Report of the Joint select committee appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states, so far as regards the execution of laws, and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States and Testimony taken.

1718 CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.
By Mr. BUCKLEY:
Question. He had remained there a year, had he not, and his trial was coming on in
a few days?
Answer. I think not. I have forgotten when this Belmont disturbance occurred. I
have no recollection when he was put in there; in fact, I had no recollection of his
having been apprehended, until I heard of his escape. He had been confined since
August 2.
By the CHAIRMAN:
Question. His trial was coming off?
Answer. Court was just on the eve of meeting when I left here in September.
Question. Is there any reasonable doubt that he would have been convicted?
Answer. I cannot say. I had lost sight of the whole thing until on my return home,
when I found lie had been taken out of jail. If I had known of his incarceration, I had
forgotten it until I learned he had been taken out.
By Mr. BLAIR:
Question. The confidence of your people throughout this State was impaired, or the
belief as to the integrity of the officers of the law of this State was greatly impaired,
by the manner in which they obtained their offices?
Answer. There is no doubt their confidence was impaired by the fact that officers
were elected at the same time that the vote was cast on the constitution; that, according to the returns, was defeated by 8,000, as declared by the military officer commanding here; and so the candidates, as evidenced by Mr. Lane's letter, regarded that they
were defeated, or not elected, and the fact that these men, after Congress had declared
the constitution to be the constitution of Alabama, went forward and qualified to hold
these offices, certainly did, and I think, if I may make the expression, very justly,
impair the confidence of the people in these men.
By the CHAIRMAN:
Question. Did it where they were proper and worthy men?
Answer. Where their conduct in office showed that they were that class of men, that
of course remedied it. I think I can say of the people of Alabama that they are willing to take a man for what he is worth. I myself came here, and they shortly
ascertained that I had been raised in Pennsylvania, but I never have suffered any reproach in consequence of it. I have told them I was reared to believe that slavery
was one of the greatest curses ever inflicted on the country, &c., and they never
seemed to think any the less of me for that.
Question. Were you an anti-slavery man before the war?
Answer. I was; at, the time I went to Missouri I had experienced nothing of slavery.
I was under the teaching of such men as Mr. Stevens there. It was my education. I
was about twenty-two or twenty-three years old when I went to Missouri, and was
there three or four months before it occurred to me that I was living in a slave State,
and when it did occur to me I looked around and found the atmosphere different from
what I had expected. My views underwent a change, although I never bought or
sold or owned a slave. I was not opposed to slavery. I believed then, and believe
now, it was the best condition for the negro, so far as his wants are concerned.
Question. Do you believe it would be for the benefit of the colored race to return to
that condition?
Answer. No, sir; not now. It never would do after they have been once released. As
I frequently hear people say here, the negroes are among us, and are objectionable as
a class; we cannot remove them, but we may remove the objections measurably by
educating them; and that is the general policy of intelligent whites toward the negroes
here. We have helped to build school-houses and churches. They call upon our people frequently, and never in vain.
Question. Do the white residents here prefer colored labor to white labor, as a general thing?
Answer. Yes, sir; for they have had no other experience. I have urged strongly the
introduction of white labor. Some have been desirous to try it, but never have succeeded.
Question. Would you regard it as a great misfortune if the negroes would beparate
from the whites, and go to Western States and colonize there?
Answler. Certainly it would be a misfortune; that is, a temporary misfortune. Probably eventually it might not prove a misfortune. My own view is that it would not,
but it would be a temporary misfortune, and a great one.
By Mr. BLAIR:
Question. Do you not think if the negroes, under the present order of things, would
go to Indiana or elsewhere, it would convert some of the republicans?
Answer. That is a question I would rather be excused from answering. It is under
lhe old adage, "While the lamp holds out to burn," which has been somewhat shaken.