The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-23
THE BUREAU INVESTIGATION.


The New York Tribune says:-
General o. o. Howard is fortunate in his calum.
niat0rs. Years ago IL was Andrew johnson who
maligned him in long and frequent veto messages
on the Freedmen's Bureau bill Afterwards it was
General Gordon Granger who went spying among
the subordnates that he might find matter on which
TO ground indefinite and general abuse OF the chief
subsequently delivered In q long report, which read
very much like the effort of an amateur correspon-
dent OF fOurth-class newspaper Now 1t Is Fer
nando Wood who impeaches the honesty OF his ad-
ministraton Of the affairs OF the freedmen II the
witnesses who are to sustain these charges have no
better standing with the public than the accusers
the prosecution will prove contemplate persecution
which some one has aptly termed tMackerelville VS.
Havelock, will be the complete vindication OF Gene
raj Howard"
We have no desire to PREJUDICE General
Howard in the investigation now pending in
regard to the management of the Freedmen's
Bureau, but we nevertheless insist that such
stuff as the above is in very bad taste, to say
the least. President johnson undoubtedly did
direct the attention of Congress to the Freed
mems Bureau, and intimated strongly that it
would do no harm to keep strict eye upon
the workings of that machine; and in so doing
he was simply performing one of the most
important duties incumbent upon his high
Office. The President is not merely the execu-
tor of laws, but he is, or should be, the guar
dian of the peoples rights and the peoples
as it is now officially declared,
has disbursed not less than twelve mil
lion dollars, and this immense sum has
flowed through the hands of General Howard
without either check or restriction. Con-
gress ought not to have waited for the sug-
gestions of President johnson, or the report
of General Gordon Granger, before giving
the matter thorough sitting, and if the ex-
animation had resulted satisfactorily, SO much
ba haff fnr vi aud
try; if not, then the evils of mal-administra-
ton might have been nipped in the bud, and
the treasury saved from further depletion.
But when Congress spurned the advice of
President johnson because they hated him,
and laughed at Granger's report because he
was conservative, they virtually shouldered
the entire responsibility of Howard and his
bureau, and the onus of whatever errors or
blunders he may have committed they must
share.
When committee of investigation is ap-
pointed at the request of Mr.. Fernando Wood,
Congress in effect acknowledges that there
may have been some truth in the criticisms
of President johnson and General Granger,
and that at any rate it will do no harm to look
into the whereabouts of the twelve millions
aforesaid; but this is very much like locking
the stable-door after the horse is stolen.
| Suppose, for instance, it should be ascer-
tanned that few hundred thousand dollars,
more or less, have been waste or misapplied
by General Howard, what recourse is there
now? No bonds were required of this officer
for the faithful discharge of his duties, and
whatever funds, if any, he has diverted from
the proper channel, are gone past all re-
covery. The investigating process ought to
have begun years ago, and President johnson
was right, eminently right, when he urged it
again and again.
| The If56uneS comparison of Howard to
Havelock might as well havesbeen omitted
for, without the slightest irreverence, we
may say that ''the Christian hero" business
is q drug in the market. General Howard has
blazoned his religious professions from the
| housetops, and done vast amount of sea-
sonable and unreasonable preaching with
tongue and pen, but the nation just now is
much more interested in knowing something
about his practice, and if the fruit should
prove worthless, there will be no difference
of opinion as to the character of the tree
which produced it.
General Havelock saved India from the
grasp of the Sepoy rebellion, and died before
the British Government had opportunity to
reward him for his inestimable services. Had
he lived, and been appointed commissioner of
q Sepoy bureau for the education and eleva-
ton of the Hindoos, from what we know of
the man, we doubt very much whether Have
lock would have invested 1924, 200, which did
not belong to him, in bonds of the First
Congregational Church, or ordered univer-
sity built at Government expense of worth
less brick, because he happened to be one of
the owners of the patent right. "Compari-
sons" as Mrs. Malaprop would say, ''are
sometimes 'odorous. ,"