“ [441] comforted the sorrowful, raised up the downhearted, corrected bad habits among whites and blacks, restored order, sustained contracts for work, compelled attention to the statute books, collected claims, furthered local educational movements, gave sanctity to the marriage relation, dignified labor, strengthened men and women in good resolutions, rooted out old prejudices, ennobled the home, assisted the freedmen to become land owners, brought offenders to justice, broke up bands of outlaws, overturned the class rule of ignorance, led bitter hearts into brighter ways, shamed strong hearts into charity and forgiveness, promulgated the new doctrine of equal rights, destroyed the seeds of mistrust and antagonism, cheered the despondent, set idlers at work, aided in the reorganization of society, carried the light of the North into dark places of the South, steadied the negro in his struggle with novel ideas, inculcated kindly feeling, checked the passion of whites and blacks, opened the blind eyes of judges and jurors, taught the gospel of forbearance, encouraged human sympathy, distributed the generous charities of the benevolent, upheld loyalty, assisted in creating a sentiment of nationality-how it did all this and hundredfold more, who shall ever tell What pen shall ever record?” These are warm and generous words. They are eloquent. But the facts that they state are still more eloquent. Still it is asked, “Has the Bureau been a success?” Success! The world can point to nothing like it in all the history of emancipation. No thirteen millions of dollars were ever more wisely spent; yet from the beginning this scheme has encountered the bitterest opposition and the most unrelenting hate. Scoffed at
This text is part of:
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
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.