Reconstruction

by Brooks D. Simpson

  By the too generous action of some agents of the bureau in furnishing rations & clothing many able bodied freedmen have been lost from the fields. It has been over eight months since the agents of this bureau commenced the “temporary” issue of rations. They are still issued. There appears to be no definite time when “temporary” issues shall cease, & this new act provides that such issues shall continue. There is work for all able bodied men in the South. But many will not engage in it as long as rations and clothing are furnished by the Government. The Asst. Commr. of the Bureau for North Carolina told me a few days ago that there are 3000 able bodied freedmen on Roanoke Island for whom he can get employment, but they will not take it. A short time ago he cut off the temporary issue of rations to these people. They then at once became “destitute & suffering freedmen” and again had to be fed to save them from starving. Some of the philanthropists interested in the freedmen complained of his bad treatment of these people in cutting off the rations. The aged and infirm must be taken care of until the State Governments in the South are able to take care of their own poor—but they will never be able—or show a willingness to do so as long as the general government provides it for them.

  An immense number of agents will be required to carry out the provisions of this act. The Army will perhaps be called upon for a small number, the rest must be citizens. There are now on file in this Bureau hundreds of applications for such appointments. The most of these are from men of the North who profess to be philanthropists and wish to work for the good of the freedman, but none of them offer to work without pay, while some are very exorbitant in their demands. The class of men seeking such places are generally those who have strong prejudices in favor of the black and against the white man of the south, and many of them wish to go into the work to carry out some political theory or hobby. Instead of harmonizing capital & labor such men will keep the whites and blacks of the south in a chronic state of hostility. A few will be unprincipled enough to create disturbances in order to prove the existence of the bureau a necessity, so that they may be retained in position with pay. As it is now we have good reason to suppose that a few local agents of the bureau send startling accounts of outrages committed against the freedmen to the press of the country for the same reason or for a political purpose. Again some of the Agents will do as is now done by a few of those at present engaged in this work, i.e. take advantage of their positions to improve their finances;—such as renting plantations, and furnishing freedmen laborers to planters for a consideration.

  It is true that the appointment of agents of the bureau must be made by your Excellency and the Commissioner. But it will be impossible for you to know much of the many applicants for position. When hundreds are to be appointed many bad men will slip in, and many who will come well recommended will not be able to stand the pecuniary & political temptations to which they will be subjected. It has been admitted to me by some of the warmest friends of the Act that the success of the bureau will depend entirely upon the character of its employees. The increase of its powers and agents is then a dangerous experiment. If the law has not inherent power to prevent evil some new law or remedy should be sought. I believe it to be impossible to have a majority of the agents—selected as they must be—good men. If then the Bureau is not a success it will be much worse for the freedman than if it had never been in existance.

  It is almost certain that in certain localities the organization would become a political machine. Already there has been an example of this in the State of Louisiana, notwithstanding the Commissioner had given direct and positive orders against such an abuse of the institution. In such cases the true interest of the freedman would be neglected, to teach him political theories, at present impractical or impolitic, that will insure his enmity towards the white and the whites towards him—thus widening the breach that exists between them.

  Another objection to the Act is the great expense that it will Entail upon the Government. Under the Act approved March 3d 1865, organizing the bureau, no appropriation of funds was made. Agents therefore had to be detailed from the Army, and the Hon. Secy. of War furnished all needful QrMaster & Commissary supplies. No person can complain that the freedman has not received sufficient attention and assistance from the bureau up to the present time. Yet it is proposed to increase the institution largely, and the expenses to an enormous amount. The estimate for funds made by the Commissioner for the coming year was not made for the expenses necessary under the Act now under consideration & is therefore not a criterion for the amt. that will be required.

  In reference to confirming the posessary titles that the freedmen have to the Estates on the Sea Islands I have only to say that there are legal objections which will present themselves. I am sure that some of the good lawyers who voted in favor of the Act were aware of this fact, or they would have confirmed them forever—as Gen Shermans order provides—instead of for three years. There is no doubt but that the freedmen will remain, under this Act, in posession for three years, for it will take that length of time to bring the matter to a trial and decission in the U.S. Supreme Court. I believe it will be injurious to the freedmen to confirm their posession beyond the time for gathering their present crops, unless confirmed forever.

  The freedmen can be better cared for, so far as the government should extend assistance, by the Military Authorities than in any other way: and this at a very small expense additional to the expense of supporting the troops in the south. If the head of the bureau, as at present, is in the War Department and issues orders and instructions from there, and then the officers and subalterns of the army are made ex-officio members of the bureau—or better, if its made part of their military duty to have general supervision of the freedmen, as they have of other persons where civil law is inoperative, the system would be much simplified, a large expense would be saved, and great good could be done. These military agents would be obliged to carry out the orders of the head of the bureau, and they would have the power to do so. They would have no political, selfish, or pecuniary designs to carry out. They would have no desire to promote strife between the whites and blacks, and both of these classes having confidence in them would advance in their interests and become reconciled to the situation. They will have no object to desire the continuance of the bureau longer than its existence is actually demanded in order that they may receive a support, for their offices would still continue.

  The objection that some will offer to this proposition will be that the armies are being mustered out & there will not be material enough left for Agents of the bureau. But the Act in providing for a large number of Agents also provides, in Section 2., that the “President of the United States, through the War Department and the Commissioner, shall extend military jurisdiction and protection over all employees, agents and offices of this bureau in the exercise of the duties imposed or authorized by this act, or the act to which this is additional.”

  If there are enough officers & men in the Military service to extend such protection to the employees &c, surely there are enough to attend, as agents, to the requirements of the Bureau.

  J. S. Fullerton Bv. Brig. Genl. Vols.

  WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 1866

  Andrew Johnson:

  Veto of the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill

  Washington, February 19, 1866.

  To the Senate of the United States

  I have examined with care the bill, which originated in the Senate and has been passed by the two Houses of Congress, to amend an act entitled “An act to establish a bureau for the relief of freedmen and refugees,” and for other purposes. Having with much regret come to the conclusion that it would not be consistent with the public welfare to give my approval to the measure, I return the bill to the Senate with my objections to its becoming a law.

  I might call to mind in advance of these objections that there is no immediate necessity for the proposed measure. The act to establish a bureau for the relief of freedmen and refugees, which was appro
ved in the month of March last, has not yet expired. It was thought stringent and extensive enough for the purpose in view in time of war. Before it ceases to have effect further experience may assist to guide us to a wise conclusion as to the policy to be adopted in time of peace.

  I share with Congress the strongest desire to secure the freedmen the full enjoyment of their freedom and property and their entire independence and equality in making contracts for their labor, but the bill before me contains provisions which in my opinion are not warranted by the Constitution and are not well suited to accomplish the end in view.

  The bill proposes to establish by authority of Congress military jurisdiction over all parts of the United States containing refugees and freedmen. It would by its very nature apply with most force to those parts of the United States in which the freedmen most abound, and it expressly extends the existing temporary jurisdiction of the Freedmen’s Bureau, with greatly enlarged powers, over those States “in which the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has been interrupted by the rebellion.” The source from which this military jurisdiction is to emanate is none other than the President of the United States, acting through the War Department and the Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau. The agents to carry out this military jurisdiction are to be selected either from the Army or from civil life; the country is to be divided into districts and subdistricts, and the number of salaried agents to be employed may be equal to the number of counties or parishes in all the United States where freedmen and refugees are to be found.

  The subjects over which this military jurisdiction is to extend in every part of the United States include protection to “all employees, agents, and officers of this bureau in the exercise of the duties imposed” upon them by the bill. In eleven States it is further to extend over all cases affecting freedmen and refugees discriminated against “by local law, custom, or prejudice.” In those eleven States the bill subjects any white person who may be charged with depriving a freedman of “any civil rights or immunities belonging to white persons” to imprisonment or fine, or both, without, however, defining the “civil rights and immunities” which are thus to be secured to the freedmen by military law. This military jurisdiction also extends to all questions that may arise respecting contracts. The agent who is thus to exercise the office of a military judge may be a stranger, entirely ignorant of the laws of the place, and exposed to the errors of judgment to which all men are liable. The exercise of power over which there is no legal supervision by so vast a number of agents as is contemplated by the bill must, by the very nature of man, be attended by acts of caprice, injustice, and passion.

  The trials having their origin under this bill are to take place without the intervention of a jury and without any fixed rules of law or evidence. The rules on which offenses are to be “heard and determined” by the numerous agents are such rules and regulations as the President, through the War Department, shall prescribe. No previous presentment is required nor any indictment charging the commission of a crime against the laws; but the trial must proceed on charges and specifications. The punishment will be, not what the law declares, but such as a court-martial may think proper; and from these arbitrary tribunals there lies no appeal, no writ of error to any of the courts in which the Constitution of the United States vests exclusively the judicial power of the country.

  While the territory and the classes of actions and offenses that are made subject to this measure are so extensive, the bill itself, should it become a law, will have no limitation in point of time, but will form a part of the permanent legislation of the country. I can not reconcile a system of military jurisdiction of this kind with the words of the Constitution which declare that “no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger,” and that “in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.” The safeguards which the experience and wisdom of ages taught our fathers to establish as securities for the protection of the innocent, the punishment of the guilty, and the equal administration of justice are to be set aside, and for the sake of a more vigorous interposition in behalf of justice we are to take the risks of the many acts of injustice that would necessarily follow from an almost countless number of agents established in every parish or county in nearly a third of the States of the Union, over whose decisions there is to be no supervision or control by the Federal courts. The power that would be thus placed in the hands of the President is such as in time of peace certainly ought never to be intrusted to any one man.

  If it be asked whether the creation of such a tribunal within a State is warranted as a measure of war, the question immediately presents itself whether we are still engaged in war. Let us not unnecessarily disturb the commerce and credit and industry of the country by declaring to the American people and to the world that the United States are still in a condition of civil war. At present there is no part of our country in which the authority of the United States is disputed. Offenses that may be committed by individuals should not work a forfeiture of the rights of whole communities. The country has returned, or is returning, to a state of peace and industry, and the rebellion is in fact at an end. The measure, therefore, seems to be as inconsistent with the actual condition of the country as it is at variance with the Constitution of the United States.

  If, passing from general considerations, we examine the bill in detail, it is open to weighty objections.

  In time of war it was eminently proper that we should provide for those who were passing suddenly from a condition of bondage to a state of freedom. But this bill proposes to make the Freedmen’s Bureau, established by the act of 1865 as one of many great and extraordinary military measures to suppress a formidable rebellion, a permanent branch of the public administration, with its powers greatly enlarged. I have no reason to suppose, and I do not understand it to be alleged, that the act of March, 1865, has proved deficient for the purpose for which it was passed, although at that time and for a considerable period thereafter the Government of the United States remained unacknowledged in most of the States whose inhabitants had been involved in the rebellion. The institution of slavery, for the military destruction of which the Freedmen’s Bureau was called into existence as an auxiliary, has been already effectually and finally abrogated throughout the whole country by an amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and practically its eradication has received the assent and concurrence of most of those States in which it at any time had an existence. I am not, therefore, able to discern in the condition of the country anything to justify an apprehension that the powers and agencies of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which were effective for the protection of freedmen and refugees during the actual continuance of hostilities and of African servitude, will now, in a time of peace and after the abolition of slavery, prove inadequate to the same proper ends. If I am correct in these views, there can be no necessity for the enlargement of the powers of the Bureau, for which provision is made in the bill.

  The third section of the bill authorizes a general and unlimited grant of support to the destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen, their wives and children. Succeeding sections make provision for the rent or purchase of landed estates for freedmen, and for the erection for their benefit of suitable buildings for asylums and schools, the expenses to be defrayed from the Treasury of the whole people. The Congress of the United States has never heretofore thought itself empowered to establish asylums beyond the limits of the District of Columbia, except for the benefit of our disabled soldiers and sailors. It has never founded schools for any class of our own people, not even for the orphans of those who have fallen in the defense of the Union, but has left the care of education to the much more competent and efficient c
ontrol of the States, of communities, of private associations, and of individuals. It has never deemed itself authorized to expend the public money for the rent or purchase of homes for the thousands, not to say millions, of the white race who are honestly toiling from day to day for their subsistence. A system for the support of indigent persons in the United States was never contemplated by the authors of the Constitution; nor can any good reason be advanced why, as a permanent establishment, it should be founded for one class or color of our people more than another. Pending the war many refugees and freedmen received support from the Government, but it was never intended that they should thenceforth be fed, clothed, educated, and sheltered by the United States. The idea on which the slaves were assisted to freedom was that on becoming free they would be a self-sustaining population. Any legislation that shall imply that they are not expected to attain a self-sustaining condition must have a tendency injurious alike to their character and their prospects.

  The appointment of an agent for every county and parish will create an immense patronage, and the expense of the numerous officers and their clerks, to be appointed by the President, will be great in the beginning, with a tendency steadily to increase. The appropriations asked by the Freedmen’s Bureau as now established, for the year 1866, amount to $11,745,000. It may be safely estimated that the cost to be incurred under the pending bill will require double that amount—more than the entire sum expended in any one year under the Administration of the second Adams. If the presence of agents in every parish and county is to be considered as a war measure, opposition, or even resistance, might be provoked; so that to give effect to their jurisdiction troops would have to be stationed within reach of every one of them, and thus a large standing force be rendered necessary. Large appropriations would therefore be required to sustain and enforce military jurisdiction in every county or parish from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. The condition of our fiscal affairs is encouraging, but in order to sustain the present measure of public confidence it is necessary that we practice not merely customary economy, but, as far as possible, severe retrenchment.