GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
——A National Colored Convention met in Nashville, Tenn., May 6th, and continued in session four days. It was a body thoroughly in earnest and deeply impressed with a sense of the wrongs endured by the people of whom they were the representatives from all parts of the South. In an address to the country, adopted by them, they speak as follows in regard to their political condition: “Wholly unbiased by party considerations, we contemplate the lamentable political condition of our people, especially in the South, with grave and serious apprehensions for the future. Having been given the ballot for the protection of our rights, we find, through systematic intimidation, outrage, violence and murder, our votes have been suppressed, and the power thus given us has been made a weapon against us.” In regard to the recent emigration they say in the same address: “The migration of the colored people now going on has assumed such proportions as to demand the calm and deliberate consideration of every thoughtful citizen of the country. It is the result of no idle curiosity or disposition to evade labor. It proceeds upon the assumption that there is a combination of well-planned and systematic purposes to still further abridge their rights and reduce them to a state of actual serfdom. If their labor is valuable it should be respected. If it be demonstrated that it cannot command respect in the South, there is one alternative, and that is to emigrate.”
At the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at its recent meeting at Saratoga, the report of the Committee on Missions for Freedmen, contained the following items: receipts from churches, $52,921.93; receipts from the State School funds, $4,246.00; expenditures on account of missions, $40,360.27. There are 48 ordained missionaries (of whom 34 are colored), 9 licentiates, 25 catechists (all colored), and 58 teachers (of whom 36 are colored). Eight churches were organized last year, and 1,215 communicants were received. The whole number of communicants is 10,577. The total amount paid for self-support by churches and schools is $18,611.55. It was determined not to transfer this department to the Home Missionary Board.
The Indians.
——Judge Dundy, of the U. S. Court at Omaha, has made a decision which, if confirmed by the Circuit Court to which an appeal has been taken, will greatly change the status of the Indians. It declares the reservation plan a nullity, and that Indians cannot be held within certain boundaries. It was made in regard to the Poncas, who were removed two years ago against their will to the Indian Territory. A small number returned this spring to Nebraska, where, though peaceably engaged in agriculture, they were arrested by Gen. Crook and taken back to the Territory. On a writ of habeas corpus, sued out for their relief, the judge decided that the Indian is a “person” within the meaning of the laws of the United States, and has rights under the laws; that Indians possess the inherent right of expatriation, as well as the white race, and have the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, so long as they obey the laws; that no rightful authority exists for removing by force any of these Poncas to the Indian Territory, as Gen. Crook had been directed to do, and that being unlawfully restrained of liberty, they must be discharged. If this decision be confirmed and the principle established, the results will be far-reaching.
——A prominent citizen of Southern Kansas asserts that not less than 5,000 white persons are now in the Indian Territory. A despatch from Independence, dated May 5, says: “Over 150 wagons passed into the Indian Territory southwest of this point yesterday.”