Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1869 — Freedmen’s Bureau Facts. [ARTICLE]

Freedmen’s Bureau Facts.

Th* seventh semi-annual report’ on sohoois for freed men, ending with Jan. 1, 1809, presented by J. W. Arvord, General Superintendent, in hia official capacity, is before us. ! We are struck with the immensity of the work which has been accomplished among the er-slaves, in the matter of education, since the overthrow of the rebellion. It is wonder (hi to note the avidity with which the blacks, AoomeAhff thw Tkws to Ignorance, kite availed themselves of the advantages of education proffered by a benign government, and benevolent and compassionate effort. According to the stotutics presented, abont one In every twenty of the benighted negroes is a pupil at one of the schools Instituted by national or private enterprise tot their education. As the work of instruction has proceeded, many of the colored population, impressed with the advantages resulting from schools, and prosperous enough for the purpose, have combined to institute educational facilities of their own, entirely independent at eleemosynary assistance. Bnt not only in these but in all other cases of colored instruction, intolerance has been fall of venomous opposition. In various parts of the ground oocupied, school-houses and churcheis have been, reduced to ashes by the remorseless hand of the incendiary; teachers have been driven Off by compulsory warnings, or by inflammatory threats fulminated by local meetings, or by actual violence impending atthe hands or Infuriated mob*. Amid all these disturbances, the cause of education has made steady and netoble progress*; notwithstanding the various drawbacks of out-door and home influence. The attendance for the year 1868 was considerably ln advance of the attendance for the year 1867, and the number of schools for the former twehremonth proved, contrary to expectation, to be largely in excess of what had been looked for. There is a hungering and thirsting for knowledge among the ex-slaves which is not to be found anywhere among the body of the Southern whites. They seise the advantanmrauraented as persons might be expeqUadPTo ifckeh food from which imperathfip circoamances had excluded them to the very verge of starvation. In almost evtiry the freedmen, impecHmai they are generally, are inquiring how schools for thcar children cap be carried On successfully. 1 Fortunately, in discontinuing the Freedmen’s Bureau such discontinuance taking place on the lty of January last—the questjoh of education was left untouched. . Appropriations will stilt be made for'tire pitfpOMi of maintaining schpdlSt * Be ylctim rape. Money could not, ire spent i with more utilitarian effect. .*'&!» ii >• ft j The ecdhpmical hondition Qf the emancipated staves is approximated by-the fact that the FreedmenW Savings Bank, with twenty-four bfrahehes, distributed throughout thirteen, States and the District of Columbia, aggregate deposits for the year 1868, to the extent, in round numbers, of about $1,000,000; on which, daring the same period, interest was paid to depositors, amounting to $34,897.89. When supha fund can be collected within such a circumscribed number of localities, the general economy, industry and productiveness of the ex-slaves can be easily imagined. Take the whole race, and probably $20,000,000 wouid be an under rather than an over estimate of the surplfig earnings of the negroes of the oncefelave holding States for the year 1868. Considering how utterly destitute this class of laborers was, ana how ignorant, inexperienced and helpless, when turned adrift from their masters, by the A people capable of such accumulation, amid tmeh complications, defragment snd repression, certainly must possess some of the most desirable qualities of human nature, such as patience, self-denial, perseverance, fixed determination, and preparation against probably contingencies. Certainly there is nothing in this eagerness for education, even among thoee past adult ages; nothing in this capacity for accumulation, which.indicates incapacity for freedom or for participation in the right of the elective franchise. We think we may say truly that history does not make mention of so much moral, intellectual aud material progress achieved in so. short time, by a people starting from a condition of snen utter poverty, ignorance, superstition'and dependency, surrounded by so muchhate, persecution and fraud.— Chicago Republican, June 24tA.