nce which they could not yet use. It is all well
enough for us of another generation to wax wise with advice to those who
bore the burden in the heat of the day. It is full easy now to see that
the man who lost home, fortune, and family at a stroke, and saw his land
ruled by "mules and niggers," was really benefited by the passing of
slavery. It is not difficult now to say to the young freedman, cheated
and cuffed about, who has seen his father's head beaten to a jelly and
his own mother namelessly assaulted, that the meek shall inherit
the earth. Above all, nothing is more convenient than to heap on the
Freedmen's Bureau all the evils of that evil day, and damn it utterly
for every mistake and blunder that was made.

All this is easy, but it is neither sensible nor just. Some one had
blundered, but that was long before Oliver Howard was born; there was
criminal aggression and heedless neglect, but without some system of
control there would have been far more than there was. Had that control
been from within, the Negro would have been reenslaved, to all intents
and purposes. Coming as the control did from without, perfect men and
methods would have bettered all things; and even with imperfect agents
and questionable methods, the work accomplished was not undeserving
of much commendation. The regular Bureau court consisted of one
representative of the employer, one of the Negro, and one of the Bureau.
If the Bureau could have maintained a perfectly judicial attitude,
this arrangement would have been ideal, and must in time have gained
confidence; but the nature of its other activities and the character of
its personnel prejudiced the Bureau in favor of the black litigants, and
led without doubt to much injustice and annoyance. On the other hand, to
leave the Negro in the hands of Southern courts was impossible.

What the Freedmen's Bureau cost the nation is difficult to determine
accurately. Its methods of bookkeeping were not good, and the whole
system of its work and records partook of the hurry and turmoil of
the time. General Howard himself disbursed some $15,000,000 during his
incumbency; but this includes the bounties paid colored soldiers, which
perhaps should not be counted as an expense of the Bureau. In bounties,
prize money, and all other expenses, the Bureau disbursed over
$20,000,000 before all of its departments were finally closed. To this
ought to be added the large expenses of the various departments of