Perhaps that slowness and reluctance were well, for thereby it was given
to this people to work out their own salvation, rather than to be saved
by any chief or prophet.
Notwithstanding the plan of superintendents was accepted, there were no
funds wherewith to pay them. At this stage the "Educational Commission,"
organized in Boston on the 7th of February, and the "Freedmen's Relief
Association," organized in New York on the 20th of the same month,
gallantly volunteered to pay both superintendents and teachers, and did
so until July 1st, when the Government, having derived a fund from the
sale of confiscated cotton left in the territory by the Rebels,
undertook the payment of the superintendents, the two societies,
together with another organized in Philadelphia on the 3d of March, and
called the "Port Royal Relief Committee," providing for the support of
the teachers.
When these voluntary associations sprang into being to save an
enterprise which otherwise must have failed, no authoritative assurance
had been given as to the legal condition of the negroes.
Pages:
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124