Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-08-16
SUMMARY.

u.
In pursuing this investigation, which has now
extended over four months, we have found ex.
IRENE difficulty in complying with that portion OF
our instructions which requires us to report upon
the operations of the bureau and its mode of adj
mln1stration. The bureau has settled mode OF
administration. There is entire absence Oh
1system or uniformity III its constitution In one
State its officers exercise judicial powers in an
adjoining State all cases referred to the civil
authorities while in third State the bureau Of
fcers collect the and turn them over to the
military provost courts to dispose Of In some de-
partments the officers of the bureau have attempt
ed to regulate the rate of wages one form of con
tract between employer and employed is orescrib-
ed In one State, While IN another different form
is adopted. In Louisiana the expenses of the
freedmen's schools have been wholly paid by the
government in the other States the schools are
partially self-supporting, and in Texas they are
entirely So In some localities the bureau officers
interfere arbitrarily between the planter and the
freedmen In favor of the freedmen in other local
lies the bureau is used means of coercing the
freedmen in favor of the planter. The expendi-
ture OF the bureau varies as much as its mode of
administration In one State the expenses are over
three hundred thousand dollars year; in another
State with equal population the expenses are not
more than fifty thousand. In some States the ex-
penses have been met by taxes levid on and col
lected from the people in other States the cost is
entirely borne by the United States treasury.
| The official report of Colonel Reno, United
States army, provost marshal general of the bu-
reau of Louisiana, shows deficit of upwards of
seven thousand dollars i'll the accounts of the Off
GERS who engaged in the collecting of taxes
| in New Orleans, which deficit Col. Reno saws he
is unable to explain i'll consequence of the loose
manner in which the books were kept
We are of opinion that at the close of the war,
and for some time after the cessation of HOSTILE
ties, the Ereedmen's Bureau did good. The peo-
pie Of the South, having at first TO faith in the
negroes working under u free labor system, were
deslrous of getting rid of them, and during the
summer of 1865 juClicious bureau and military Off
GERS did much towards restoring order and har-
mony, and inducing the people of the South to re-
sumo the cultivation Of their plantations by en-
plOying the freedmen. Before the close of 1865
there entire revolution in the sentiments
of the people of the South with regard to negro
labor. a feeling of kindness sprang up towards
the freedman, resulting, perhaps, mainly from the
conviction, that his labor was desirable profita-
bic and the only labor to be had
The necessity Of the bureau then ceased. Since
then, while it has been beneficial in some locali-
ties it has been productive, in the aggregate, of
more harm than good 1t has Occasioned and
will perpetuate discOrd long as it exists though
administered by the purest and Wisest men of the
nation. The freedmen regard its presence as evil
dence that they would be unsafe without it. and
the white people consider it an imputation upon
their integrity and fairness an espionage upon
the official action of all their courts and magis-
trates well upon the private conduct of their
citizens. Both races are thus made suspicious and
bitter by an agency which, in the present re-or-
gained condition of civil government and society
In the Southern States, is pOwerless to advance
the interests of either
The report closes with some remarks showing
that the system Of contracts as enforced by the
bureau IS simply slavery IN new form, and oper-
ates to the I'M uIy of the freedmen.