lieved the sworn evidence of a negro when confronted by the simple assertion or opposed even to the interest of a white man. I recently heard a circle of Mississippians conversing on this subject. Their conclusion was, that they would make no objection to the admission of negro testimony, because “no southern man would believe a nigger if he had the dammed impudence to testify contrary to the statement of a white man." I verily believe that in many places a colored man would refuse, from fear of death, to make a complaint against a white man before a State tribunal if there were no efficient military protection at hand.
Wherever I go—the street, the shop, the house, the hotel, or the steamboat—I hear the people talk in such a way as to indicate that they are yet unable to conceive of the negro as possessing any rights at all. Men who are honorable in their dealings with their white neighbors will cheat a negro without feeling a single twinge of their honor. To kill a negro they do not deem murder; to debauch a negro woman they do not think fornication; to take the property away from a negro they do not consider robbery. The people boast that when they get freedmen affairs in their own hands, to use their own classic expression, “the niggers will catch hell."
The reason of all this is simple and manifest. The whites esteem the blacks their property by natural right, and however much they may admit that the individual relations of masters and slaves have been destroyed by the war and by the President's emancipation proclamation, they still have an ingrained feeling that the blacks at large belong to the whites at large, and whenever opportunity serves they treat the colored people just as their profit, caprice or passion may dictate.
Justice from tribunals made up among such people is impossible. Here and there is a fair and just man. One in a hundred, perhaps, sees the good policy of justice; but these are so few that they will not, at present, guide public sentiment. Other States may, in this matter, be in advance of Mississippi; I suspect they are. If justice is possible, I feel sure they are.
I fear such tribunals would be very expensive for the poor freedmen. Fees are heavy in this State. Unless they can get justice inexpensively, we might as well deny them all remedy before courts at once. Indeed, I think that would be rather more merciful than the arrangement proposed, as they would then trust nobody, and would be less defrauded. Long delays in the course of procedure would be ruinous to most of them. How could a freedman appeal a suit for wages, or respond adequately to an appeal, when he is starving for want of the very wages which are withheld from him?
It may be claimed that officers of the bureau can watch such cases and see that justice is done the freedman. I say they cannot do it. Political power is against him, and will destroy any officer who fearlessly does his duty in this way. He will be charged with interference with the civil authority, with violating some constitution or some code; his acts will be so twisted and contorted before they reach Washington, that he will get nothing for his pains but censure and dismissal.
I can say without fear of contradiction, that there has not occurred one instance of interference with civil authorities on the part of military officers in this State, unless they saw first that every law of justice was violated to such an extent as to arouse the indignation of any man born in a country where human beings have an equal right to justice before the tribunals of the land. Yet, if I am not mistaken, there is a growing impression, supported by this same political power in the south, that the officers in this State are tyrannical, meddlesome, and disposed to thwart the faithful efforts of the noble white people to reorganize the State.
Many delegations of the citizens of this State have visited Washington for the purpose of getting their property returned, or of obtaining some other favor. They, in order to accomplish their desire, represent the feeling of their friends at home as very cordially disposed toward the United States government, and say that they all acquiesce in the freedom of the negroes. A little examination into the condition of affairs in this State will show that this is not the case, and that what the people do is only done in order that they may be restored to power so as to change the direction in which affairs are tending. I am afraid the profuse loyalty of the delegations to Washington is being taken as the sentiment of the masses, and is directing legislation and policy.
It is idle to talk about these people working out this negro problem. People who will not admit that it is best, or even right, to educate the freedmen, are not the proper persons to be intrusted with the administration of justice to them. I have no hesitation in saying, that if the question of educating the colored people were to-day submitted to the whites of this State, they would vote against it in a body. Nine-tenths of the educated and refined class, who are supposed to have higher and nobler feelings, would vote against it.
I have been called on by persons of this class, and asked to suppress the religious meetings among the colored people because they made so much noise! When I remonstrate with them and talk of religious freedom, and of the right of all to worship God in the manner most suited to their convictions of right, these gentlemen hold up their hands in horror at the idea. What would magistrates selected from these people do in reference to such complaints? Suppress the meeting, of course.
