Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-08-11
.I ''i q fHI. f'ft ' ".i" It.
( vOllBlilo)t... 9 ID .Statel;s;tllrSaEtrrt,,.. h il I.
The FREEDMEA'S BUREAU.
ET "r- --'1ra# irafr. a.
Final Report Of Gems. Steedman and
aot Fullerton. r"l.
-Ir ------iiUH ... H.H
The Bureau No Mode or Sys-
ten Of Administration
EXPOSURES CT FRAUDS ON
THE TR REASURY. lgf .aa.
I4.l .Ha A-5 -Uh ..H.i.r
DEFICIT OF $1,000 INNEW
Is of '7''h D" ORLEANS. n'M'i1f'2
aF9t3 go "ar ID .-T.Waf
LOOSENESs OF BUREAU AFFAIRS
..... VENTILATED. .'
Tnf JOB 90 Hg. .n.-r ...t .
How Contracts with Freedmen
..r. ..l Should be Made.
LOOSENESs OF BUREAU AFFAIR:
VENTILATED. "'WT TT
How Contracts With Freedmen
..r. .'a' Should be Made.
The Atrocities Of the Bureau Regulations.

l. [Syecial Dispatch TO the Cincinnati Enqurerl
... 90 WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 1866.
Generals Steedman and Fullerton to-day
| filed their final report on the operations of
| the Freedmen's Bureau, After giving a
great deal ofstatistical information, Messrs.
Steedman and Fullerton make the follow
ing concludinglsummary ga'. '..
2" In pursuing this investigation, which has
now extended over four months, we have
found extreme difficulty in complying with
| that portion of our Instructions which re-
| qulres us to report upon the operations of
the Bureau, aud its mode of administra-
ton. The Bureau has no settled mode of
administration. There is an entire absence
of system or uniformity in its constitution.
In enc State its officers exercise judicial
powers; in an adjoining State all cases are
referred to the civil authorities, while in a
third State the Bureau officers collect the
cases and turn them over to the Military
Provost Court to dispose of. In some de-
partments the officers of the Bureau have
attempted to regulate the rate of wages.
One form of contract between employer
and employed, is prescribed in one State,
while in another a different form is en-
plOyed. ... ......l.a.-.. .-......
In Louisiana the expenses of the freed
mems 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. r -
In some localities the Bureau officers in
terfere arbitrarily between the planter and
the freedmen in favor OF the freedmen; in
other localities the Bureau is used as a
means of coercing the freedmen in favor of
the planter. The expenditure of the Bureau
varies rs much as its mode of administra-
N mr.
100000 year; in another State, with an
equal population, the expenses are not
more than $50000. In some States the eX-
penses have been met by taxes levied on
and collected from the people, and in other
States the cost is entirely borne by the
United States Treasury.
We foundit Impossible to investigate the
accounts OF the Bureau Quartermasters, for
the reason that when the funds were re-
ceived from taxes, rents, fines and the sale
of abandoned property there was no means
of ascertaining the amounts received ex-
cept from the personal statement of the
officers themselves. A QuartermaSter in
the army drawing his funds from the Coy
ernment has the amount charged up to him
and is obliged to account for it in his re-
turn, but the looseness ofithe administra-
ton of the Quartermaster's Department of
the Bureau, and the absence of all check
upon the officers, give no security, except
the personal honesty of the men them
selves. We examined the accounts of bee
vet Brigadier General Whittlesey, Bureau
Quartermaster of the Department of Mis-
sissippi, who satisfied us that he had hon
esty administered the affairs of his DEPART
ment and had accounted for all the money
rec lived by him; but whether his prede-
cessOr, who collected large amount from
taxes, rents and sales, paid over to General
Whittlesey all the money in his hands be-
longing to the Bureau, we were unable to
determine. We do not make this statement
to reflect upon that officer, against whom.
there were no charges, but to Illustrate the
looSeness of the system. ."'" .'N '1'.l %
The official report Of Colonel Reno, Uni
ted States army, Provost Marshal General
of the Bureau for Louisiana, a. copy of
which is herewith forwarded, marked d,
shows a deficit Of upward of $1,000 in the
accounts OF the officers who were engaged
in the collecting of taxes in New Orleans,
which deficit Colonel Reno says he is una
BILE to explain in consequences of the loose
manner the books were Kept. . .t
One of the defaulting officers, Lieutenant
Foster. who, Colonel Reno believes, appro-
pTiated to his own use the largest amount
of the deficiency, carried Off his cash-boOk
with him. This officer, on his own respon-
sibility, levied anlincidental tax, which
Colonel keno sails an invention of hio own,
aud which, with the exception of one or
two hundred dollars, went into his own
pocket. We are of;opinion that at the close
of the war, and for some time after the ces-
sation of hostilities, the Freedmen's Bureau
didgood. The people of the South, having
at first no faith in the negroes working un-'
der free labor system, were desrOus of
getting rid of them, and, during the sum
mer of 1865, iudicious bureau and military
officers di much toward restoring order
aud harmony, and inducing the people of
theSouth to resume the cultivation Of theirc
plantations by employing the freedmen.
Before the close of 1865 there was an entire
revolution in the sentiments of the people
of the South with regard to negro labor A
feeling OF kindness sprang up toward the
freedmen. resulting. perhaps, mainly from
-theconvictiOn that his labor was desirable
aud profitable, and the only labor to be had.
The necessity of tine Bureau then ceased.
Since then, while it has been beneficial in
some localities, it has been productive, in
the aggregate, of more harm than. good.
1t has occasioned, and will 'perpetnate dis
cord as long as it exists, though adninis-
tered by the purest and wisest men of the
The freedmen regard its presence as an
evidence that they would be unsafe with
outfit, and the white people consider it an
imputation upon theirintegrity and fair
ness I, an espionage upon the official action
,of all their Courts and magistrates, as well,
as upon the private conduct of their citi-'
zens. Both races are thus made suspicious
and bitter by an agency which, in the pres-
ent reorganized condition OF civil gov
,ernment and society inG the - Southern
States, is useless to advance thelinteFsstsof
'#TSe 'N'sFSe' best protection the freedman has in
the South Is the valte of his labor in the
market, and if)he is left tree to dispose Of
this at all times tothe highest bidder lpns,
siackled BY, contracts made for him by ,Bu-,
sreall officers, no apprehension need be- felt
for his safety or his success. If the freed
lmeh could, at this moment demand the