Year: 1866

though one calculated in no way to
benefit the great work OF reconstruction,
and which appears to have been made
more in accordance with the feelings of
the Johnson. Doolittle Raymond party
than as regards the condition in which
the freedmen of the South were found
by the authors of the report.


By the proclamation of President Lin
coin which took effect January lst,
1858, some three millions of blacks in
the South, then in perpetual slavery,
were liberated, and if no other rights
under the then existing circumstances
were bestowed on them, and though
they could not for the time being even
consider themselves free, they had the
consolation OF knowing that ere long
the day must dawn when they would be
virtually placed within the reach of all
the rights guaranteed by the Constitu-
tion of the United States, including
"lite, liberty, and the pursuit of happi-
ness" As fast as the rebellious states
became subjected to their lawful allie
glance to the national government, the
rights guaranteed the negroes by the
Presidents proclamation were extended
them, and while their late masters were
forced to submit to the laws of the land,
a judgment which they, by their trea-
son, had been mainly instrumental in
wreaking upon their own heads, they
sought to subvert the true position of
the negro and establish system of
peonage and other outrageous customs,
which would virtually place him in
worse position than the slavery in which
the emancipation proclamation found
him.


To protect the negro, and likewise do
Justice to his late master, the Freedmen's
Bureau was organized by Congress, and
its management placed in the hands of
agents who were deemed and who have
generally proved themselves fully CON-
petent and entirely worthy of the trust
reposed in them. And while it is well
known that mistakes have been made in
its management, they have been so tri-
val that they are entirely lost sight of
by the great amount Of good which has
emanated therefrom. At the late ses-
sion of Congress an attempt was made
by that body to further perfect the Blu.
reau in its relations to the negroes and
the Southern whites but all efforts at
such perfection were persistently vetoed
by the President, and Gems. Steadmsn
and Fullerton were constituted com
mission to proceed South and report as
to the actual condition of the negro and
the protection afforded him by the Bu-
reau. These gentlemen have returned
and their report has been given to the
public, by which it is clearly evident
that they have remembered who was
their master, and have obeyed the in
junction "as l have done, go thou and
do likewise"


In their report they in substance say
that the negroes would be much better
OF without the operations of the Bu-
reau in their behalf, that they could ob-
tain much higher wages, and receive
many other favors at the hands Of their
late masters which they now do not.
These assertions are made by the COM
mission in the face and eyes OF undoubt-
ed authority to the contrary received
daily at the War Department, and are
intended to assist the Presidential policy
of overthrowing the Freedmen's Bu-
reau and leaving the negroes to the no
very tender mercies of the still rebel
ious Shareholders. A document written
80 utterly one. sided as this report is
cannot fail to iDjure the party whose
policy it is intended to forward and
eventually aid the great work of recon-
struction and equal rights to all. We
append an extract from the report, in
order to more fully show the general
drift thereof:


We are of the opinion that at the close
of the war, and for some time after the
cessation of hostilities, the Freedmen's
Bureau did good. The people of the
South having at first no faith in the ne
groes working under free labor sys-
TEN, were desirous OF getting rid OF
them, and during the summer of 1865
Udicious Bureau and military officers
did much towards restoring order and
harmony, and inducing the people OF the
Sou n to resume the cultivation of their
plantations ~ employing the freedmen
Before the close of 1865 there was ar
entire revolution in the sentiments Of
the people of the South in regard to ne
gro labor. A feeling of kindness sprung
up towards the freedmen, resulting, per
haps mainly from the conviction tha


his labor was desirable and profitable
and the only labor to be had. The ne


cessity of the Bureau then ceased


Since then, while it has been beneficial


In some localities, it has been pIoduc


tive in the aggregate, Of more harm


than good. 1t has occasioned and viii


Dcrnafuata dispnrd oo lopn ae II axie.e