FREEDMEN, REFUGEES, AND ABANDONED LANDS. 



:; I .', 



( >n the 3d of August, 1808, Congress pawed 

 a law, over tlio presidential veto, that the duties 

 ari'l powers of the commissioner should con - 

 in lo discharged by the then commis- 

 sioner (General O. O. Iloward) ; and, in case of 

 ath or resignation, the vacancy was to bo 

 til I. '! by the President on the nomination of 

 t la- Secretary of War, by the advice and consent 

 of the Senate; and army officers were forbid- 

 den to enter upon the duties of commissioner, 

 unless appointed by the advice and consent of 

 the Senate. In oaso of vacancy of the office 

 luring the recess of the Senate, its duties were 

 to bo performed by the acting assistant adju- 

 tant-general of the Bureau ; and the commis- 

 sioner was ordered to withdraw the Bureau 

 from the several States after the first day of 

 the next January, 1869 ; but its educational 

 department, and the collection and payment 

 of moneys due soldiers, sailors, and marines, 

 were to bo continued. The educational work 

 of the Bureau was therefore continued till 

 July 1, 1870; but its collection of the pay of 

 colored soldiers and sailors still goes on, under 

 a law that all moneys due them shall be made 

 payable to the order of the commissioner. 



Abandoned Lands. The bill organizing the 

 Bureau became a law in March, 1865, and in 

 the subsequent Juno Mr. Johnson directed all 

 officers of the Treasury Department, all mili- 

 tary officers, and all others in the service of 

 the United States to turn over to the Bureau 

 all abandoned lands, and all funds collected by 

 tax or otherwise, for the benefit of refugees or 

 t'reedmen, or acquired from abandoned lands. 

 But the rapid use of the pardoning power soon 

 placed the late owners in a position to demand 

 their real estate ; and the commissioner did 

 not think it advisable to locate refugees or 

 froedmen on lands which ho was likely to be 

 called on to restore so soon ; no guarantee of 

 possession could be given to the occupants. In 

 1865, 768,590 acres of land had been taken 

 possession of; but before another year 496,369 

 acres had been restored to the pardoned 

 owners. In 1867-1868 only 139,634 acres re- 

 mained under the control of the Bureau ; and 

 orders were then issued for the restoration of 

 this land, or for dropping it from the returns, 

 except in cases where Government had per- 

 fected its title by due process of law. As a 

 means of benefiting the refugee and the freed- 

 man from the abandoned lands of the Southern 

 States, the Bureau has been useless, except 

 that it collected $400,000 from rents. 



Transportation. The abolition of slavery 

 so disturbed the relations between the late 

 master and slave, that the blacks deserted 

 their plantations in large numbers, and crowded 

 into cities and around centres of population. 

 Over 20,000 found their way into Washington 

 alone. The labor-market of all Southern cities 

 was overstocked, while there was a great call 

 for labor from the country. Orders for trans- 

 portation were therefore issued, removing the 

 laborer to the place of demand; but in the 



subsequent year these orders were restricted 

 to those unable to work, except in extreme 

 cases, and to prevent actual fluttering. Teachers 

 were carried free to and from their schools, 

 ami food was transported wherever suffering 

 existed. The following statistics show the 

 total amount of transportation furnished by 

 the iSureuu: 



In addition to the transportation of the 

 laborer, the officers of the Bureuu were con- 

 stantly called on to arbitrate between the em- 

 ployer and his workmen. In the short space 

 of three months, General Wbittlesey, Superin- 

 tendent for North Carolina, reported 8,405 

 cases where there were complaints of cruelty 

 and of refusal to pay wages on the one side, or to 

 adhere to the original terms of the contract on 

 the other; and Mr. Elliott, Chairman of the 

 House Committee of Freedmen, thought that 

 one hundred thousand such cases were heard 

 and acted on in a single year. Contracts were 

 drawn up between the two parties; in one 

 State, and in a single year, not less than 30,000 

 such contracts were executed in duplicate*. 

 The rights of the black man were guarded by 

 the Bureau as a military arm of the Govern- 

 ment. 



Claim* and Bounties. When colored men 

 were first called into military service, their 

 ignorance exposed them to great frauds in the 

 collection of their pay and bounties ; Govern- 

 ment was also defrauded by false papers and 

 personations. A Claim Division was there- 

 fore established in March, 1866, and all officers 

 and agents of the Bureau were directed to for- 

 ward all claims of the blacks against the Gov- 

 ernment without charge. In March, 1867, 

 Congress enacted a law that " all checks and 

 Treasury certificates * * * to be issued 

 in settlement of claims for pay of bounty or 

 prize money, or other moneys due to colored 

 soldiers or marines, or their legal representa- 

 tives, now residing or who may have resided 

 in any State in which slavery existed in the 

 year 1860, the claim of which has been or may 

 be presented by an agent or attorney, shall be 

 made payable to the Commissioner of the 

 Freedmen's Bureau." Nearly all the colored 

 troops collected their pay through this chan- 

 nel, and to them were paid, in but little more 

 than three vears, and without expense, $7,- 

 683,618.61. In March, 1870, the Adjutant- 

 General of the Army notified the Bureau that, 

 in consequence of the frauds committed by at- 

 torneys and claim-agents in certain States 

 lately in rebellion, in connection with claims 

 of colored soldiers for commutation for rations 

 while prisoners of war, and owing to the diffi- 

 culty of identifying the claimants, and in order 



