Viewing page 42 of 313

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

4.

determine the matter against me. Negro equality, negro school houses, and such topics, were made use of in the campaign to arrouse the prejudices of the people.

Soon after the election, after various attempts, personal visits, and persuasion, I got the Board together to consider the matter of a school house. I knew the only hope lay in offering them the utmost which you authorized me to do, namely, five hundred dollars. Besides this, I offered one hundred dollars from the freedmen, already subscribed. A majority of the Board evidently were fully determined not to give anything. They urged the heavy debt they were under for school houses for white children. At length they were induced to pledge four hundred dollars, if I could raise the rest, on the supposition that the house could be built for eleven hundred dollars. The remaining hundred dollars I agreed to raise from the freedmen or from some other source. Previous to this, I had prepared a plan of the house, & got estimates from several builders, which satisfied me the [[strikethrough]] could [[/strikethrough]] house could be built for about eleven hundred. Several men wish to build the house, & say they will put it up in four weeks. Proposals have been advertised for [[inserted]] according to law [[/inserted]], and to-morrow