Viewing page 6 of 17

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

678  DOUGLASS' MONTHLY  JULY,  1862

FROM NORTH CAROLINA.

Correspondence of the New York Tribune.
NEWBERN, May 31, 1862.

Gov. Stanley continues the policy of propitiating the slaveholders of North Carolina, and succeeds admirably.  His house is the resort of an admiring crowd of Newberners– Unionists now, late Rebels–who are greatly elated at the prospects of affairs.  They no longer go about gloomy, moody, and sullen, as of old.  "Ah!"' they are heard exclaiming, "we will show you who own the niggers.  It is isn't Gen. Burnside and his Yankee thieves that shall have their way now.  It is Governor Stanley, a North Carolinion–none of your nigger worshippers."  And so they laugh and are merry.

On Wednesday, the 28th, the evening schools established by Mr. Colyer for the colored children were closed.  We visited the one held in the African Methodist Church in Hancock street, and found the Superintendent, with several officers of the army and navy, within the chancel.  Behind them,was hung suspended, in front of the pulpit, a large white cloth, with the following quotation from the 5th chapter of Matthew, written in large letters.  It was the reading lesson of the evening:

"Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them that despitefully use and persecute you."

A large assembly of the contrabands was present, between five and six hundred, old, young, and middle aged.  With a melancholy pathos they were singing the familiar Sunday school hymn "Joyfully, joyfully onward we move, bound in the land of bright spirits above."  A prayer followed, in which allusion was made to the closing of the school, when sobs could be heard audibly through the whole house.  The speaker then announced to them in accordance with the suggestion of Gov. Stanley, "that such schools were contrary to the laws of the State of North Carolina that whoever had engaged in them as teachers laid themselves liable to a criminal indictment and that he (Gov. Stanley) came with instructions from the General Government at Washington to enforce such laws;" he, the speaker, would be compelled t close the schools.  He complimented them on the rapid progress they had made in learning to read over one hundred of them now being able to read well, and competent to act as teachers for the rest.  He remarked that during the six weeks the schools had been open, not one word of complaint or sign of disturbance had appeared against them.  He also alluded to the fact that for two months they had been engaged on one work–the fort–and the owner there had informed him that not a fight or disturbance had occurred among them.  He enjoined upon them to continue at their peaceful vocation–the same law abiding people they always had been–to remember the lesson hung upon the pulpit before them–to rest upon the Savior, and to be assured that their situation would command the prayers, and interest the hearts of millions of their friends throughout the Christian world.  The speaker had hardly sat down before the whole assembly rose and sung with solemn pathos the doxology. "Praise god from whom all blessings flow," and then, shaking hands went reluctantly and sadly away.  It was an impressive though painful sight.

The closing of the school at the Baptist Church where the more advanced scholars were, was similar in all respects, save that here there were a few native Carolinians who plainly manifested their exultation at the prompt effect of Gov. Stanley's presence by nods and grimaces.

The school for the children of the citizens–white children–was not disturbed by the Governor.  It was visited by Gens. Burnside and Reno, who were received by over fifty children with flowers and smiling faces.  Gen. Bernside was so much pleased with this school that he kindly offered Mr. Colyer $50 towards its support.

It is believed that Gen. Burnside does not sympathise in these Pro-slavery acts of Stanley; but as a good soldier, will obey the commands of the Government, even though it should go against his own well known generous impulses.

The next act of concession to the Rebels–for these so-called "Unionists" or "loyal citizens" were nothing else but rebels until they were subjugated at the intrenchments and on the battlefield on the banks of the Neuse river below Newbern–was the return of their fugitive slaves.  It was soon understood among them that Gov. Stanley for the purpose of "conciliation," would return the slave of any citizen who would take the oath of allegiance.  As they had taken a great many oaths before and broken them, this was no great matter of hindrance, so longa s they could get their niggers.

Accordingly one Nicholas Bray, who lived on the Front road, promising the Governor that he would take the oath, got permission to hunt his darkies.  Bray and his wife took a cart to the house in Newbern where one of his slave women was living, and although she was sick he carted her triumphantly off to his farm, two miles away. Succeeding so well in this, he returned the afternoon and went to the office of the Superintendent of the Poor, where the list of contrabands is kept, and many go for food, and searched the premises Mr. Colyer was away at the time, but he says the girl Bray was after, was a young Miss of sixteen summers nearly white, and of very attractive appearance; that she was in the kitchen, and seeing Bray approach, she ran out the back door like a frightened deer and scrambled over the fence and hid in a neighboring corncrib.  so Bray did not succeed in catching her.

When all these facts became known to the army–and it went as an officer remarked, as though a whirlwind had passed over the camps–the utmost indignation and humiliation was manifested by every officer and man in the ranks.  Not one, whatever had previously been their political opinions– Breckinridge or Douglass democrats, Old Line Whigs, Bell Everetts and all were disgusted and angry.–
That all their efforts, self denials, dangers and trials had only come to this.  Letters to friends at home are filled with these sentiments, and orders for spelling books, and suggestions for the forwarding of more teachers, are the order of the day.

At midnight on Friday some half a dozen soldiers with the letter M upon their caps went out to the house of Bray, rescued the women set fire to his house, and returned the salve to her home in Newbern.

– The following correspondence explains itself:

Mr. Helper like Governor Stanley, is a native of this State, and belongs in Rowan county.  As his letter states, he has been employed in the army, and also in other important positions of the Government service.  he is a brother of Hinton Helper, author of The Impending Crisis.
NEWBERN, N. C., May 30, 1862.

To His Excellency Gov. Stanley:

"DEAR SIR: I wish you to believe me when I tell you that what I say to you to-day is said in a spirit of love and kindness–they are only the words of one man, a son of the State who heartily desires to become again a permanent citizen.

I enlisted in the service a private soldier for the purpose of fighting down the slaveholders' rebellion, and was mustered ot of said service on the first of February last, on my own application to join this division of the army, in either a military or civil capacity in the hope that I might be more useful in my native State than elsewhere.  This course was by some thought impolitic.

I have awaited your arrival with no little impatience, under the expectation that a new era was to be inaugurated by your administration, which would favor my long cherished hopes of again settling on my native soil and becoming useful. Without any means of knowing the policy to be adopted by you upon your arrival, the recent acts of the general government have led me to expect that you might try the effect of an earnest appeal to the people to listen to the gracious offer of the President in his late proclamation, and seek deliverance from the incubus of slavery, which weighs so heavily upon its industry–an appeal which, backed by the high reputation you have enjoyed in the State for moderation and patriotism, could hardly fail to make an impression upon the people, even in the midst of the wild tumults of war.  It had occurred to me that while you, possibly, thus held out the olive branch to the few large slave owners in the State, whose interest or convenience might temporarily suffer by the change, I might possibly make myself useful among that larger class of non-slaveholding citizens who have no direct interest in perpetuating the system, and who I have reason to believe, would be brought by judicious management, soon to acquiesce in the paternal policy of the President.

Thus much will I reveal to you of my feelings and hopes.

I have had no good opportunity since you come, to learn what course you proposed to pursue; but your first act closing the schools which have been established for the instruction of the negroes, has seemed to me to point in quite another direction from that which I had supposed you might pursue.

It strikes me that this is a bad beginning, whether viewed as a stroke of policy or of justice, and my object in this communication is to respectfully inquire–presuming it not to be improper for me to do so, since you observe that you would be glad to hear any suggestions I might offer–whether the course indicated by this first act is to be the line of policy to be adopted by you.  If so I shall need no further light, and will prepare as soon as practicable to leave the state,satisfied as I am that I can render the state no service as acceptable to you and them.

I am Governor very respectfully,
Your obediedt servant,
H. H. HELPER."

GOVERNOR STANLEY'S ANSWER.

OFFICE OF THE PROVOST-MARSHAL, }
NEWBERN, N. C. May 31, 1862.   }
"H. H. HELPER, ESQ.:

Sir:  I am instructed by his Excellency the Military Governor of North Carolina, to inform you that he requires you to leave this department in the first vessel going North.

Capt. C. G. Loring, jr., Assistant Quartermaster will furnish you with the necessary order for transportation.

I am very respectfully yours,
DAN. MESSENGER, Provost Marshal."

THE SCHOOLS IN NORTH CAROLINA.

Last Sabbath evening by invitation of the New York Young Men's Christian Association, Mr. Vincent Colyer delivered an address at the lecture room of St. George's Church, at Stuyvesant square, making a report of his operations in North Carolina.  Rev. Dr. Tyng presided.  Mr. Colyer related a number of incidents about the fugitive slaves, telling how faithful, and of how much service they had proved in many instances.  He told the story of the slave girl who was retaken by her master, and whom a body of soldiers, disguised, and with the letter M on their caps, subsequently rescued, essentially as it had been printed in the papers.  This sending back of a negro slave produced intense consternation among the negroes.  They came to him and said, 'What, can our masters come and take us at any time?'  He could say nothing such a scene as he witnessed that evening, he never saw before.  There were hundreds of men and women whom he knew were loyal, that had built our forts and bridges and, at the risk of their lives, brought information upon which depended the safety of that whole division, and yet they could receive no protection from our government.–
They all gave up their work, and came strolling in, with mournful and depressed countenances.  Twenty were missing that night.–
It was natural for them to think that if they must go back to their masters it was better to 

Transcription Notes:
See instructions re formatting - there is no need to include details of lines, columns etc. unless it is a table.