Arizona citizen., 1873-08-02
GENERAL HOWARD.

]
 Arizona in 1872, the majority of our
 readers are interested in the fgurings
 of the War Department against him
 in Washington in 1873 therefore his
 case has 8 local significance which
 iustifes some space in THE CITIZEN,
 while it is in progress of settlement.
 When first charged with wrong, the
 telegraph announced the General as
 being anxious for @ trial by court
 martial; but a dispatch of July 16.
 says he "demurs to any form of trial
 H before a military tribunal in con-
 "nection with his administration of
 ''the Freedmen's Bureau" Although
 we have great faith that justice is too
 generally dispensed with by courts
 martial, experience shows that these
 courts are at least prompt in their
 findings, which feature is naturally
 unacceptable to men whose cases are
 very bad; whereas civil courts being
 too generally run with more regard
 to immaterial forms than to the spirit
 of the law or justice, trials in them can easily be made to drag along
 from year to year until the public be- come disgusted and tired of them and the expense they entail, and so tacitly if not heartily welcome their dis missal. Every days news illustrates this in some part of the glorious civ ilized world, and Gen. Howard prob ably looks kindly and hopefully for relief in the claws delay" so easily 1 obtained, by men of some note and standing, in the civil courts.
 The National Republican (Wash- ington), inclined to favor the unfortu- nate General until Attorney-General Williams rendered the Secretary of War an opinion in the case, after which, on July 10, it gave its readers the following:
 The opinion of the Attorney-Gen- eral upon the questions and papers submitted to him by the Secretary of War in regard to the case of General makes it look rather serious for that gentleman. In the first place, the Attorney-General does not see any force or weight in the opinion which Gen. Howard says Secretary Stanton expressed, that "the provis- ions in respect of bonds was not in tended to apply to the case of any army officer detailed for duty" under the Freedmen's Bureau act, and that consequently that opinion is power less now to shield him if he has done wrong, or to save him from the re- sponsibility that attaches to the crim- inal acts of his subordinates and agents.
 The ugly phase of the whole ques- ton is that large sums of money have been abstracted from the Treasury "by means of forged re- ceipts and vouchers for bounties due colored soldiers, and by means of re- ceipts and vouchers fraudulently pro- cured from them." In other words there is indisputable proof that off eers connected with the bureau have been swindling the Government, and the poor and helpless classes whom they were paid to shelter and protect. The law and just public i opinion will hold these gentlemen, whoever they may be, to strict ac- Gen. Howard may or nay not have done wrong. The evil fence alone will disclose that. But it s absolutely certain that his subord- mates were engaged in the perpetra- C ion of gross and fragrant crimes against the freedmen. The country s will demand that the severest penal ! ies of the law shall be dealt out to . he guilty parties.
 DELEGATE MCCORMICK has denied e