pathy supplants disgust. The whole thing is a
wonderful novelty to them as well as to observers.
Seven years ago these men were raising corn and
cotton under the whip of the overseer. Today
they are raising points of order and questions of
privilege. They find they can raise one as well as
the other. They prefer the latter. It is easier
and better paid. Then, it is the evidence of an
accomplished result. It means escape and defence
from old oppressors. It means liberty. It means
the destruction of prison walls only too real to
them. It is the sunshine of their lives. It is their
day of jubilee. It is their long promised vision of
the Lord God Almighty.[1]
But with the memory of the Freedmen's Bank before it, America should utter no sound as to Negro dishonesty during reconstruction. Here from the entrenched philanthropy of America with some of the greatest names of the day like Peter Cooper, William Cullen Bryant, Simon P. Chase, A. A. Low, Gerritt Smith, John Jay, A. S. Barnes, S. G. Howe, George L. Stearns, Edward Atkinson, Levi Coffin and others, a splendid scheme was launched to help the Freedmen save their pittance and encourage thrift and hope. On the covers of the pass books is said: “This is a benevolent insti-
- ↑ A Liberal Republican's description of the S. C. Legislature in 1871, Fleming, Vol. 2, pp. 53-4.
