crops, and cultivate and improve the plantations.

"5. The population of African descent, that cultivate the land
and perform the labor of the Rebels, constitute a large share of
their military strength, and enable the White masters to fill the
Rebel armies, and wage a cruel and murderous war against the
people of the Northern States. By reducing the laboring strength
of the Rebels, their military power will be reduced. You are,
therefore, authorized, by every means in your power, to withdraw
from the enemy their laboring force and population, and to spare
no effort, consistent with civilized warfare, to weaken, harass,
and annoy them, and to establish the authority of the Government
of the United States within your Department."

But public sentiment was growing with every passing day. The very
presence of the Negro regiment at Port Royal converted the most
pronounced enemies of Negro troops into friends and admirers. The
newspaper correspondents filled their letters to the papers North with
most extravagant praise of the Negro soldier; and the President was
driven from his position of "_no negro soldiers_."

The correspondent of the "Times," in a letter dated September 4, 1862,
wrote:

"There is little doubt that the next mail from the North will
bring an order from the War Department recalling Major-Gen.
Hunter to a field of greater activity. The Government had not
lent him a hearty support in carrying out his policy of arming
the blacks, by which alone he could make himself useful in this
department to the National cause; and, therefore, more than two
months since he applied to be relieved, rather than sit supinely
with folded hands when his military abilities might be found of
service elsewhere. Now, however, I have reason to believe that
Gen. Hunter's views upon the question of forming negro regiments,
have been unreservedly adopted by the President, and the whole
question has assumed such a different phase that Gen. Hunter
almost regrets that he is to leave the department. The last mail
brought the authorization of the President to _enlist_ five negro
regiments, each of a thousand negroes, to be armed and uniformed
for the service of the United States, and also authorizes the
enrollment of an additional 50,000 to be employed in the
Quartermaster's Department nomin