The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1880-12-31
HOWARD AND WEST POINT.

". I1OWoCu W Niiut AuSItutAouy CttAASSa
a military department in order to pro-
vide a command for an overstock Of
Generals. With a supply of Whit.
takers, such as he will be likely to get
after the Republican majority In the
next House manufactures O number of
colored members by unseating white
representatives from the Southern
States, he can soon reconstruct West
Point on the plan of ssHowartl Uni
versity,n near Washington.
Gen. Howard bought the land for
that so-called university, modestly
named after himself, and had the
buildings erected, out of money ille-
gally and corruptly diverted from the
Freedmen's Bureau, of which he was
then Commissioners. 1t was swtndle
proven before committee of the
House in the Forty-first Congress, In
spite of the efforts of q withdrawing
Republican majority to suppress tes-
timony, and to distort evidence ac-1
tually given.
An organized ring of thieving phil
anthropists and politicians, whose
whole capital was pretended friendship
for the colored man, not only stole the
black soldiers bounty land and money
through the Freedmen's Bureau, but
they robbed and ruined the Freed
mans Bank, In which the hard
savings of thousands of confiding black
men, women, and children were de-
posted. These people were cheated
with Towards professions and promf-
cant about their race.
This band of thieves traded upon re-
ligion, philanthropy, and humanity,
and assumed the special guardianship
of the colored people. In the days Of
reconstruction they may be said to
have shaped all the political legisla-
ton relating to the negro. Enormous
appropriations in money were made
for the Freedmen's Bureau, for sala-
ries of Assistant and Sub-Assistant
Commissioners, clerks, stationery and
printing, quarters and fuel, clothing
for distribution, commissary stores,
medical department, transportation,
school superintendent, repairs of
school houses, and the like. The Re-
publicans voted twelve millions out Of
the Treasury in 1866 and 1867 for these
objects.
In addition 10 this enormous sum,
all the abandoned and confiscated lands
in the Southern States, and the money
and property in any way derivedNfrom
that source, were turned over to the
bureau. An act of 1867 gave the Com
missioner custody of the retained
bounty fund belonging to colored SOL
diers, and further act of 1867 author
lied the Commissioner to receive and
disburse all moneys due to colored SOL
diers belonging to Southern States.
The whole management of this vast
machine was put in the hands of
Howard, with unlimited power to run
it in his own way, and with tens of
millions under his absolute control.
The Republican managers only re-.
quired that he should organize the
negro vote in the South in their inter-
est, and keep il ready to make Sena-
tors and Representatives; and they
agreed to foot the bills out of the pub
lie Treasury, without asking any ques-
lions. He did the work according to
contract, and he did more than was ex-
pected of him. The opportunity for
plumber was too attractive to be neg
lected, and in the ignorance, easy
nature, and mistaken faith of the
freshly emancipated freedmen, victims
for the cupidity and rascalitySof their
loud-mouthed friends were found by
thousands.
Howard and his associates colluded
with Boss Shepherds Washington
Ring, and made common cause In gut
ting the Freedman's Bank. Hypocrisy
and knavery combined to defraud the
trusting negro, who, lifted up to citi-
zenship, suffrage, and equality before
the law, naturally looked for counsel
and for protection to those who had
ostensibly elevated his condition, the
better to win his good will, and thus
to plumber him.
Howard is the very man for West
Point. When the professional philan-
thropists were experimenting there at
the outset, Fred Grant and the set to
which he belonged were far more OK
treme than the Southern cadets against
the admission of the colored youth
There are many more Fred Grants in
that institution, which Is becoming Of
fensively aristocratic in its ways. Lee
Howard deal with them, and 1--WE shall
see what comes of it.--N. y. jStat.
SENATOR WALLACE ON THE DEMO.