The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-05-13

bhO AGsO IAOt IL tLdS City. MAJ. OlUI6bu
will report to Maj Gen. Fiske, assist
ant commissioner of the Freedmen's
Bureau for Kentucky and Tennessee.
The Secretary of the Treasury gives
notice that the Treasurer of the United
States has been instructed to receive
and pay unmatured United States Ger
ti6cates of Indebtedness with accrued
interest, to the extent of $20,000,000 If
presented to him before the first
proximo.
Frightful OUtrages by the Freed
mems Bureau.
Newbern On. c. Correspondence (Aprl 3OJ Of the
New York Herald.
| A closer investigation of the state of
affairs at Newbern has revealed a con-
dition of affairs worse than the bitter
est enemy of the bureau ever ventured
to insinuate 1t appears almost beyond
doubt that at one of the freedmen's
settlements here cruelties more afro
cious than those for which Wirz was
hanged have been perpetrated on the
unofending freedmen by agents es-
tablished for their protection.
SOME OF THE oUTRAGEs OF THE BUREAU.
Opposite Newbern, on the other side
of the river, some $500 freedmen have
been settled for five years past They
we're invited there by the military, and
| located on the little plats of ground
which they were allowed to cultivate.
Eight months ago Edward s. Fitz, a
Massachusetts, preacher, was placed in
charge of the Trent River settlement
| by Capt. James, another New England
preacher, who was then conducting the
| bureau here. A system of extortion
and cruelty was Immediately Inaugural
ted. Fifty cents a month ground rent
was demanded for every plot on which
the miserable little cabins were erect
| ed Every negro who owned a boat
had to pay 81 so a month, or his boat
was forfeited. Every darkey who kept
a store was taxed s. a month. Every
one who owned horse was taxed a
similar amount Failure to pay any of
these exactions was punished by the
! imprisonment of the man or his wife
preference being given to the wife
the confscation of all his little proper
ty, and in many cases the tearing down
of his house. A negro who quarreled
with his was fined 500 and sent to
prison until he paid it. All these ex-
tortions were practiced upon popula-
ton stepped in the deepest poverty,
scOurged by disease, and many of them
wanting the common necessaries of
life, and in this manner an income of
at least $500 a month was derived by
the bureau The complaints of the
people became at last so loud that Mr..
S. w. Ladder, an agent of the Ameri.
can Missionary Society, embodied some
of the more atrOciOus cases in a series
of charges and laid them before Capt
/ Seely, the bureau superintendent at
NeWbeTn. A court of inquiry was de-
manded by Mr. Fitz and committee
of investigation was ordered by Capt
Seely.
THE CHARGES
laid before the court were in substance
as follows:
/. That on the 10th of March col
ored boy, sixteen years of age, was
strung up by the wrists and left hanging
in this position from noon till shutdown,
his shrieks, meanwhile, resounding
throughout the whole neighborhood
Fitz stated this was done to punish him
for excessive stealing. One of his
colored guard asserted it was done to
| obtain disclosures from him.
2 That on Sunday, March IA, COL
ored lad was found under the store of
a man named Joseph Fowle, and was
arrested for theft In the presence of
Fitz, FoWle struck the boy with brick
while he was in custody of a colored
guard, Fitz remarking, in reply to a
remonstrance addressed to him: Gle
can do as he likes; ! only wish he had
killed him" That subsequently the
hung boy was up by the wrists, and that
Fowle was allowed to lift him up until
his feet were foot from the ground;
that Fowle was permitted to pinch the
lad in the most tender part of hi per
son, until, as he himself said, he hurt
his own hand by the force of the grip,
and until the boy yelled in fearful
agony. That these things were after
ward spoken of in Fitz's presence, and
Fitz only laughed
3. That on the 5th of March Fitz or
dered the arrest of q woman for speak
ing disrespectfully of him, saying it
was necessary to support the authority
of the bureau, but on Ladders strong
| remonstrance eventually revoked the
| order.
4. That a colored man named Perry,
being sued for debt, was kept in prison
three mon tbs, after paying more than
| half the debt, without being allowed to
work in order to earn the remainder
of the money. That his wife and child,
being thus reduced to restitution, fell
an easy prey to the smallpox, the man
continuing all the time in prison. That
the child was obliged to be buried in
the cradle, and that Fitz refused TO
give coffin for the woman, and one of
her neighbors bought coffin and bur
led her.
). That on Sunday, March II, Fitz
ordered the arrest of a boy eight or ten
years old, for playing in the road,
locked him up all night, and only re-
leased him in the morning on his father
paying a fine of s.. That on Sunday,
April l, four children were lodged in
Jail for a similar offense, and were kept |
there till April without any examina-
ton. On that day tho mother Of one |
OF AnEAA hCAh hNtNtS nj Ia bthN4AAk /
that number of her family were Sc
yerely sick with the smallpox, that her |
husband had recently died of that dis |
ease, and that this boy was her only |
support Fitz said the boy would be |
set at liberty on payment of s. The
woman pleaded her domestic affiction,
brt Fitz replied that he must remain
where he was until the fine was paid
G. That on the 22d Of March two men
we're brought in by the guard for firing /
a gun, and Fitz, without any other eVi-
dence than the fact that one OF them
had a gun in his hand, fined him SO,
and the other man s..
Z. That on the 10th of February the
guard brought up some prisoners to
Fitzs office, and an old man seventy
years Of age, came up with them. The
guard stated that this old man had
warned one Of the persons they had
gone after of their coming, and so en-
abled him TO escape. Fitz thereupon /
ordered the old man to pay fine OF
$50. and sent him to prison till it was
paid. Fitz told him that if after he /