Page:Annual report of the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, 1864.djvu/57

Rh chance to rise, and his new born privileges will be turned into a curse. I respectfully suggest that a change ought to be made in the issue of rations to the families of colored soldiers. The wages of all common soldiers are now the same. Many wives of soldiers are well able to support themselves by their own labor.

Many now receive supplies of money from their husbands in the army. To give them all full rations without regard to their circumstances is teaching them to be indolent, saucy, and unchaste. Slender as is the marriage tie among them, strong as are their passions, it is not strange that they often prove unfaithful to their husbands in the field. Would it not be better for the government to extend aid to the needy among these people, and not bestow it upon all? Or to feed the children only and the sick and very aged, requiring the able bodied to support themselves? The year past has been one of experiment, and our work that of pioneers. Some things have been learned, some things begun, and some, we trust, well done. If our successors shall continue to feel theirway along the path of progress, to welcome each kind auxiliary, adopt each improved method, and act on every suggestion of experience, the duty of the age will be performed. It is a work of faith and patience. We have been conversant with its beginnings. Its end who can foresee? I have the honor to be, Major, with great respect, Very faithfully, yours,

Capt., and A. Q. M., Supt. Negro Affairs, Dist. of N. C.