The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-05-23

freedmen employed on said plantation to
work faithfully. He explained the manner
in which he compelled freedmen to comply
with their contracts by stating that he put
them to work with ball and chain on the
streets of Wilmington.
iG EVILS OF THE SYSTEM.
Without attempting to discuss the pro-
priety of officers of the Bureau in the militia
ry service of the United States, who are paid
by the government for the performance of
their duties, engaging in private business,
and employing freedmen for such purposes
while controlling through their official po-
sitions that class of labor, we deem it our
duty to state some of the effects produced,
both upon the officers themselves and upon
the planters with whom they come in com
petition, by such conduct. Major Wicker
sham, in contracting to furnish forty laborers
to work rice plantation, becomes at once
interested against the laborers, whom he
compels to labor, perhaps unjustly, when un-
fairly dealt with by the person working them
on the plantation; and on their refusing to
work, he inficts upon them unlawful, and,
for breach of contract, unheard of punish
ment, putting them on chain gangs as if they
WIN NOutlCtCu SOl. w ulItlcSty,
or any other officer of less rank and infiu-
ence in the Bureau, who are engaged in
working plantations rented for cash or on
shares, becomes interested in securing low
rate of wages and in making the most strin-
gent labor regulations, to the great detri-
ment of the freedmen. They thereby give
the sanction of the government to the estab-
lishment of wages far below what the labor
is really worth. Officers of the Quartermas-
ters and Commissary Departments who are
thus engaged are subjected to the tempta-
tion of appropriating to their own use quar-
termaster's stores and rations to supply and
pay their own laborers. Complaints have
been made to me by the planters that these
agents of the Bureau use the power of their
positions to obtain and control the best labor
in the State. There is no doubt that some
of the ill feeling manifested toward the Bu-
reau on the part of the planters is attributa-
BILE to this fact.
ARBITRARY POWER OF THE BUREAU
The arbitrary power exercised by some of
the officers and agents of the Bureau in max
ing arrests, imposing fines and infiicting
punishments disregarding the local laws and
especially the statute of limitations, creates
| prejudice against the government. If the
officers were all honest and intelligent, with
| even limited legal information, it might be
safe to trust them with this extraordinary
power; but in many instances the officers do
not possess the slightest knowledge of law.
At Goldsboro,' the agent, Captain CLAWS,
imposed fine eff $25 on one freedman for
stabbing another so severely as to endanger
his life, and when interrogated by us relative
to this case he stated that he did not know
enough about law to distinguish civil from
criminal case. -fsa IL.
| THE RECOMMENDATION. ft
We are satisfied that the recommendation
which we made in reference to the with.
drawal of the officers of the Bureau in Vir.
ginia, and the transference to the officers
commanding the troops, of such duties as il
may still be necessary to perform in connec-
tion with the freedmen, is equally applicable
| to North Carolina
Very respectfully, your obd't serv'ts,
JAS b. STEEDMAN, Maj. Gen. Vols
! j. S. FULLERTON, Brig. Gen Vols