Brevet Major General R. Saxton,
Assistant Commissioner.
Stuart M. Taylor, Asst. Adj’t. Gen.
Major M. R. Delany, 104th U. S. C. T.
Major Delany, armed with this authority, immediately set out for Hilton Head: there he found Josiah W. Pillsbury, Esq., the brother of the honored Parker Pillsbury, of the Anti-Slavery Society, on duty as superintendent of freedmen’s affairs, under the old society’s auspices, occupying a small, uncomfortable room, entirely unsuited to the office held by him, the people being compelled to wait without for want of space within, and attended from the only window in front. The government in this, he said, “was probably doing as much as could be expected for anything outside of its immediate control.”
His usual way to prepare or perfect himself in any new undertaking, is to study attentively everything relating to his subject; for this reason, while waiting for quarters suitable for the bureau’s purpose, he attended daily the office of the freedmen.
Before assuming the duties of his office, he immediately went about correcting many errors, suggesting and advising, as well as directing other and better measures. For a class so recently emancipated, the greater portion had many things to learn, as well as their oppressors; and in many respects, like them, there was a great deal to unlearn. Major Delany says, “The great social system was to them a novelty, and without proper guidance would have been a curse instead of a blessing. Unaccustomed to self-reliance by the barbarism of the system under which they had lived, liberty was destined to lead them into errors. To prevent this the bureau was established.”
He made the genius, habits, and peculiarities of the people he was over his constant study, which, together with his unbounded popularity with them, eminently fitted him for the position. Having a head and heart well adapted to mete out guidance for the unlearned, and protection and sympathy for the poor, the work under his management prospered to the great gratification of its friends. He says in regard to this,—
“If a surgeon be called to attend the maimed or crippled, his object first should be, if possible, to cure: when all remedies fail, as the last resort, amputation as a treatment may then be resorted to. A physician, who would act otherwise than that, would be called by the profession a ‘quack,’ or ‘botch.’ As in the medical, so should it be in military, legal, or civil jurisprudence. The object of appointment by government is to have its ends subserved and objects accomplished. Thus was the bureau established for protectional purposes.”
In trade and all kinds of dealings among the freedmen, the weakest points were sought out and advantages taken by that means. He then sought to defend them against these frauds and other impositions practised upon them by persons using the magic word to them of “Yankee;” or else, “friend of your people,” and, “I know no difference between black and white,” &c. From these men his course received much disapprobation, if not actual opposition. As this impeded the progress of the work, he determined to accomplish by strategy that which could not be done by direct attack. Through the generous courtesy of the editor of the New South, the “official organ” at Hilton Head, he succeeded. He communicated a series of articles, seven in number, on domestic and political economy, conducive to the industry and labor of the South. Some of them are here reproduced, to show his earnest endeavors to facilitate the work of reorganization in the department assigned him, as well as the fitness of the officer for the appointment.