I did not anywhere in South Carolina, however, find Union men such as are to be seen even in Salisbury of bitter memory. The best Unionism of that State is more or less overgrown with the rank weed of State rights, but there are men here whose loyalty is as clean as that of Andrew Johnson. That they are numerous I cannot say, I have neither seen many nor heard of many; but that there are even a score whom any ordinary traveller can find, is a sign of the times full of encouragement. One of the Convention delegates from Rowan County is a man whom the Rebels had in prison for his Unionism. "The government has been a great

deal more lenient towards us than we should have been toward the North under similar circumstances," said a Union man to me here this afternoon, thus repeating almost the very words of an ex-Rebel surgeon with whom I talked at Charlotte.

I saw to-day for the first time a man who would not take greenbacks" in payment for property. He came in from the country with a load of wood, and actually hauled it out of town this evening because no one would pay him for it in gold. Much inquiry in South Carolina discovered only two or three localities in which there would be probable difficulty in travelling without gold; but one of our majors, whom duty has called through over a dozen of these western counties within the last six weeks, tells me that the localities in which paper money would be taken are the exception rather than the rule; and a surgeon of our army whose home is fifty miles back of this place, and who has been up on two weeks' leave, said to me this forenoon that he lost the opportunity to make several good trades while there, because he had only legal-tender money. The people say, he observes, that having lost so much by one sort of paper money, they don't propose to take any of the other sort just at present.

The local police militia system is in full force through this section. "How does it work?" I asked of a smart lieutenant at Concord. "Hinders rather more than it helps,"

said he. I asked the same question of a smart negro man from the country back of Lexington, and he replied, "Pears like it be ruther hard on de poor nigger." Yet, on the whole, I am satisfied that it has proved beneficial.

I saw one of the officers who organized the force in half a dozen counties. It is in companies of about seventy-five men, with officers approved or appointed by the district commander. Arms and ammunition are furnished by the government, the officers of the company being under bond for the proper use of the latter and the careful keeping and ultimate safe return of the former The force is under control of the military, and receives its orders from the assistant provost-marshals. In organizing it, this captain said he endeavored to get the best men he could find, men of property and mature years, whose interest it would be to preserve order and not oppress the negro.

Special cases there have been, I am sure, in which the negro was abused, even by members of this force. Thus in Concord, on the day of the election, a gang of rowdies from the country made a wholly unprovoked attack on the negroes with clubs and stones, and the militia was not only found worthless for the preservation of order, but some of its members actually joined in the brutal assault upon the blacks. Apple-jack and whiskey were at the bottom of the row, which resulted in the flight of the negroes, the serious but not dangerous injury of three or four of them, the calling out of a company of troops, the arrest of about forty whites, of whom about half were discharged, about a dozen released on bail, and six or seven are yet in confinement for a further hearing.

This case is, however, exceptional; and whilst the aggregate of reported cases in which individual negroes have been maltreated by individual members of the militia is much larger than one would like to find it, there is no question but that the force has done very much to keep down

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the antagonism between the ex-Rebels and the non-Rebels which is so dangerous to the ultimate good of the negro. With proper military authorities hereabouts, and proper weeding out of the companies of militia from time to time, as the disposition of its members comes to light, I am satisfied that this local police force will become a strong influence on the right side, and be productive both of general good order and general protection to the negro.

XIV.

THE NORTH CAROLINA FREEDMEN'S CONVENTION.

"H

RALEIGH, October 3, 1865.

AVE you been into both Conventions?" said I to an ex-Congressman from the North whom I met here this evening, referring to the Freedmen's Convention just closed, and the Constitutional Convention two days old.

"Yes, I've attended two sessions of each. I stopped down at the other hotel when I got here, and I took some pains to talk with a good many of the delegates to the Governor's Convention."

"Well, how do they talk about things in general and State affairs in particular?"

"There is n't loyalty enough in that whole house to hurt anything; and as for brains, they're pretty much all over here at the African church."

Thus said the ex-Congressman, who has a national repute, and is not classed among the so-called "radicals."

In sober truth, the Freedmen's Convention was a body of which the negroes of this or any other Southern State

might well be proud, and which no Northern man could see without feelings of hearty respect.

Just what reasons certain colored men had for calling a Convention of their people do not appear of record. This Convention has, however, proved its own justification for being; and has done a good work, not alone for the Freedmen of this State, but for the Freedmen of the entire South. The call came from a committee of three, appointed at a meeting held in Wilmington about a month ago:

"Let the leading men of each separate district issue a call for a meeting, that delegates may be chosen to express the sentiments of the Freedmen at Raleigh on the 29th of September, and let each county send as many delegates as it has representatives in the Legislature. Rally, old men, we want the counsel of your years and experience; rally, young men, we want your loyal presence, and need the ardor of youth to stimulate the timid; and may the spirit of our God come with the people to hallow all our sittings and wisely direct all our actions.

“A. H. GALLOWAY,

JOHN RANDOlph, Jr.,
GEORGE W. PRICE,

Committee."

The Convention met on Friday last, and terminated its labors to-day, after a four days' session. The sittings were held in the African church of this city. It is a plain, white, wooden building, with floor accommodations for about three hundred persons, and gallery accommodations for about one hundred more. Its floor is carpeted and its seats cushioned. The noticeable feature in it is a large and elegant and lifelike plaster-of-Paris bust of Mr. Lincoln, standing on a bracket, and against a dark background in the farther end and over the pulpit seat. Over the bust is a canvas, bordered with black, on which is neatly inscribed the last paragraph of Mr. Lincoln's last Message: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right,

as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who has borne the battle, and for his widow and orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and everlasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

The call provided for one hundred and twenty-two delegates. On the assembling of such as appeared on Friday, it was found that but about half the counties in the State were represented. In some I presume the call has never been seen, for the newspapers entirely ignored it till within a few days of the time set for the Convention. Aside from this supposition, though, there was reason enough, in the cost of travelling and the condition of the freed people out of the towns, for the small attendance from the western section. "We should have counted it a decided success, if even only a quarter of the counties had been represented,” said one of the leading delegates; "as it is, we think we have achieved a great victory."

Many of the delegates had regular credentials from the proper county officers, but others were certified only by local organizations, church societies, &c. The difficulty of the occasion was met by resolving the affair into a general mass Convention of those who had credentials of any sort from any organized body of freedmen. The aggregate of delegates was one hundred and seventeen, representing forty-two counties, all sincere, earnest men, and most of them here in "the spirit of our God." The great majority of them were freedmen, not freemen, though some of them have hardly yet been given by their late masters a realization of the fact they are even freedmen.

The temper of the body was exceedingly good, and was in general accord with the speech of the permanent President, Rev. John W. Hood of Newbern, of Northern birth, but of some years' residence in this State,—who, on taking the chair, spoke as follows: