every facility offered to them in that respect, has become a matter of
notoriety. The statistics of the Freedmen's Bureau show to what extent
such facilities have been offered and what results have been attained. As
far as my information goes, these results are most encouraging for the
future.

PROSPECTIVE--THE REACTIONARY TENDENCY.

I stated above that, in my opinion, the solution of the social problem in
the south did not depend upon the capacity and conduct of the negro alone,
but in the same measure upon the ideas and feelings entertained and acted
upon by the whites. What their ideas and feelings were while under my
observation, and how they affected the contact of the two races, I have
already set forth. The question arises, what policy will be adopted by the
"ruling class" when all restraint imposed upon them by the military power
of the national government is withdrawn, and they are left free to
regulate matters according to their own tastes? It would be presumptuous
to speak of the future with absolute certainty; but it may safely be
assumed that the same causes will always tend to produce the same effects.
As long as a majority of the southern people believe that "the negro will
not work without physical compulsion," and that "the blacks at large
belong to the whites at large," that belief will tend to produce a system
of coercion, the enforcement of which will be aided by the hostile feeling
against the negro now prevailing among the whites, and by the general
spirit of violence which in the south was fostered by the influence
slavery exercised upon the popular character. It is, indeed, not probable
that a general attempt will be made to restore slavery in its old form, on
account of the barriers which such an attempt would find in its way; but
there are systems intermediate between slavery as it formerly existed in
the south, and free labor as it exists in the north, but more nearly