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POPULATION—FREEDMEN'S BUREAU;

I regret to be obliged to refer in this place to the persistent
efforts which, since the date of the Proclamation of Emancipa-
tion, we are so often called to witness, to bring discredit upon
the State of Maryland, in her relations with the negro popu-
lation. It could hardly have been expected that in a State
where the relations of master and slave, have existed since its
origin, the people could have adapted themselves at once .and
without occasional drawback, to the radical change which has
been so suddenly wrought in her domestic system. It is only
a source of surprise that BO much has been accomplished in so
brief a space. Towards the negro race, there is no unkind
feeling on the part of any respectable class of our people. On
the contrary, there is not a single free State where a more sin-
cere sympathy is felt for this unfortunate race, or more earnest
efforts are being made to improve and ameliorate their degrad-
ed condition. I will go farther and venture the assertion, that
the freedom of the negro and his Immunity from violence and
insult are as great at this moment in Maryland as in roost of
the States from whence these reproaches emanate; and that
the negro himself, if questioned upon this point, will most
probably confirm the truth of this statement. Occasional out-
breaks, inseparable from all violent changes of this character,
have occurred, and those not unfrequently grossly distorted,
have been eagerly seized upon as the result of a prevailing
public sentiment. I will simply refer to one or two.

lu August last, a case of assault upon a negro was report-
ed by an officer of the Freedmen's Bureau to have taken place
in Annapolis, implicating to a grave extent the adequacy of
our Courts, and the good faith of the officers charged with the
execution of the laws, which, from its reputed aggravated
character, found its way over the telegraph, wires, to all parts
of the country, to the great injustice and disparagement of the
Sta.te of Maryland and her people. The case having been re-
ferred to me, by the Chief of the Freedmen's Bureau, an im-
mediate investigation was ordered through the highest law
officer of. the State, whose Report, denying the truth of the
alleged, charges, together with my correspondence with Gen-
eral Howard, are herewith submitted. It will be perceived,
that upon the loose representations of a subordinate of the
Freedmen' s Bureau, the propriety of detailing a military forces
to supersede the authority of the Courts, in a loyal State, was
seriously entertained,

At a subsequent date, a collision between the two races
occurred at a religious meeting in Anne Arundel County, which
in its exaggerated proportions, wasreferred to, even by our own
partizan press, as well as leading Journals of the North, as
scarcely, second in enormity to the. massacre at New Orleans.
This affair was also brought by me to the attention of the Attor-