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Table of Contents:
Chapter
47
: freedmen's aid societies and an act of congress creating a Bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands
Chapter
55
:
first
appropriation by congress for the bureau; the reconstruction Act,
March
2
,
1867
; increase of educational work
Chapter
60
: opposition to Bureau and reconstruction work became personal; the
Congregational Church of
Washington
Chapter
62
: life in
Washington, D. C.
,
1866
to
1874
; assigned to duty in regular army as commander,
Department of the Columbia
Chapter
63
: in the
Northwest
, among the
Indians
; trip to
Alaska
; life in
Portland, Ore.
;
1874
to
1881
Chapter
64
: superintendent of the
United States military Academy
; commanding
Department of the Platte
,
Omaha, Neb.
Chapter
68
:
French
army maneuvers,
1884
; promotion to
Major General
,
United States army
,
San Francisco
1886
-
88
“ [172] been driven or allowed to flee from the Confederate States.” Butler would have had no doubt on this question had he not seen an order issued by General Irvin McDowell substantially forbidding all fugitive slaves from coming within his lines or being harbored there. If left to his own discretion he would have taken a widely different course from that which McDowell's order indicated. In a loyal State he would put down a servile insurrection. In a State in rebellion he would confiscate that which was used to oppose our arms, and take all that property which constituted the wealth of that State, and furnished the means by which the war was prosecuted, besides being the cause of the war; and if, in so doing, it should be objected that human beings were brought to the free enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, such objection would not require much consideration. Our President and Congress diligently studied all the phenomena, noticed the gradual clearing of the skies, and in some fitting manner, by proclamations and by timely acts of legislation, helped to drive away the remaining mists from men's minds and hearts. An Act of Congress, approved March 13, 1862, created a new Article of War. It prohibited all persons in the military service from employing the forces under their command to return slaves to claiming owners and provided trial by court-martial and the penalty of dismissal for its violation. This was a legal step that the friends of freedom hailed with no little satisfaction. Thus legislation after a germinating period had emphasized and enforced the better view, and all commanders had been gradually brought to treat as freedmen
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