Enclosed herewith I
send report of Chaplain J. Eaton, Gen. Supt. of Contrabans for this
Department, embracing a very complete history of what has been done for, and
with, this class of people within my command to the present time.
Finding that negroes
were coming into our lines in great numbers, and receiving kind or abusive
treatment according to the peculiar views of the troops they first come in
contact with, and not being able to give that personal attention to their care
and use the matter demanded I determined to appoint a General Superintendent
over the whole subject and give him such Assistants as the duties assigned him
might require. Mr. Eaton was selected for this position. I have given him such
Aid as was in my power by the publication from time to time of such orders as
seemed to be required, and generally at the suggestion of the Supt.
Mr. Eatons labors in
his undertaking have been unremitting and skillful and I fear in many instances
very trying. That he has been of very great service to the blacks in having
them provided for when otherwise they would have been neglected, and to the
Government in finding employment for the negro whereby he might earn what he
was receiving, the accompanying report will show, and many hundreds of visiters
and officers and soldiers near the different Camps can bear witness to.
I commend the report
to your favorable notice and especially that portion of it which would suggest
orders regulating the subject of providing for the government of the contraband
subject which a Department Commander is not competant to issue.
SOURCE: Papers of Abraham
Lincoln at the Library of Congress, accessed November 2, 2021
No comments:
Post a Comment