University for a
rental of one dollar a year.

[222] William M. Patton, _The History of Howard University_, p. 17.

[223] The Freedmen's Bureau was established in 1866 by the Federal
government for the purpose of promoting the general welfare of the
freedmen. General Howard was made commissioner of the organization and
held this office until 1872, when it was discontinued. It was through
this relation with the Freedmen's Bureau that the University became
the creature and ward of the Federal Government, a relation that has
been maintained continuously ever since.

The commissioner of the bureau was granted large powers, including the
control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen from slave
States or from any district or county within the territory embraced in
the operations of the army, under such rules and regulations as might
be prescribed by the head of the bureau and the President.

General Howard during the existence of the bureau disbursed
approximately $13,000,000 in various ways. Much of this was used for
educational purposes, including all grades of work. Among some of the
beneficiaries of this fund were Lincoln University, Wilberforce
University, Berea College, Fisk University, Biddle University,
Straight University and Lincoln Institute. In his efforts to enable
the people of the District of Columbia to share the benefits of this
fund the commissioner offered to erect a building for a certain
denominational institution located in Washington at that time, on the
condition that it become undenominational. The offer was declined,
whereupon the trustees of Howard University immediately made
application to receive this Federal aid. Because of the location of
the proposed institution at the nation's capital the application was
favorably acted upon and liberal appropriations made so that the
institution might stand as a monument to the nation's philanthropy.

As these large expenditures for Howard University with the other
operations of the bureau brought upon General Howard charges of
malfeasance, which led to two investigations, it should be said here
that both of the official investigations, one civil, the other
military, completely exonerated him.--See _Report of Special Committee
of the Trustees of Howard University upon Certain Charges_, etc.,
1873, and _Act of March 3, 1865, establishing the Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen and Abandoned Lands_.

[224] It is worthy of note that the magnificent n