that W. C. G. was justified in fearing that their efforts were
worse than wasted, inasmuch as the negro might have acquired manhood
more rapidly if left to himself from the start. They had established
two facts, the very foundation-stones of the new order in the South;
that the freedman would work, and that, as an employee, he was less
expensive than the slave. Their reward was not in any one's gratitude,
but in their own knowledge that they had served their unfortunate
fellow-beings as far as, at the moment, was possible. And it must not
be forgotten that some stayed on, putting their energies where there
was no question, even, of waste or of ingratitude. There is no telling
the service done for the Sea Islands by the education that has been
given to it these forty years, or indeed by the mere presence of the
women who have devoted their lives to this service.

Looking at the letters as a whole, perhaps the reader finds that the
chief impression they have made upon him is that of profound respect
for the negro wisdom shown by the writers. Keenly as they felt the
past suffering and the present helplessness of the freedmen, they had
the supreme common-sense to see that these wrongs could not be righted
by any method so simple as that of giving. They saw that what was
needed was, not special favor, but even-handed justice. Education,
indeed, they would give outright; otherwise they would make the negro
as rapidly as possible a part of the economic world, a laborer among
other laborers. All that has happened since has only gone to prove how
right they were.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Later "The New England Freedmen's Aid Society."]

[Footnote 2: The name Port Royal, in ante-bellum days used only of the
island on which Beaufort is situated and of the entrance to the
Beaufort River, was given by the United States Government to the
military post and the harbor at Hilton Head, and to the post-office
there. Hence the Sea Island district came to be referred to in the
North as "Port Royal."]

[Footnote 3: Collector Barney of the Port of New York.]

[Footnote 4: Edward L. Pierce (see Introduction).]

[Footnote 5: Richard Soule, Jr.]

[Footnote 6: Edward W. Hooper, afterwards for many years Treasurer of
Harvard College.]

[Footnote 7: G. is W. C. G. of these letters.]

[Footnote 8: John M. Forbes, who had hired a house at Beaufort for a
few months.]

[Footnote 9: Rev. Mansfield French had already spent some week