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for its proper exercise are honesty of purpose and true patri- —
otism.. |

‘¢Our experience of late years has taught us that the most —
intelligent men, when actuated by ambitious motives and corrup-.
ted by the exercise of arbritary power, are the most dangerous.
Some of us can adopt the language of William Penn, who, when
he was taunted for keeping company with such a ‘simple
people’ as the Friends, replied, ‘I confess I have made it my
choice to relinquish the company of those that are ingeniously
wicked, to converse with those that are more honestly simple.’

‘¢ Many of the Freedmen are ‘honestly simple,’ but they have
a capacity for acquiring knowledge, and evince a desire for it
such as I have never before witnessed among an illiterate people.
It is very rare indeed for a white person of mature age and igno-
rant of letters to make an effort to learn to read or write, yet
there are many thousands of adults among the colored people
who have learned to read and write since their emancipation.

“The munificent contributions of the Northern people and their
benevolent efforts in this field of labor are worthy of commemo-
ration, and doubtless will have a better reward than human
praise.

‘Some of the contributors have expressed the sentiment that it
is now time to: withdraw their support and leave the colored
people to help themselves, in order that they may learn self-reli- -
ance. : !

“<A fter a deliberate consideration of the subject, I have come to
the conclusion that an entire withdrawal of support from the
colored schools during the present year, would cause many of
them to be relinguished, and might prove disastrous to the cause
we have at heart. The freed people are mostly poor and many
of them thriftless, a state which naturally results from their
former condition of slavery. They look up to the school teachers
as friends and counsellors, and it appears to me that a gradual
diminution of the aid afforded would be much better than its
sudden and entire withdrawal. In most neighborhoods they
could probably pay part of the expense of supporting the schools, |
and would cheerfully do so if the same class of teachers were
continued. , |

_ We have reason to hope that, within a few. years, legal pro-
vision will be made in the Southern States for the education of
all classes in free schools, and then there will be no further need
of assistance from other States for this purpose. 8. M. J.”’ —

The following was received in response to inquiries made by
one of the Secretaries :