economist, and rather
formidable at a bargain. Almost every freedman is cheated by a white man
once after his emancipation, and many twice; but when it comes to the
third bargain, it is observed that mere Anglo-Saxon blood is not
sufficient to secure a victory.

It is claimed that this principle of separation was adopted after
consultation with the leading colored men of Savannah, and that the only
dissenter was the Rev. James Lynch, a Northern colored man. But it also
turns out that Mr. Lynch was the only man among them who had ever seen
the experiment tried of the mingling of the races in a condition of
liberty. He is a man of marked energy and ability, and has been for two
years one of the most useful missionaries in the neighborhood of Port
Royal. Some weight is, no doubt, to be attached to the opinions of those
who had known white men only as masters; but we should not wholly ignore
the judgment of the only delegate who had met them on equal terms. In
restoring men from the trance of slavery, the instincts of the patient,
though doubtless an important fact, are not the only point to be
considered. It may be true, as Hippocrates said, that the second-best
remedy will succeed better than the best, if the patient likes it best.
But it is not safe to forget that those who have never known their
brother-men except in the light of oppressors may have some crude
notions on political economy which a milder experience might change. At
any rate, the more exclusive features of General Sherman's project may
be changed by a stroke of the pen; and so far as it tends to secure the
freedmen in permanent possession of the Sea Islands, it is almost an
unmingled good.

The truth is, that, in these changing days, none of these specific
"systems" are very important. "Separation" is interesting chiefly
because it is the last project reported; "preparation," because it was
the last but one. What is needed is not so much a "system" as the
settled resolution to do daily justice. Let any military commander
merely determine to treat the emancipated black population precisely as
he would treat a white population under the same circumstances,--to
encourage industry, schools, savings-banks, and all the rest, but not
interfere with any of them too much,--and he will have General Saxton's
method and his success. The question what to do with the soil is far
more embarrassing than what to do with the freedmen; and happily the
soil also can be let