EMANCIPATION.

THE APPARENT IDLENESS OF THE NEGRO SPORADIC RATHER THAN
GENERIC.--HE QUIETLY SETTLES DOWN TO WORK.--THE GOVERNMENT MAKES
AMPLE PROVISIONS FOR HIS EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT.--THE
MARVELLOUS PROGRESS MADE BY THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH IN
EDUCATION.--EARLIEST SCHOOL FOR FREEDMEN AT FORTRESS MONROE IN
1861.--THE RICHMOND INSTITUTE FOR COLORED YOUTH.--THE UNLIMITED
DESIRE OF THE NEGROES TO OBTAIN AN EDUCATION.--GENERAL ORDER
ORGANIZING A "BUREAU OF REFUGEES, FREEDMEN, AND ABANDONED
LANDS."--GEN. O. O. HOWARD APPOINTED COMMISSIONER OF THE
BUREAU.--REPORT OF ALL THE RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE
FREEDMEN'S BUREAU FROM 1865-1867.--AN ACT INCORPORATING THE
FREEDMAN'S BANK AND TRUST COMPANY.--THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
AS SHOWN FROM 1866-1871.--FINANCIAL STATEMENT BY THE TRUSTEES FOR
1872.--FAILURE OF THE BANK.--THE SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL CONDITION
OF THE COLORED PEOPLE IN THE SOUTH.--THE NEGRO RARELY RECEIVES
JUSTICE IN SOUTHERN COURTS.--TREATMENT OF NEGROES AS CONVICTS IN
SOUTHERN PRISONS.--INCREASE OF THE COLORED PEOPLE FROM
1790-1880.--NEGROES SUSCEPTIBLE OF THE HIGHEST CIVILIZATION.

Surely some good did come out of Nazareth. The poor, deluded,
misguided, confiding Negro finished his long holiday at last, and
turning from the dream of "forty acres and a mule," settled down to
the stubborn realities of his new life of duties, responsibilities,
and privileges. His idleness was sporadic, not generic,--it was simply
reaction. He had worked faithfully, incessantly for two centuries and
a half; had enriched the South with the sweat of his brow; and in two
wars had baptized the soil with his patriotic blood. And when the year
of jubilee came he enjoyed himself right royally.

This disposition to frolic on the part of the Negro gave rise to grave
concern among his friends, and was promptly accepted as conclusive
proof of his unfitness for the duties of a freeman by his enemies. But
he soon dispelled the fears of his friends and disarmed the prejudices
of his foes.

As already shown there was no provision made for the education of the
Negro before the war; every thing had been done to keep him in
ignorance. To emancipate 4,000,000 of slaves and absorb them into the
political life of the government without detriment to both was indeed
a formidable undertaking. Republics gain their strength and
perpetuity from the se