fusion and incompleteness of records.-Defalcations.-Mis- application of bureau money.-Further discrepancies.-The CHAPTER VIII.-Land, Labor, and Justice Bureau in charge of abandoned and confiscated prop- The reconstruction acts.-Share of bureau officials in en- CHAPTER I ANTECEDENTS At the outbreak of the civil war, the result of the contact of the slaves with northern and southern armies could not be accurately foretold. Most thoughtful men saw, however, that in the confusion and social disorder consequent upon military invasion, the negro must inevitably assume an important role. Many at the south feared slave insurrection. Many at the north hoped for universal emancipation. Both believed that the contact of soldier with slave was fraught with far-reaching possibilities. But it was only with the advance of the invading armies farther and farther into southern fields that the significance of the negro as an element in the contest became more exactly defined and more generally apparent. At first cautiously and in small numbers, and later by hundreds, slaves came to the federal camps for protection, subsistence, or mere gratification of idle curiosity. Some were fleeing from their masters. Some had been left on plantations whence their masters had been driven by union arms or confederate conscription. Some came of their own motion; others were lured from their homes by overzealous abolition soldiers. All these came penniless, ignorant, inexperienced in directing the labor of their own hands. Believing the union army an army of emancipation and filled with confidence in the northern soldiers, they sought with them the protection formerly afforded by their masters. 1. Gordon, War Diary, 65; Louisville Daily Democrat, Nov. 26, '68. Another class of negroes had remained contented upon the plantations which their masters had deserted. In many instances they had been left with a liberal supply of clothing, with comfortable houses, aud with a growing or harvested crop. Then the union army came and took possession of the region. Perhaps soldiers, camp followers, and adventurers plundered the plantation and appropriated its supplies. Even when left unmolested, the bondsmen usually proved incompetent as farm superintendents.1 The helplessness of the negro on the plantation was almost as complete as that of the fugitive in the camp. The negro question now pressed itself upon the northern mind with greater vividness and urgency than ever before. These creatures must be fed, clothed, and usefully employed; they ought to be educated, intellectually and morally. Mary at home and in the field gave the situation their gravest consideration. But those most active in early efforts to solve the problem may be roughly grouped under three heads: (1) military commanders; (2) officers of the treasury department; (3) members of northern benevolent and religious societies. They aimed to provide for the temporal wants of the negro, to promote justice, to organize labor, and to afford adequate education. A sketch of their tentative measures forms a very natural preface to a treatise on the freedmen's bureau, for they suggested the essential features of that bureau and afforded valuable experience for the guidance of the framers of the freedmen's bureau bill. Furthermore, it was the aid associations that first recognized the necessity of one national organization for the control of freedmen and that labored most persistently for its establishment. 1. Newbern Daily Progress, Nov. 17, 1862; MS. Letter of Dr. T. G. White, Beaufort, S. C., Nov. 29, 1899. act. 1. Action of Military Commanders The slave question presented peculiar difficulties to the general in the field. The avowed policy of the administration was that of non-interference with slavery in the states. and of enforcement of the laws, including the fugitive slave At the north, public opinion was divided, but the decided majority doubtless sympathized with the government in this avowal. Still, with the progress of the war, the argument from military necessity increased in force. The early date, however, at which the question of dealing with fugitives and refugees presented itself and the strong desire and necessity of conciliating the border states, prevented the war department from promptly formulating a general policy. So each commander was left largely to his own discretion. Under these circumstances it was idle to hope for uniformity of action. The tenor of a general's orders was determined by his personal opinions, his political bias, and his military training. The treatment of the black man at the hands of an army of regulars and volunteers, of republicans and democrats, of abolitionists and pro-slavery men, of men of different temperaments and different conceptions of a soldier's duty, was bound to present infinite variety. The union officers may be divided into three groups: (1) those who opposed abolition and wished to leave slavery as it was before the war; (2) those radicals who believed it their duty to free the slaves by proclamation; (3) those who opposed rash abolition measures, but who proposed to relieve suffering wherever possible and at the same time to injure the confederacy by encouraging and supporting fugitives. In the early part of the war, the commonest practice, especially among regular army officers, was to protect property in slaves. Some officers discouraged insubordination |