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education, as is shown by a letter which he addressed to General Banks in August, 1863, (a copy of which at the same time he sent me.) In this letter he expressed his views with regard to what he thought should be done in Louisiana towards what is now called “reconstruction.” He wrote: “Education for young blacks should be included in the plan.” Yet this moderate tax, levied for the most commendable object, constantly haunts the wealthy secessionists and destroys their sleep.
Last summer, Mr. Jacob Barker, a member of Congress elect from New Orleans, (who has been here to take his seat, but finding he was not welcome, has returned home,) carried about a petition to General Canby, and procured many signatures, praying that the order for this tax might be annulled. The petition contained this cool argument: “If the freedmen are to be educated at public expense, let it be done from, the Treasury of the United States.”
Your distinguished fellow-citizen of Wisconsin, General Carl Schurz, happened to be in New Orleans at that time, and in his report to the President he very justly observes:
“Many of the signers of this petition, who wanted to be relieved of the school tax on the ground of poverty, were counted among the wealthy men of New Orleans, and they forgot to state that the free colored element of Louisiana, which represents a capital of at least thirteen millions, and pays a not inconsiderable proportion of the taxes, contributes at the same time for the support of schools for whites, from which their children are excluded.”
The present Constitution of Louisiana, framed while most of the members of this Legislature were in the rebellion, contains this provision:
“The Legislature shall provide for the education of all children of the State, between the ages of six and eighteen years, by maintenance of free public schools, by taxation or otherwise.”
The former Constitution, made in the interests of slavery, used the word “ white” before the word “children.” The members of the Legislature have sworn to carry out the constitutional mandate as it now stands. They assert in their preamble that “sufficient provision is made by the Constitution and laws of the State, &c.” They have made no provision for or sign of willingness to open colored schools, and no existing colored school is recognized, fostered, or encouraged by their action.
The expense of keeping up the colored schools has already been incurred by the United States. A large majority of the people, in fact all the Union people, have paid the tax. A compliance with the strange demand of the Legislature would be injurious and unjust, not only to the freedmen and the cause of public education, but would be a reflection and wrong on the Union men who have obeyed the order and paid the tax. Their promptness and fidelity in respecting the orders of their Government would thus tend to make them appear ridiculous in the eyes of their rebel neighbors. The tax is very light, and the request to have its collection suspended, coming as it does from rich men, old slaveholders, originates in a decided opposition to the education of the colored people, rather than in any reasonable complaint of hardship of the requirement itself.
The author of this request, Mr. Tobias Gibson, I have every reason to believe has little or no sympathy with colored men, except like Mr. Kenner, so far as they may serve to raise him good crops. He is a planter in the parish of Terrebonne, and, on account of his great wealth and more than ordinary intelligence, is recognized as the “Head Centre” of the “oligarchy” in that section of the State. A letter written by
