d to provide that free Negroes should not carry arms without
first obtaining a license from the county or corporation court. One
who was caught with firearms in spite of this act was to forfeit the
weapon to the informer and receive thirty-nine lashes at the
whipping-post. Hening, _Statutes-at-Large_, Vol. V, p. 17; Vol. XVI,
p. 274.

[3] General W. S. Harney, commanding in Missouri, responded to the
claims of slaveholders for the return of runaway slaves with the
words: "Already, since the commencement of these unhappy disturbances,
slaves have escaped from their owners and have sought refuge in the
camps of the United States troops from the Northern States, and
commanded by a Northern General. They were carefully sent back to
their owners." General D. C. Buell, commanding in Tennessee, in reply
to the same demands stated: "Several applications have been made to me
by persons whose servants have been found in our camps; and in every
instance that I know of, the master has removed his servant and taken
him away." William Wells Brown, _The Negro in the Rebellion_, pp.
57-58.

[4] Secretary Seddon, War Department, wrote: "They [the Negroes] have,
besides, the homes they value, the families they love, and the masters
they respect and depend on to defend and protect against the savagery
and devastation of the enemy."--_Official Rebellion Records_, Series
IV, Vol. Ill, pp. 761-762.

[5] Governor Walker of Florida, himself a former slaveholder, said
before the State legislature in 1865 that "the world had never seen
such a body of slaves, for not only in peace but in war they had been
faithful to us. During much of the time of the late unhappy
difficulties, Florida had a greater number of men in her army than
constituted her entire voting population. This, of course, stripped
many districts of their arms-bearing inhabitants and left our females
and infant children almost exclusively to the protection of our
slaves. They proved true to their trust. Not one instance of insult,
outrage, or indignity has ever come to my knowledge. They remained at
home and made provisions for the army." John Wallace, _Carpet-Bag Rule
in Florida_, p. 23.

[6] "For more than two years, Negroes had been extensively employed in
belligerent operations by the Confederacy. They had been embodied and
drilled as rebel soldiers and had paraded with white troops at a time
when this would not have been tolerated in the armies of the
Union."--Greely, _T