Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, And Rebel Ventilator

Elevating the Negro.

The elevation of the negro in Mississippi does not seem to be remarkably rapid. At Natchez, they are declared by Gen. Tuttle, in command of the Federal troops, to be "idle, lazy, and profligate," and the General issues an order to place them under the charge of "some responsible white person."

The following is Gen. Tuttle's order, commanding at Natchez. We need just such an order in Knoxville:

It is to be apprehended that serious danger to the health of this city will result from the congregation within its limits of the large numbers of idle negroes which now throng the streets, lanes and alleys, and overcrowded every hovel. Lazy and profligate, unaccustomed to caring for themselves, thriftless for the present, and recklessly improvident for the future, the most of them loaf idly about the streets and alleys, prowling in secret places, and lounging lazily in crowded hovels, which soon become dens of noisome filth, and hot beds fit to engender and rapidly disseminate the most loathsome and malignant diseases.

To prevent these evil effects it is hereby ordered that after the first day of April, 1864, no contraband shall be allowed to remain in the city of Natchez who is not employed by some responsible white person, in some legitimate business, and who does not reside at the domicile of his or her employer: and no contraband will be allowed to hire any premises in this city for any purpose whatever, and no other persons will be allowed to hire such premises for the purpose of evading this order, nor be allowed to hire or harbor any contraband who cannot satisfy the Health Officer that he or she needs the services of said contraband in some legitimate employment. All contrabands remaining in the city in contravention to this order after April 1st will be removed to the contraband encampment.