New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-14

| THE JUSTYFTCATION OF GEN HOWdRD.
The charges brought by Fernando Wood
against Gen. Howard have resulted in majority
and minority reports of the Committee. The
majority very properly review the great work
which has been accomplished in the elevation
of the freedmen. This is the enduring monu-
ment which all the violence of abuse and
faction cannot overthrow. Gen. Howard in an
extended statement denied most of the charges
made against him, and showed that the others
were really, when explained, no instances of
derelictiOn of duty. These are also the con-
clusons of a majority of the Committee. They
state that the utmost that can with justice be
alleged is, that Gen. Howard, conscious OF
his own purity of motive and of act, pushed
forward the works that were benefting the
| freedmen with but little regard to appearances.
1t is possible that he occasionally cut red tape
with an unsparing hand. They regret that
during the investigation unfavOrable rumors
respecting the General were propagated. There
was no just occasion for them. The good faith
and good management of Gen. Howard shine
out all the brighter for this investigation.
The report of the minority of the Committee
| is a document of the class that finds favor
with the Democracy as-it-was; and exhibits a
| knowledge of the great facts of the last ten
years only by its dislike of the evidences of
the peoples progress. 1t is worthy of the
members who first brought the charges. They
mourn, that unhappy minority, because they
could not overhaul the Generals private bank
account, and suspect accordingly. That abOm-
nation, University where cOlOred students are
taught, actually taught, Sir, :" in their classes,
Latin, and Greek, and medicine, and law, and
"miltary tactics, by number of professors,
"whose salaries in the aggregate amount to
"$21 500" that Sir, is "a gross misap-
"prOpriaton of the public money"
That Barry farm enterprise, in which
Senator Pomeroy of Kansas also took part
as a trustee, which provides homes for freed
men, is nothing but a vile speculation
and Gen. Howard ought to be tried under the
Embezzlement act for attempting it. When,
in reply to one of these charges, the General
points out that it is not true, and that as n
charge it could not apply to him, this minor
| ity are filled with horror at his "cool au-
dacity." Then it moves their bile that he
assisted churches, benevolent societies, Christ
ian associations. An insignificant newspaper
of a Bible society looms up as an organ Of
Howard and the Republican party'-for
this newspaper did PROFOUND the dan
gerous inquiry whether the white man
or the black "is the most talented,n
which the signers of the report no doubt con-
sidered highly personal reflection. But chief
of all there are the Freedmen's savings banks,
the browning wickedness of the Bureau. The
fact that colored men have been able to save
millions of money by means of these institu-
tons is atrocious. They are machinery by
(which poor negroes are plundered," "active
"agencies in this great conspiracy" Beyond
hints and innuendoes there is little in this re-
port that need trouble the friends of Gen.
Howard, though there is enough to provoke a
smile at the laborious malice of the two repre-
sentatives who sign it.