By Mr. GRIDER: Question. You say you believe that there is a gradual improvement going on in Tennessee as to loyalty? Answer. Yes, sir. Question. Will you give your opinion as to whether the admission into Congress of the representatives from Tennessee would tend to encourage the loyal people of Tennessee, and strengthen the feeling of loyalty in that State? Answer. I think it would very much. It would not only encourage the loyal people to exert themselves, but it would encourage the rebels to return to their loyalty, because they would see that their chances and hopes for another outbreak were passing away from them. If you will permit me to give additional reasons why I think the delegation from Tennessee should be admitted I will do so. Question. Certainly; state any reasons you may desire to state. Answer. I think the delegation from the State of Tennessee should be admitted into Congress for the reason that that State, of her own accord, has complied with every instruction of the President, and has done all that it was believed it would be necessary for her to do in order to gain admission into Congress. All that they have done of their own accord in Tennessee. They have repudiated the rebel debt; they have abolished slavery, and also adopted the constitutional amendment upon that subject; they have passed a franchise law prohibiting from voting every man who has been engaged in the rebellion; and I believe they have now passed a bill giving the negro the right to testify in the courts; and all the members elected to Congress can take the test oath, both senators and representatives; and if their representatives shall be admitted into Congress it will be a precedent for all the southern States; they can see at once the reasons why the Tennessee members are admitted, and that if they expect their members to be admitted they must do as she has done. By Mr. GRIMES: Question. You have answered the inquiry of Mr. Grider in regard to the propriety of admitting into Congress the delegation from Tennessee; state, if you please, whether, if her delegation should be admitted into Congress, it would be safe for martial law to be then abrogated in the State of Tennessee. Answer. I would not abrogate it just yet. Question. Would you recommend the abolition of the Freedmen's Bureau in that State? Answer. Not yet. Question. Even if the Tennessee delegation should be admitted into Congress? Answer. No, sir; I would admit the delegation from Tennessee simply to encourage the people of Tennessee to return to their loyalty, and also as an example for the other southern States, because you have it in your power to show them plainly and clearly why they are admitted at once and the rest are not; that is, because none of the other States have complied with the same conditions that the people of Tennessee have complied with. Question. You also stated as a reason why, in your opinion, the State of Tennessee ought to be represented in Congress, that, in case that was done, the rebel people there would abandon their hopes of another outbreak. Have you any reason to believe that they still entertain the opinion, or that any considerable portion of them do, that there may be another outbreak? Answer. I have received communications from various persons in the south that there was an understanding among the rebels, and perhaps organizations formed or forming, for the purpose of gaining as many advantages for themselves as possible; and I have heard it also intimated that these men are very anxious and would do all in their power to involve the United States in a foreign war, so that, if a favorable opportunity should offer, they might turn against the government of the United States again. I do not think they will ever again attempt an outbreak on their own account, because they all admit that they had a fair trial in the late rebellion and got thoroughly worsted. There is no doubt but what there is a universal disposition among the rebels in the south to embarrass the government in its administration, if they can, so as to gain as many advantages for themselves as possible. Question. In what could those advantages consist, in breaking up the government? Answer. They wish to be recognized as citizens of the United States, with the same rights that they had before the war. Question. How can they do that-by involving us in a war with England or France, in which they would take part against us? Answer. In that event their desire is to re-establish the southern confederacy. They have not yet given up their desire for a separate government, and if they have an opportunity to strike for it again they will do so. Question. Does the intelligence in regard to these organizations reach you from such authentic sources as to command your belief of their existence? Answer. Yes, sir; it comes from very reliable men. Question. What is the industrial condition of the people of Tennessee? Are they taking steps to put in crops and employ such labor as is within their reach? Answer. The industrial condition of the State has improved so much that by the end of this year I think the people will be more interested in their private operations and pursuits than they will in political affairs, and be very much quieted down. They are very much encouraged now, and almost every plantation in the State is being put in operation again. The Union people of Tennessee, particularly, wish to be quiet. Question. How about the rebels? Answer. A great many of the rebels are going to work, quietly, to cultivate their farms. A great many of them say that they failed in their attempt to gain their independence of the United States, and that they now wish to be quiet citizens of the country, and are going to turn their attention to farming again. GEO. H. THOMAS, Major General United States Army. WASHINGTON, January 30, 1866. Brevet Major General Clinton B. Fisk sworn and examined. Question. What is your present rank, and what is the duty you now have to perform? Answer. I am brevet major general of the United States volunteers and assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees, and Abandoned Lands, for the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. Question. How long have you been employed in that capacity? Answer. About eight months. Question. How many freedmen have you under your charge? Answer. About 500,000, according to census of 1860. During the greater portion of the eight months I have been assistant commissioner, northern Alabama has been attached to my district. Question. You have about half a million of freedmen under your charge now? Answer. Yes, sir; for the two States of Kentucky and Tennessee. Question. What is the condition of those freedmen, especially in the State of Tennessee? Answer. The great mass of the freedmen in the State of Tennessee are in what might be called a good condition, and they are constantly improving in their condition, both as to industry and elevation. They need the protection of the government very much in the State of Tennessee. Question. Why do they need it? Answer. On account of the opposition of the people to freedmen and justice to the negro. Question. Is that sentiment of opposition to the freedmen general through the State? Answer. It is not. Question. To what parts of the State, or what classes of people, is it confined? Answer. Tennessee is peculiar. In no other State do you find the same sort of opposition as in Tennessee. My duties, within the last eight months, have called me through the five States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. I made an inspection tour through the three States below Tennessee, in addition to my own regular duties. It is a melancholy fact that among the bitterest opponents of the negro in Tennessee are the intensely radical loyalists of the mountain district-the men who have been in our armies. Take East Tennessee, for instance. The great opposition to the measure in the Tennessee legislature, giving the negro the right to testify and an equality before the law, has come from that section, chiefly. In Middle Tennessee and in West Tennessee the largest and the wealthiest planters of the old slaveholding population have more cordially co-operated with me in my duties than the people of East Tennessee. Question. In what way does their opposition manifest itself? Answer. In a desire that he should be entirely removed from the State; opposing his education, and right to justice before the law. Question. Do the freedmen manifest a disposition to be industrious and secure a livelihood for themselves? Answer. They do, and to elevate themselves. They literally hunger and thirst for knowledge. Question. What proportion of them are able to find employment? Answer. All of them in Tennessee who can do any work. I could furnish employers for 25,000 more laborers from my district than I have, such is the demand for labor in the valley of the Mississippi. During the first twenty days of this month we made contracts at the Memphis agency of the Freedmen's Bureau covering 7,280 persons, and at good remunerative wages. Question. Do the freedmen recognize you and your bureau as a means of protection to them? Answer. They do. Question. And they have confidence in your administration of the bureau ? Answer. They appear to have the fullest confidence, as also in the military administration of that division. The Freedmen's Bureau has received the most hearty and cordial co-operation of General Thomas, the commandant of that division. The freedman has no better friend in the country than Major General George H. Thomas. I do not want to be understood as saying that in Middle and West Tennessee there is no opposition to the freedmen, for there is. There are slaveholders and returned rebel soldiers there who persecute them bitterly, and pursue them with vengeance, and treat them with brutality, and burn down their dwellings and school-houses. But it is not the rule; such conduct is exceptional. It may not be best for me to speak of Kentucky in this connexion. But contrasting the two States, I can say that the freedmen in Tennessee are treated with more favor than they are in Kentucky. There is more brutality to negroes, and more wicked, malicious persecution of loyalists in the State of Kentucky to-day than in the State of Tennessee. I have travelled over both States and observed carefully. I have travelled incog in portions of those States I have mentioned, going as a Missourian, talking with the people on their plantations, and the negroes in their quarters, reaching the real sentiment of the people in that way. The opposition to the freedmen in Kentucky, in many localities, is very great-in fact, to freedom itself. Question. How large is the pecuniary support that you are obliged to extend to the freedmen in Tennessee? Answer. I am not to-day issuing a single ration to freedmen in Tennessee, except to about one hundred orphan children, and thirty old people at Memphis, and about sixty orphan children and twenty-five old people at Nashville-that is all. Question. Do you issue rations to white people in Tennessee? Answer. During the last year the rations issued to white people in Tennessee have been much in excess of those issued to freedmen. When I took charge of my district the government was feeding 25.000 people; in round numbers, about 17,500 white persons. and 7,500 black. The month preceding the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau, for rations alone for that class of people, the sum of $97,000. My first efforts were to reduce the number of these beneficiaries of the government; to withhold the rations, and make the people self-supporting as far as possible; and in the course of four months, I reduced the monthly expenses from $97,000 to $5,000; saving within that time, on subsistence, ten times as much money as the whole Freedmen's Bureau cost in the entire district, including all salaries paid to officers and agents for the government. Question. Is the military support of the government required now in the State of Tennessee in aid of your bureau? Answer. It is. Question. Do you believe the affairs of the bureau could be safely administered there without the military support of the government? Answer. I do not. My subordinates are chiefly civilians. I select the best man for the position I can find in a county. For instance, I select the county judge at the county-seat, and give him the agency of the Freedmen's Bureau in that county, and under our regulations and instructions he administers our affairs. If he needs it, he requests any district or post commandant to give him assistance, and he gets it. Question. Are they frequently compelled to require such aid and assistance? Answer. They are. Question. And you do not think that at this time the military could be safely withdrawn from Tennessee? Answer. I do not. Question. Do you think that martial law could be safely abolished there at this time? Answer. I do not. Question. Do you think it would be safe at this time to restore the writ of habeas corpus there? Answer. I do not. Question. What is the general sentiment of the white population in the State of Tennessee at this time in respect to loyalty to the federal Union? Answer. I should think that the majority of the people of Tennessee, counting them right through, are opposed to the government. I think the vote at the polls to-day, if every man were allowed to vote as he pleased and according to his own judgment, would show a majority against the general government. Question. Is there any difference in that respect in different parts of the State? Answer. Yes, sir; there is more loyalty in East Tennessee than in any other portion of the State, and there is more in Middle Tennessee than there is in West Tennessee. Question. Is there now safety to the Union people of the State of Tennessee? Answer But little opposition to the Union people has come within my observation. A large delegation of the citizens of Memphis waited on me not long ago and stated that they were cruelly oppressed by the rebel element of the population in that section, and that they feared the military protection was to be withdrawn from the State; and they stated to me that if the military was withdrawn, those persons in most portions of West Tennessee who had been early and consistent friends of the government, and loyal to it, would be compelled to withdraw with the military. That was their opinion as expressed to me. Question. Is it your belief that within two or three years there will be a mutual understanding arrived at between the white and colored populations of Tennessee, so that the Freedmen's Bureau could be dispensed with? Answer. Yes, sir; I believe that with the enactment of just laws, laws securing impartial justice to all men, and their enforcement in that State by the civil authorities, it would not take that length of time to properly adjust the new relations. By Mr. GRIDER: Question. Where are your headquarters ? Answer. At Nashville, Tennessee. Question. How long have you been in Kentucky? Have you been at Frankfort lately? Answer. Yes, sir. I have been in Kentucky the most of the time for the last six weeks. I was there often during the summer months and made tours through the State. Question. When you speak of the vote of the majority of the people of Tennessee being in opposition to the general government, do you mean that the majority would vote to overthrow the government, or do you mean that they are opposed to the present policy of the government? Answer. I mean this-that I believe a majority of the people of Tennessee to-day would prefer that the rebellion should have been a success; that is my meaning. Question. Is there, or not, an increasing loyalty—a disposition gradually growing up to take position under the federal government and do their duty? Answer. I will tell you just what my observation in that particular has been. When I went to that district in June last there seemed to be a general disposition on the part of the majority of the people to cordially support the government-to return to industrial pursuits, and to let bygones be bygones. In the course of three or four months there seemed to be an increase of disaffection; I heard more of complaint against the government, more expressions of regret that the rebellion had failed, more open and unjust criticisms of the government; then again that spirit subsided, and I believe the feeling to-day in Tennessee is growing better. Question. As the legislature of Tennessee has adopted the principal measures, if not all of the measures, recommended by the President of the United States, and |