am satisfied that it is
incorrect. The negroes do not trust their late masters because they do not
feel their freedom sufficiently assured. Many of them may harbor feelings
of resentment towards those who now ill-treat and persecute them, but as
they practiced no revenge after their emancipation for wrongs suffered
while in slavery, so their present resentments are likely to cease as soon
as the persecution ceases. If the persecution and the denial of their
rights as freemen continue, the resentments growing out of them will
continue and spread. The negro is constitutionally docile and eminently
good-natured. Instances of the most touching attachment of freedmen to
their old masters and mistresses have come to my notice. To a white man
whom they believe to be sincerely their friend they cling with greater
affection even than to one of their own race. By some northern speculators
their confidence has been sadly abused. Nevertheless, the trust they place
in persons coming from the north, or in any way connected with the