ion, providing for the abolition of slavery forever within the
limits of the country, has been ratified by each one of those States,
with the exception of Mississippi, from which no official information
has been received, and in nearly all of them measures have been adopted
or are now pending to confer upon freedmen the privileges which are
essential to their comfort, protection, and security. In Florida and
Texas the people are making commendable progress in restoring their
State governments, and no doubt is entertained that they will at an
early period be in a condition to resume all of their practical
relations with the General Government.

In "that portion of the Union lately in rebellion" the aspect of affairs
is more promising than, in view of all the circumstances, could well
have been expected. The people throughout the entire South evince a
laudable desire to renew their allegiance to the Government and to
repair the devastations of war by a prompt and cheerful return to
peaceful pursuits, and abiding faith is entertained that their actions
will conform to their professions, and that in acknowledging the
supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States their
loyalty will be unreservedly given to the Government, whose leniency
they can not fail to appreciate and whose fostering care will soon
restore them to a condition of prosperity. It is true that in some of
the States the demoralizing effects of the war are to be seen in
occasional disorders; but these are local in character, not frequent in
occurrence, and are rapidly disappearing as the authority of civil law
is extended and sustained. Perplexing questions are naturally to be
expected from the great and sudden change in the relations between the
two races; but systems are gradually developing themselves under which
the freedman will receive the protection to which he is justly entitled,
and, by means of his labor, make himself a useful and independent member
in the community in which he has a home.

From all the information in my possession and from that which I have
recently derived from the most reliable authority I am induced to
cherish the belief that sectional animosity is surely and rapidly
merging itself into a spirit of nationality, and that representation,
connected with a properly adjusted system of taxation, will result in
a harmonious restoration of the relation of the States to the National
Union.

The report of Carl Schurz is he