Small-pox was also making ravages among them. They had not yet learned to take care of themselves; the emancipation had removed them from the care of their masters, and exposure, neglect, and disease were rapidly thinning out the population on which the wasted State had to rely for labor. The prevalent tone of public feeling indicated indifference to this public calamity. Virginians had not yet learned that their interests in laborers did not end when they ceased to own them; and many seemed to gloat over the facts, as a proof of the wisdom of their own opinions, and of the folly of their anti-slavery enemies. “This,” exclaimed a newspaper, “is one of the practical results of negro _freedom_—one of the curses that has fallen on this unfortunate race, and one for which _somebody_ must be held responsible at the bar of God. Who that _somebody_ is, must be determined by a higher authority than human, though many are disposed to believe that the responsibility rests not on the people of the South. But be that as it may, the ‘freedmen’ are dying by hundreds and thousands. Where are the philanthropists of the North? Where are the Christian Commissions of Boston, and the Freedmen’s Aid Societies of Philadelphia? Where are those who wanted an anti-slavery God and an anti-slavery Bible? Yes! where are they, when the negro is freed and is so sadly in need of their kind (?) offices?” Where it could, the Government was still issuing rations to these poor waifs of the war, but the suffering was beyond any governmental control. Some of the old masters did their best to care for former slaves; but they were themselves impoverished and destitute. November winds already blew sharply—what might be expected before the winter was over? ----- Footnote 44: The “learned librarian of the House” had simply published a statement of the laws governing the organization of the House, showing the illegality of any attempt to have the names of the so-called Southern members placed on the roll, prior to the organization. This statement the Associated Press had chosen to pronounce semi-official. Footnote 45: Applications for pardon were first presented to the Attorney-General. Footnote 46: “And don’t you know—supposing your statement true—that she’d been soundly thrashed if she had attempted it?” interjected a quiet gentleman who had been attentively listening. Footnote 47: Richmond Enquirer, 7th November, 1865. CHAPTER XXXIII. Lynchburg—The Interior of Virginia.