the subject-matter upon which we should like information, and which I had reason to think he could give us better than almost any one else, indicating certain questions which I would like to have him prepared to answer, and receiving a courteous reply, expressing a willingness to oblige the committee, I have called him before the committee, and will now read the questions:—­

     1st.  What is the condition of the laborers in your
     section?

     2d.  Under what system are the laborers in your section
     employed?

     3d.  When hired for wages what is paid?

     4th.  What division is made between labor and capital of
     their joint production when you work on shares?

     5th.  When you rent what division is made?

     6th.  How many hours do the laborers work?

     7th.  Under what system do you work?

     8th.  What is the relation existing between the planters and
     their employees?

     9th.  What danger is there of strikes?

     10th.  How can the interest of the laborers of your section
     be best subserved?

If you have prepared answers to these questions, and can give your answers consecutively, I would like you to do so.  The WITNESS.  I have prepared replies in order that I might save the committee time as well as condense my ideas.

Q. 1.  What is the condition of the laborers in your section?  —­A.  The laborers in the Mississippi Valley are agricultural.  But few whites are employed; they soon become landowners or tenants.  Your question, therefore, reduces itself to, What is the condition of the negroes?  I should say good, as compared with a few years ago, and improving.  You must recollect that it has only been 18 years since the negroes emerged from slavery without a dollar and with no education, and that for generations they had been taught to rely entirely upon others for guidance and support.  They became, therefore, at once the easy prey of unscrupulous men, who used them for their personal aggrandizement, were subjected to every evil influence, and did not discover for years the impositions practiced upon them.  They were indolent and extravagant, and eager to buy on a credit everything the planter or merchant would sell them.  The planter had nothing except the land, which, with the crop to be grown, was mortgaged generally for advances.  If he refused to indulge his laborers in extravagant habits during the year, by crediting them for articles not absolutely necessary, his action was regarded as good grounds for them to quit work, and there were those present who were always ready to use this as an argument to array the negroes against the proprietors.  This, of course, demoralized the country to a very great extent, and it has only been in the past few years the negro laborers have realized their true condition and gone to work with a view of making