The daily clarion. [volume] (Meridian, Miss.) 1863-1866, 1866-03-24

TO, to devise new means of punishment for
the planters, and thus are compelled to fall
back on filming. These fines are generally
pretty substantial affairs, especially here in
Texas, where they are collected in specie.
j have no hesitation in estimating the
amount OF fines for the year past, III MIssls-
Sippi, at 100000 This makes a snug little
income of 1915, 900 in one State. Now, if any
one will take the trouble to look at the
original act of Congress, organizing the
Bureau, he will find that its provisions are
loose and vague in their terms-that the
institution Organized by it is simply an ir-
responsible directory. | will not say tn at
il was possible at the time to have made the
Bureau, on the instant perfect and compact.
1t was not possible, for the eXigencies We're
new and untried, and the Bureau was spread
over the South like an organized chaos, so to
speak,
4 good historical parallel is found in the
operations of the East India Company in
India. in its earliest years. A vast and
helpless population was at their mercy, the
officers S;ere far from the home Government
and held TO accountability by vague and
fTagInentary laws and speedily, as a conse-
quence, corruption and eXtortiOn became 80
widespread that the British Government
was compelled 70 take the control Of the
country in its own hands. The act of Con-
gress made very uncertain and indefinite
provision for the pay of the agents OF the
bureau, who might be taken from civil life,
and exposed them to the temptation of great
almost absolnte power, while the agents
taken from the army were not inhibited by
strict rules from taking advantage Of their
power, to eXtorr money and Cypress the
people. Hence the results | have named
above.
\ few words ~ to the motives which i'm
pei some men to seek admission to the Bu-
Teau. In addition to the almost unlimited
opportunities for gain spoken of above,
some army officers, | am ashamed to say
COvet a place in 1t from motives of the most
contemplate ambition An officer ION de
tached duty" is not, by the Army Regula-
tlOns, allowed to assume any other Insignia
than those he has in his regiment 1t Is
only staff officers that are allowed to wear
the "black strap" and gold Iaces but it has
become the custom of many officers assign
ed to duty IN the Bureau to assume these
badges, to which they have no title what
ever. There are tops in the army, as else
where, and men, too, who for various
reasons, desire to remain in it, which they
cannot do as officers of volunteer regiments
and TO both these classes the Bureau opens
a tempting prospect.
What has the Bureau done Under its
supervision many prosperous schools have
labor contracts ratified" All this is well.
But ! well know that many other contracts
that might have been made between planter
and lab0rer have not been made, for the
reason that naughty planters refused TO pay
a dollar for the boon of ratification" And
as for the schools, | am disposed TO concede
much more general credit to the brave, in
teligemt and accomplished young ladies
from New England, to whom / here make
my most r,rpfpuO1 plpiSappp and elevate nv
hat They came voluntarily to the South,
were iuduCted by the agents into their re-
specify. log echOol-houSes, and after that, i'll
most cases, they looked chiefly to the blue
coats for protection.
The chief defect of the Bureau is that it is
mongrel in its organization, neither wholly
civil nor wholly military, and as such, the
army has pretty much the same contempt
for it that it had for the Christian and San
itary Commissions, and complies with its
acquisitions even more grudgingly. They
had for their care the white soldiers while
the Bureau looks after the negroes, whom, |
am sorry to say, the army regards with lit
tie sympathy,
In conclusion, am bound to say that the
former large slave-owners are better real and
practical friends of the negro than one-half
of the agents OF the Bureau. 1t is the mean,
''low-down" whites that hate him and perse-
cute him, and it is they principally that are
perpetuatiug his calamities and his sorrows.
The Bureau, as it ought to be, either. as
General Grant proposes, wholly il the hands
of the army, or else erected into an institu-
tion wholly civil in its character and i'll its
modes As to the first proposition, the
country certainly can not fear to leave the
negro in the hands of that army that has
saved the country Better still, put the
Bureau entirely in the hands of the civil
officers of the Southern States, with the re-
quirement impeTatively insisted on that his
testimony be admitted in all cases. General
Swayne has taken a step in this direction,
and the results are good. As Il guarantee for
their proper treatment, let garrlSons of rcGu-
lar troops be established in three or four or
more places in each State, of such size that
numerous patrols in charge of trusty ser
geauts, could be spared to march throgh the
counties. They viii never need to interfere.
Their mere presence viii he sufficient. 1t is
scarcely possible for me to express the awe
in which bluc-coats are held in the South.
These should be regulars, not volunteers,
for the latter hate the Bureau and pur-
pOsely abuse the negro, because they believe
that ii has been the means of their being de
tanned in the South beyond their term of
enlistment, to-wit: During the war"