Wilmington Journal

The Freedmen's Bureau.

The Senior editor of the Raleigh Sentinel having been on a special visit to Gates county, made special inquiry into the condition of the freedmen and the operations of the Bureau in that section.

He found affairs in a good state, everything going on quietly and harmoniously. Labor was in great demand in consequence of the very large number of blacks having left the county before and since the surrender—every person capable of labor without distinction of color or sex, was in the fields, cultivating corn, cotton, &c. No discord, no collisions, nothing unpleasant had occurred in that particular county, and the impression was that the same state of things was general. In Gates county there is no regular Bureau, no army officer or soldier to enforce the law, every one readily acquiescing in the orders of the Commissioner or his Assistants. A citizen of the county was acting as Agent, who simply made known the requirements of the law, and everything went on without difficulty.

We concur with the Sentinel that if the plan adopted in Gates county had been general in the State, with Col. Whittlesey and the necessary clerks stationed in Raleigh, a vast expense and much trouble might have been saved, with superior benefits resulting. And we go further, and express the opinion, that, "without Col. Whittlesey and the necessary clerks stationed in Raleigh" more expense and trouble would have been saved and the freedmen much better off, though Col. Whittlesey, if we judge from the interesting intimations thrown out by the correspondent traveling with Generals Steedman and Fullerton, would not have been quite so well off. We venture the assertion that the Bureau officials throughout the South will be much more benefitted than the freedmen. Between the "sweat of the brow" of the poor negro and the donations of Northern charitable societies, some people will wax rich. A great many persons are engaged in extensive and profitable business with no stock in trade but "loyalty."