The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-04-23

He argued against the views OF the ma
jority OF tho committee, who hold that
the present commissioners cannot be re-
moved by Congress. He could not con-
ceive how this office OF theirs was u
property; they had no beneficient inter
est whatsoever in the property or rights
OF the original corporators. He pro,
posed to relieve them Of their office. ana
have one man appointed upon whom
tho colored people could rely with
greater security. He declared that Tor
the year and u half that these three
commissioners have been in existence
they have expended $1b0,000 and had
ONLY declared n dividend of twenty per
cent, two OF them performed no
duty whatever, and had only declared q
dividend OF twenty per cent. Two Of
them performed no duty whatever, and
paid out of their salaries $500 each to
the third commissioner, Mr. Leo
pold, who discharged all the duties of
the three. He asserted That no such
stupondous fraud as the Freedman s
Bank had ever existed under tho pro
lection OF the Government, and it
seemed wonderful to him that such n
fraud could have existed in Washing
ton unchalfenged by tho authorities,
and especially those who had taken the
colored mon under their special pro
lection and care. He quoted extensively
from the testimony OF Ansom NJ. Spcr-
ry. the bank examiner, and other
witnesses as to frauds and irregularities
in the management Of the bank some OF
the testimony was In clucidation OF n
transaction by which the bank lost
about $1 ,OOO. 900 with the famous Seneca
Stone Company, which he characterized
as ~ bogus institution. I'm which several
distinguished gentlemen, commencing
with the President and ending with
Caleb Cushing, were stockholders. He
quoted from the testimony OF u colorcd
physician OF Washington (Dr. Purvis)
one of tho trustees of the bank
To the effect that the cashiers
at almost all the branches were
scoundrels and thieves and made no
bones of 1t, and that almost all Of them
were ministers with large Sunday
schools. lie declared that the admin
istration of the Freedmans Bank had
been parallel with the administration
OF the Southern States ever since the
so called rehabilitation of those States
In his own State the District and Cir
cult Courts of the United States had
tyranized over tho people without re-
gard to their rights of person or prop
@ er'v, and yet, yet tho 1So people 10 Of Aln, ,ho
new civilization was imposed upon
them. IL was slanderous TO charge the
people Of the South with any idea of
impairing the obligation of the national
debt or of disrcgarding the claims Of
the manned soldiers. The people of the
South were no longer Confederate ciii-
zens. The Confederacy was dead long
ago, and nobody thought any longer
about il except as an unfortunate incl
dent in history. lie denied that the peo-
ple of the South expected to be paid for
for any OF the losses sustained by them
during the war. and although u few such
claims had been presented, there would
be no concerted attempt to press these
claims for spoliation. and no such claims
would ever be supported 10y the Demo
cratic members from the South. He
appealed to members Of thcIlIouse to do
Justice to the South, and no longer to
believe that people 20 be outlaws OF
hypocrites. Let them have n good gov
ernment and n wholesome administra-
ton of justice and they would be rs true
friends to the colored people as could
be found on this continent. He did not
believe that there was any purpose on
the part OF any considerable portion of
the Republican party to perpctuate the
rule that had existed in the South since
1868. 1t would be n calamity to the
whole country, and especially to the
South, il another administration oil the
Same sort were to control the Govern
ment for four years to come.
Board Of Health.
Mr.. Stephenson, OF Illinois, intro
duced n bill to abolish the Board Of
Health Of the District OF Columbia.