Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 4

[133] Savannah, during my late visit to that city. The occasion was one of deep interest to me, and will no doubt be interesting to you, besides serving to correct misapprehensions and misgivings in the minds of many persons. The order of General Sherman assigning lands to the colored people was made the day after that interview. His order has been criticised as evincing hostility to the blacks by setting them apart by themselves, as if they were an inferior race. But you will not fail to observe that this point was distinctly presented to the Ministers and others present, all of whom, with one exception, expressed a decided sentiment in favor of their separation, and assigned their reasons. The question was one upon which the General and myself felt much embarrassment, but we thought the intelligent persons whom we consulted were best able to form an enlightened judgment by which we could safely be guided.

With great regard, I am truly yours,

Edwin M. Stanton.

The dramatic incidents of the war had been many and striking, and each month brought its fresh example of retributive justice, of strange contrast and coincidence. There was the occupation of General Lee's estate at Arlington as a Freedmen's village (with its Garrison and¹ Lovejoy Streets) and national cemetery; of John Tyler's and Henry A. Wise's residences by schools for colored² children—the daughter of John Brown teaching in the latter, with her father's portrait hanging on the wall; and of Jefferson Davis's plantation on the Mississippi as a³ ‘contraband’ camp, and its final purchase and cultivation by his former slaves; the teaching of a freedman's school in Maryland by the son of Frederick Douglass,⁴ near the place whence his father had escaped; the burning of Harper's Ferry by General Hector Tyndale of⁵ Philadelphia, who three years before had visited the town with his fellow-citizen, J. M. McKim, to claim the body of John Brown and take it to the North;⁶ the appointment of