t negroes who were within our lines, and had been employed by the
Government, should be protected in their freedom. No official assurance
of this had, however, been given; and its absence disturbed the
societies in their formation. At one meeting of the Boston society
action was temporarily arrested by the expression of an opinion by a
gentleman present, that there was no evidence showing that these people,
when educated, would not be the victims of some unhappy compromise. A
public meeting in Providence, for their relief, is said to have broken
up without action, because of a speech from a furloughed officer of a
regiment stationed at Port Royal, who considered such a result the
probable one. But the societies, on reflection, wisely determined to do
what they could to prepare them to become self-supporting citizens, in
the belief, that, when they had become such, no Government could ever be
found base enough to turn its back upon them. These associations, it
should be stated, have been managed by persons of much consideration in
their respective communities, of unostentatious philanthropy, but of
energetic and practical benevolence, hardly one of whom has ever filled
or been a candidate for a political office.

There was a pleasant interview at this time which may fitly be
mentioned. The venerable Josiah Quincy, just entered on his ninety-first
year, hearing of the enterprise, desired to see one who had charge of
it. I went to his chamber, where he had been confined to his bed for
many weeks with a fractured limb. He talked like a patriot who read the
hour and its duty. He felt troubled lest adequate power had not been
given to protect the enterprise,--said that but for his disability he
should be glad to write something about it, but that he was living "the
postscript of his life"; and as we parted, he gave his hearty
benediction to the work and to myself. Restored in a measure to
activity, he is still spared to the generation which fondly cherishes
his old age; and recently, at the organization of the Union Club, he
read to his fellow-citizens, gathering close about him and hanging on
his speech, words of counsel and encouragement.

On the morning of the 3d of March, 1862, the first delegation of
superintendents and teachers, fifty-three in all, of whom twelve were
women, left the harbor of New York, on board the United States
steam-transport Atlantic, arriving at Beaufort on the 9th. It was a
voyage never to be for