the colored men fired, except some witnesses stated
that the colored men, as they were running, fired over their
shoulders. The evidence tended to show that the violence was
premeditated, with the avowed purpose of intimidation.

I do not follow this investigation further, as no doubt the condition
of affairs which led to it is now changed. The result was the
murder of four unoffending colored men and the wounding of many
others. The evidence seemed entirely clear that it was the
consummation of a deliberate purpose, for which the Democratic
clubs had fully prepared.

I believe that the investigation, while it led to no important
measure, had a good effect, not only in Danville, but throughout
the south. The problem of the two races living together in the
same community with equal political rights is a difficult one, and
has come to be regarded by men of all parties as one that can only
be settled by each state or community for itself. It is impossible
for a government like ours, with limited powers, to undertake the
protection of life and property in any of the states except where
resistance is made to national authority. All the signs indicate
that a better feeling now exists between the two races, and their
common interests will lead both to divide on questions of public
policy, without regard to race or color.

Among the bills passed on this Congress was one introduced by Mr.
Blair, of New Hampshire, and chiefly advocated by him, to aid in
the establishment and temporary support of common schools. It
provided for the appropriation of $120,000,000 to be distributed
among the states upon the basis of illiteracy, $15,000,000 for the
current fiscal year, and a smaller sum each year for fifteen years,
until the total sum was exhausted. The apportionment proposed
would have given to the southern states $11,318,394 out of the
$15,000,000. The money was not to be disbursed by the United
States, but was to be placed in the hands of state authorities.
The object designed of diminishing illiteracy in the south, especially
among the freedmen, was no doubt a laudable one, but the measure
proposed was so radical and burdensome, and so unequal in its
apportionment among the states, that I assumed it would be defeated,
but it passed the Senate by a large majority. The advocates of a
strict construction of the constitution voted for it in spite of
their theories. The bill, however, was defeated in the House of
Repres