government, is most childlike and unbounded. There may be individual
exceptions, but I am sure they are not numerous. Those who enjoy their
confidence enjoy also their affection. Centuries of slavery have not been
sufficient to make them the enemies of the white race. If in the future a
feeling of mutual hostility should develop itself between the races, it
will probably not be the fault of those who have shown such an
inexhaustible patience under the most adverse and trying circumstances.

In some places that I visited I found apprehensions entertained by whites
of impending negro insurrections. Whenever our military commanders found
it expedient to subject the statements made to that effect by whites to
close investigation, they uniformly found them unwarranted by fact. In
many instances there were just reasons for supposing that such
apprehensions were industriously spread for the purpose of serving as an
excuse for further persecution. In the papers annexed to this report you
will find testimony supporting this statement. The negro is easily led; he
is always inclined to follow the advice of those he trusts. I do,
therefore, not consider a negro insurrection probable as long as the
freedmen are under the direct protection of the government, and may hope
to see their grievances redressed without resorting to the extreme means
of self-protection. There would, perhaps, be danger of insurrections if
the government should withdraw its protection from them, and if, against
an attempt on the part of the whites to reduce them to something like
their former condition, they should find themselves thrown back upon their
own resources. Of this contingency I shall speak below.

_Education_.--That the negroes should have come out of slavery as an
ignorant class is not surprising when we consider that it was a penal
offence to teach them while they were in slavery; but their eager desire
to learn, and the alacrity and success with which they avail themselves of