ed to the extra labor which could be earned by hands
during the season of gathering turpentine and resin, or of
picking cotton made the general average of compensation for labor
in that State quite equal to if not better than in any Northern
State to which these people were going, to say nothing of the
climate of North Carolina, which was infinitely better adapted to
them.

The closest scrutiny could detect no outrage or violence
inflicted upon their political rights in North Carolina for many
years past. They all testified that they voted freely; that their
votes were counted fairly; that no improper influence whatsoever
was exerted over them; and many were acquiring real estate, and
were enjoying the same privileges of education for their
children, precisely, that the whites were enjoying.

It was also disclosed by the testimony that there existed aid
societies in the city of Washington, in the city of Topeka,
Kans., Indianapolis, and elsewhere throughout the West, whose
avowed object was to furnish aid to colored men migrating to the
West and North; and notwithstanding that the agents and members
of these societies generally disclaimed that it was their
intention to induce any colored men to leave their homes, but
only to aid in taking care of them after they had arrived, yet it
was established undeniably, not only that the effect of these
societies and of the aid extended by them operated to cause the
exodus originally, but that they stimulated it directly by
publishing and distributing among the colored men circulars
artfully designed and calculated to stir up discontent. Every
single member, agent, friend, or sympathizer with these societies
and their purposes were ascertained to belong to the Republican
party, and generally to be active members thereof. Some of the
circulars contained the grossest misrepresentation of facts, and
in almost all cases the immigrants expected large aid from the
government of clothes, or land, or money or free transportation,
or something of that kind. Hundreds of them, on given days at
various points in the South, crowded to the depots or to the
steamboat landings upon a rumor that free transportation was to
be furnished to all who would go. It was also disclosed by the
testimony on the part of some