Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-04-09
TIE FREEDmEN,s BUREAU.

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there was no necessity for the continual
ton Of the Frecdmen's Bureau, and re-
commended that it be turned over to the
supervision OF the military commanders
in the Southern States. But the Radi-
calls, many Of whom are connected with
the bureau in some capacity, who profit
by the negro woe, became alarmed at
this suggestion, and forthwith set to work
importuning Congress to continue the
bureau for at least one year longer, in
the hope that reconstruction" would
take place within that period, and that
they would be enabled to get the offices
in the various States through the negro
vote. But this political machine is mains
tanned at a heavy expense to he people,
and the heavily taxed in the Northern
States are beginning to grumble at this
imposition for the benefit of few adven-
turers and political gamblers. The st
Louis Democrat, one of the most Radical
of the Western organs of the Republican.
party, says
eve find it very difficult to understand
the reasons Of Congress for voting to con-
tinue the Freedmen's Bureau another year.
The bureau can hardly fail to do more
harm than good after the completion of
reconstruction and the admission of newly
organized States, and the action Of Con-
gress, therefore, looks much like an adj
mission that its plan of reconstruction ia
not likely 10 succeed"
The Philadelphia North America n
another organ of the Republican party,
whose radicalism will not be questioned,
says of this grand government machine
"The distribution of free rations at the
South is a gigantic evil. The commerce
and industry of the whole nation earnestly
demand the rebuilding of the prosperity Of
the cotton culture, while here stands a a.
tional bureau ready TO feed all the freed
men, whether they work or not How under
such circumstances the cotton cultufe ia
ever 10 regain its former pitch of import
ance we cannot see. Gen. Howard attempts
to remedy the evil by loaning to the plan
tiers millions of the money of the bureau
on the security of their crops. But had it
not been for his ration nuisance, these plan
tiers would have stood in no need of such
aid and whether they do or not, we think
il is not the business Of the government to
play the part of the banker for the planters.
The existence Of the bureau should termi-
nate with the admission of the reconstruct
ed States Gen. Howard himself recon-
meRded the dseontinuance of the bureau
at the time fixed by law. The courts of
the South are now all open to the freed
men, who stand there in full equality, as
parties or witnesses, with any other race in
the country. They have the civil institu-
lions in their grasp. The bureau is, there
fore, no longer needed. IL it be abolished,
the idlers will all have to go to work to
earn their livelihood.
These are only specimens of the pro-
tests which the more candid Of the Re-
publican papers are uttering against the
continuance of this partisan institution.
But the Radical members Of Congress
have decided that the interests of their
party demand that the bureau shall be
continued, and that the millions which
will be required by this institution for
the support Of the negroes in the South
must be furnished by the government.
A standing army must be maintlined in
order to see that these negroes are
brought to the polls at every election to
vote for the purpose Of establishing a rot
ten borough system Of black supremacy
over the whites in the Southern States,
So we 20.