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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
[266] States was segregated and put into a fund. This fund was to be used for the support or partial support of the wives and children of the colored soldiers thus enlisted. A part of it had been disbursed in accordance with the terms of the orders and the balance, under the President's instructions, was transferred to our Bureau. At first it was simply kept in trust, so uncertain did we feel concerning the proper disposal of it. After a time a part of the fund was used to purchase a building and land for a colored school. I had the opinion that that would be a good disposition to make of any remaining balance, provided there should be sufficient, of course, after we had paid back to all we could find of the soldiers concerned and to their families what plainly belonged to them. In fact, repayment had gone on continuously, though the late soldiers concerned, being widely scattered, were hard to find. We knew that the school building, which was the freed people's best relief, could be disposed of at any time; and that very soon the interest of the fund, mostly in United States bonds, would cover the purchase. One day in conversation with Senator Lot M. Morrill, I called his attention to this fund. He said that such an expenditure ought to be approved by action of Congress, otherwise that money might cause me trouble. After this interview, a bill was submitted to Congress which authorized such investments and disposition of the money as had been made. It passed one House, but was amended in the other, by striking out the real estate clause. In this form it became a law. It required the Bureau to pay the bounty money to the soldiers and their families as far as might be,
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