The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-12-30
FREEDMEN's AFFAIRS.
Report OF Major General Heward---Hi'
Conclusions.


In addition to the information derived thro'
correspondence with Assistant Commission
ers, i have the reports of Inspectors, and also
the criticisms Of military officers referred to
me from other Bureaus
In accordance with Special Orders No. sol.
from the President, requiring personal in
spectiou and correction of abuses in the
Southern States, | visited Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida
Alabama. Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennes-
see, and then returned, reaching Washington
November 18th. | have sent Special Inspec-
tors Colonel G.. II. Howard and Lieutenant
Colonel Strong, leach being Brigadier Gene
raj by brevet,) to visit those localities that |
could not reach in person from want of time
before the meeting of Congress. The report
of these inspections would be too extended
! to be embodied in this. | will simply add
the general conclusions to which | have
1 come -
e l. That free labor, notwithstanding the sud
den emancipation and the thousands of causes
of disturbance incident to the war will prove
successful; but, in order to hasten the result,
every effort must be made by officers of the
Government, and all others concerned, to se-
cure confidence between the holders of pro-
perty and the freedmen, aud to restore that
/ confidence wherever it has been impaired. On
for Justice and privileges with perhaps too
exalted notions, yet their confidence cannot
| be obtained without u reasonable extension
to them Of the rights and privileges of free
men. On the part of the property holders,
great complaint is made of want of security
of labor, the majority seeking some compul-
| sorry process !; that is, some substitute for
slavery. There are so many examples of
complete success of free labor that | bring
them as an answer to such complaints, and
believe that the causes of complaint arr due
as much TO the prejudice of the employer and
want of practical knowledge of any other sys
TEN than the one under which he has been
brought up, as to the ignorance and suspicion
of the laborer.
| therefore earnestly advocate equality be
fore the law trusting to time aud education TO
| overcome prejudice and ignorance.
III. That this Bureau. or some substitution
it. of a national character, will have to be
continued for the following reasons:
/. 1t will require at least year from Janu-
AIRY. 1866, to bring to close the land diyi-
SION, whatever disposition is made of the
lands. The faith OF the Government having
been pledged as to the leases and contracts
for the coming yea-. it would be unwise to
commit them to any State agencies.
=. The Government has set the slaves free,
disputed fact. Some guaranty, beyond any
existing ordinance in any State visited, Is
essential TO secure the actual and continnbus
protection OF life and property to the freed
men. When legislation Is constrained, as it
now is in the Southern States. for the most
part, from several causes, there IS danger OF
the statute law being in advance Of public
sentiment. so that where there is the most lib
erality. i'll consequences would be likely to re-
suit if Government protection should be i'm
mediately withdrawn.
Where the Bureau fails to afford this protec-
ton, ii is vet u means Of exposing to the Gov
ernment, and to the public. acts of injustice
and oppression. and IN this way it affords a
moral check against their commission.
3. \ want Of mutual confidence between
the white employers and the colored en-
plOyees actually exists To a large extent.
This can usually be traced to circumstances
connected with the war, andit is increased by
the peculiar prejudices and education of all
persons under the slavery system.
Tie bureau officers actually do restore this
confidence as general rule, when fairly met.
With scarcely any exceptions. the freedmen
expressed the utmost confidence in its agents,
and are only alienated where agents prove
themselves untrue to their interests.
Wherever the planters have taken advan-
best results have followed. This work will
require time for its completion.
T. Education is absolutely essential to the
freedmen to fit them for their new duties and
responsibilities. | find many enlightened
and learned men in every State advocating
the necessity and wisdom of establishing a
} system of education; yet believe the MAJOR
ity of the white people to be utterly opposed
to educating the negroes. The opposition Is
so great that the teachers, though they may
he the purest Of Christian people, are never
} theless visited publicly and privately with un
disguised marks Of odum. This Bureau fear
lessly superintends and fosters these school,
WHICH, it is believed, will in time. by then
success and good influence, bring overall fair
men, at least, to their support.
s. Every colored man met, of any con
siderable intelligence, plead earnestly for the
continuation of the Bureau, as his only hope
of justice and privilege correspondent to the
necessities of his new position. Therefore
. should fear an almost universal disturbance
among the freedmen as a consequence Of it,
removal, till society had become more settled
and state action more liberal than at present
! G. The absolutely INDECENT, as orphans
sick, aged, and inhrm persons, now aided b,
the Bureau, have no present prospect of loca
aid.
I. The large acoumulations of Freedmen
from the different States in certain localities
though very much reduced in numbers, vii
require a Unit, d States agency to separate
the freedmen and find them homes or place:
of labor.
g. The poor white refugees, disturbed and
impoverished by the operations of war, are
yet, in some States, in extreme need. A
liberal construction of the term refugees will
I enable the Government to relieve the press
ing want sure to exist in Georgia and Ala
bama during the coming winter.
! 9. The Bureau, with its agencies, affords a
means of constant and reliable information
essential to Congressional and Executive ac.
1 ton, tillsthe hostility against the Government
shall have moreeompleteiy subsidized, till free
labor shall have become more palatable, and
! till the rights Of negroes to fulfprotection by
/ the laws becomes more generally believed in
than now appears. ,.
/ TO- The Bureau, IN conjunction with the
military force, y at present a means of en-
couraging immigration to the different South
ern States. Union men of the South, and
Northern men nov residing there, have ex,
pressed their utmosl fear lest the War De
Iartment should withdraw its agencies, as
serting that the stass of society il such that
they could not remain 10 the South with safe
I ty. Quite namber have urged me with all
their might to do what could to prevent such