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In those States over which his persecutors have gained control he has been victimized by infamous systems of peonage, adroitly devised by State legislatures, with a view to reducing him to a condition of legalized servitude. Convict labor has in a large measure taken the place of slave labor. Land owners have entered into a conspiracy through which wages are held at an unreasonably low rate and the price of land at an extortionately high one. Tenants, although forced by this conspiracy to pay a yearly rent almost equal to the actual value of the land itself, are usually required by the terms of the contract to raise cotton exclusively, and no portion of the crop can be disposed of or in any way encumbered until the landlord's lien has been settled. Being thus made wholly dependent upon the land-owner for his daily bread, the tenant finds himself helpless in the extreme. Not being allowed to raise vegetables or anything else upon which he could subsist during the season, he is forced to procure his necessary supplies from the landlord at fancy prices, and to mortgage his share of the crop in order to live and support his family. Accounts are kept by the landlord, and by this means the tenant is almost invariably brought out in debt at the end of each year of toil. If he goes to the court in search of justice and equity he usually finds the bench occupied by a landlord or by some one who finds a way to construe the law against him. Through unjust property qualifications and by order means he [[strike]] is being gradually excluded from the jury-box. [[/strike]] He has witnessed in nearly all of the Southern States the adoption of new constitutions containing odious provisions unmistakably aimed at him. He has been constrained to vote against his convictions through threats from partisan employers. He has witnessed unlawful invasions of the school fund and even radical thrusts at the cause of popular education itself. He has been the target for unjust poll-taxes, discriminating vagrant laws, gerrymandering schemes, and countless other machinations calculated to curtail his force as a factor in politics and to lessen his opportunities for advancement. When all milder measures have failed to make the negro "know his place" and abstain from participation in politics, he has not unfrequently been subjected to more forcible measures.

If the freedmen could conscientiously consent to return in effect to his former condition by surrendering his political rights; or, even if he could be induced to accept the political creed of his former master, he would doubtless escape at least from downright oppression and outrage. The indications are, however, that like the unyielding sons of Iran,

"He would rather houseless roam,
Where Freedom and his God may lead,
Then be the sleekest slave at home,
That crouches to a master's creed!"

The objects and efforts of this Society have not been to encourage the colored people to migrate from the South ; nor has it assumed