_Boston, Aug. 24._ The recent assumption of authority by the military
officials seems to have extinguished the Treasury Department in Port
Royal. It is a difficult case to reach, for this officious
intermeddling bears the semblance of earnest and zealous watchfulness
of the public interests. Any representations at Washington will avail
nothing, so long as Colonel H. cherishes the idea, or pretends to,
that it is not for the public welfare to have us sell bacon and
'lasses at Coffin's Point. Any permission from the Treasury Department
which would appear to him as too lenient would only give him another
chance to exercise his authority, which tickles his vanity and makes
him appear a big man. A difference of opinion between him and myself
would hardly be listened to at Washington, so long as it is upon a
subject on which his superiors think him qualified to judge better
than myself. Suppose the Secretary of the Treasury were to allow goods
to be taken from Hilton Head without restriction, General Foster and
Colonel H. would still think the rebels would get them, and, having
the power in their own hands, would not be likely to allow us to avail
ourselves of any such privileges. I should like to have the question
asked him, "How the Coffin's Point people are to get supplies?" If we
are forbidden to keep a store there, it certainly cannot be forbidden
us to send a wagon-load of goods there for the supply of that
plantation whenever needed, which will answer our purposes well
enough. In order to avoid any trap-springing by parties who might
think it a smart thing to tell Colonel H. we had not discontinued the
store, it would be best to have a plain talk with him on the subject.
We don't want to _keep store_, but supply the plantations, and need
not keep any considerable stock on hand at these "exposed" points.
The next group of letters returns to the subject of negro
recruitment. By this time various Northern States, in
despair of finding enough men at home to make out the number
of recruits required of them by the general Government,
were getting hold of Southern negroes for the purpose, and
their agents had appeared in the Department of the South,
competing for freedmen with offers of large bounties. At the
same time General Foster made up his mind that all
able-bodied negroes who refused to volunteer, even under
these conditions, should be forced into the service. If the
conscription methods of the Government up to this time had
not been brutal, certainly no one can deny that adjective to
the present operations. Yet it will be seen that experience
has tempered the indignation of the superintendents, though
not their distress.