The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-02-20
rbe Frcsdmeu's Burenu as n Means
Of EoHernmcnI.

S.ncc the close of the war the entire
Radical press of the country have been
demanding "A continuance of the Freed
mems Bureau because of the alleged ne
cr>sity of federal military power over
the local civil power for the purpose of
maintaining the rights of the negroes
aud regulating their relations with the
whites. The blacks, we were told, were
the wards of the nation and the ma
tion through its military arm must hold
them up and be a father to them and
exercise systematized tutelage over
them. In pursuance Of this "philan-
thropic" idea. the nation has gone on
under regulations Of the Freedmen's
Bnrcau to run" the "nigger" at the
south As general rule he has been
run rough shod over the whole
white population, whereat the entire
Puritan fraternity has clapped its hands
and been made glad. But it seems that
down on the Sea Island plantations of
South Carolina the darkcy became so
unruiy that "the strong arm of the Gov
rrumcnt," rs Governor FOREMAN called
his imported soldiers, had to come down
ON the African element for threatened
armed rebellion, iucendiarism, iusubOr-
dination, attempted murder, and va
rious lesser Offenses. Immediately the
Radical tune was changed, and the en-
tire press sang another song, OF which
the following extract from leading
loyal" journal may be taken IS speci-
iuen:
THE trouble OH the Gil EEvES planta-
tion, South Carolina, between the ne
.roes AMI United States troops, was the
result of long mismanagement. A
LITTLE common sense would have pre-
vented it. The business relations Of the
freedmen 10 the planters in the South do not
need 10 BE- determined By military poWer."
This is precisely the position which
the Democratic press and party, the
President aud all Conservative men
have always advocated with reference
to the industrial pursuits of the negroes.
Ii is the ground taken by Mr.. JOHNSON
i'm his veto of the Freedmen's Bureau
Bill. veto for which he was rOundly
ablscd by the very journal from which
We have quoted. Said he:
have with Congress the strongest
desire to secure to the freedmen the
fuu endowment of their freedom and
property, and their entire independence
and equality in making contracts for
their labor. But they should be pro-
feeted bv the civil authorities, especial
is 10y the exercise of all the Constltu-
tlonal powers of the courts OF the
United States and of the States. The
laws that regulate supply and demand
will maintain their force, and the wages
of the laborer will be regulated thereby.
The query presents itself whether the
system proposed by the bill will not
practically transfer the entire care, sup
port and control of four millions OF
rmamcipated slaves to agents, overseers
or task masters, who, appointed at
Washington, are to be located in every
county aud parish throughout the
United States containing freedmen and
refugees.
1t will require but little more ex-
perience to show the propriety of every
objection which has been urged against
the Freedmen's Bureau scheme, and ut
ahc same time to prove that the late
President LiNCoLN's was not far wrong
in a testing remark he onca made in re-
lation to the future of the blacks. In
reply to a query from Mr.. STEVENS in
the Hampton Roads conference, as to
4hat would become of the negroes upon
Their emancipation, he answered ''root
hOu or die"