Beaufort, N.C. May 5, 1865
My dear Sir,
How would it do to issue an order forbidding the calling of
the freedmen, “contrabands”, and the places where they are brought together in
camps, “corrals.” Words are things,
& terms implying degradation help to degrade. Such an order, expressed as you know how,
would correct a great evil & help those who need help.
Here and at New Berne I have seen a number of the returned
rebels – among them a Senator of the late rebel legislature & a Colonel in
the rebel army paroled. Evidently they
would all like that restoration best which would give them most power & place; but they will, just as clearly, accommodate
themselves to any mode of reorganization the National Government my think best –
even including the restoration to the blacks of the right of suffrage which slavery
took from them about thirty years ago.
Sincerely yours
S P CHASE
Hon E. M. Stanton
It is clear to me that the National Government must take or suggest the initiative.
SOURCE: John Niven, Editor, The Salmon P. Chase Papers: Volume 5, Correspondence, 1865-1873, p.
40
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