[154] Land on the Sea Islands is now worth $15 an acre,—$20 if it is near a road.
[155] F. J. W. was in Boston at the time.
[156] William Birney, Brigadier-General and Commander of the Post at Beaufort during one of Saxton's absences, had, on March 30, issued an order to the effect that in all cases the negroes were to be left in possession of the land they claimed as theirs.
[157] An ambulance.
[158] Cf. E. S. P.'s letter of February 22, p. [251].
[159] Early in April the steamer City of New York, carrying sixty-one bales of Mr. Philbrick's cotton, was wrecked in Queenstown harbor. The cotton was insured for $1.50 a pound, but would have brought more in the market.
[160] See p. [219]. The idea was by no means new. Frederick Law Olmstead had devoted a great deal of space to proving the truth of it, and indeed had quoted many planters who admitted that, as a system of labor, slavery was expensive.
[161] (Dated April 26, in the Independent.) On St. Helena to-day it is always possible to hire men for common work at fifty cents per day.
[162] Dated May 2.
[163] The National Union Convention which met on June 7.