The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1866-05-16
The Freedmen's Bureau--Its Infa-
nous Expressions, Grimes and
SDecuIations = NegrOite Friends
are but Robbers and Thievesi

are but Robbers and Thievesi
Revelations are Just coming out respect
ing the ,doings. Of the Freedmen's Bureau
in the South, and Of the unmItiEated va
lainy Of the chief managers, which will
not fail to astoupd the whole Christian coun-
try. Gems. SrEEDMAN and FULLERTON, the
Commissioners appointed by the President
to investi6ate the operations OF tie Freed
mems Bureau in the Southern States, have
presented theff report. The document is
too long for our space, which Compcls us TO
make mere extracts.
Before we resort TO the Report we will
give few sentences from special letter to
the New York Herald, dated Washington
May T. 1t thus speaks of the managers;
'sThe record of its officers Is likely 10 be
one long black list of perversion of official
position for the subserylency ofprivateends.
Nearly every one is engaged In private
specuiations. Md the rumors reaching us
from all parts concerning their malfeasance
are so well All hRnticated as TO no longer be
a subject ofdp y The principal officers OF
the Freedmen' hroau in the State ofNorth
Carolina, for instance, are known TO be en-
gagged In cultivating plantations or in some
other occupation tending 10 their private
cited, but a few viii suffice. Col. Whittlesy,
the Assistant Commissioner controlling the
State, is running one of the finest cotton
plantations IN North Carolina, In connec-
tion with the Rev, Horace James, formerly
a Massachusetts, army chaplain. &.
49, - Captain n. a. Seeley,
Superintendent of the Eastern District, is
cuitiyating farm in Wayne county
Captain RosecnnL, Il Coumnissary of Sub
sistence at Newbern, is partner in firm
In which Mr.. Brooks, of Massachusetts,,
Is leading member, and which firm Is
running ut least half a dozen plantations
in the South. Ii has also been found that
commissary stores have been removed from
the commissary buildings before the usual
hours of business, =, ...... .-
The fact is well, Established that at
Goldsboro large quantities of clothing sent
from the North for gratuitotis distribution
have been sold privately and at auction.
Chaplain CLAWS, a Bureau Superintendent
for this district Is running two plantations
on his own account and one for the Bureau.
At Wilmington. Major Mann and Major
Wickersham, permanent officers of the Bu-
reau, are both Interested In rice plantations.
Major WickershaTn. by his contract, is
bound TO see that the freedmen work, II
they do not they are placed iii the chain
gangs. The effect Of the system Is TO ena-
bic the agents of the Bureau to control the
terests. The most singular feature of the
whole is that the worst cases Of malteas-
ance are found at the doors of New Eng
land philanthropists. Several arrests are
reported to have been made, and Others are
expected to follow. b. .roiif.,,,o' b,,.'.,.,.
We now give so much of the official Re-
port of Gems. STEEDMAN and FULLERTON, as
our limits WIN allow, but quite enough to
substantiate tho Hcralds letter. One Col.
wHIrTLEsBY, of Ohio. aud others are thus
spoken ofby tho officials: ilii2. fl4q % &
'Col. WHITTIEsEY, lin communication
disclosing the fact that he is interested as
an equal partner with the Rev. Horace
James of Massachusetts,, formerly Captain
and Acting Quartermaster Freedmen's Bu-
reau, and with Mr.. Winthrop Tsppan, of
Maine in the cultivation of u large farm in
Pitt county, ". G.. lie also stated therein
that Capt. F; A. ,seeley, snperinttendent of
the Bureau for the Eastern District, n. c.,
is interested in the cultivation of planta-
ton in Wayne county, n. c., with a Mr..
Potter, and that Capt. Isaac RosecranZ,
Commissary Subsistence, is Interested with
a Mr.. Brooks in the cultivation OF a planta-
ton in Pitt county, NC.
1,, CHARGES OF CRUELTY. .... &,
Opposite Newbern, on the Trent river,
there is a settlement of about four thousand
MllpSC 10 u nCDlOIu-
Bile. They are living in small huts, each
containing but single room, and each
room, in most cases, occupied by large fam
lilies. The Rev. Mr.. Fitz, formerly an army
chaplain, presides over this colony as As
sistant Superintendent of the Bureau for
the Trent river settlement. This agent has
exercised the most arbitrary and despotic
power, and practised revolving and unheard
of cruelties on the helpless freedmen under
his charge. The outrageous conduct of this
man was brought to our attention by a del
egation of freedmen from the settlement,
who called upon us and made statements in
relation to his expressions and outrages
which we could scarcely credit. . 81.
Among the many acts of cruelty COM
mitted by Superintendent Fitz we found
that he had in two instances suspended
freedmen with cords around their wrists,
their feet not touching the floor, and kept
them in this position in one case four, in
the other case six hours; that he sentenced
freedman to an imprisonment of three
months for trivial offense-that of wrang-
ling with his wife. He kept another man
who was arrested for debt shut up in the
block house-the prison-for months, while
his wife and two children, reduced to abjeet
destitution, died with the smallpox, and
took him from the prison under guard and
compelled him to bury his last child in the
cradle in which it died. H.H.
AhbtIhAht fOWh THE bOkEAU.
The arbitrary power exercised by some
of the officers and agents of the Bureau In
making arrests, imposing fines and inflict-
ing punishments, disregarding the local
laws and especially the statute of limita-
tions, createsprejudice against the Govern
ment. If the officers were all honest and
intelligent, with even limited legal inform
alton, it might be safe to trust them with
this extraordinary power; butin many in
stances the officers do not possess the slight
est knowledge of the law. iDdA .5E.
IAN ARBITRARY DECISION. fal
AS an evidence of the manner In which
this arbitrary power is exercised, wewould
state that an agent of the bureau, presiding
in freedmen's court in AceOmae county,
decided a question of title to land as fol-
lows: Acolored man who was freed twenty
years ago by his master, and was permitted
through the kindness of his master 10 make
his home on the plantation wherever he
chose, set up a claim to ten acres thereof
around cabin in which he had lived for
ten years. The agent decided that the col
Ored man had acquired title to the ten acres
by adverse possession, and forbade the own
ers of the plantation from bringing the
question again before his court, or any
other court, on pain of imprisonment "a
Ia htr. IT,.