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port made to his department by Major-General Howard, Commis-
sioner of the Freedman’s Bureau, which is of peculiar interest to those
desirous of ascertaining, through impartial evidence, the progress and
prospects of the great experiment of slave emancipation. The Bu-
reau is now winding up its work. It was closed for general purposes
early last year. It is only continued for certain ‘‘educational’’ pur-
poses, for the settlement of negro soldiers’ claims to bounty, and for
the maintenance of a small number of hospitals which still contain
inmates. The time has, therefore, arrived for taking, as General
Howard does in this paper, a general review of its operations.

Great efforts have been made by charitable ‘associations during
the last years of the war, to relieve the misery which prevailed among
the many thousand colored refugees from the Southern States, and
outcasts who remained on properties abandoned by their owners un-
der the pressure of hostilities. But it was felt that more was needed
than charity could furnish, and that not only casual support was
required, but organization and drill. With these views the ‘‘Act to
establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees’? was
passed in March, 1865, and committed to the new department the
control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen from rebel
States, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the
head of the Bureau aud approved by the President.

‘¢ This almost unlimited authority (says Gen. Howard, with par-
donable pride) gave me great scope and liberty of action, but at the -
same time it imposed upon me very perplexing and responsible duties.
Legislative, judicial and executive powers were combined in my com-
mission, reaching all the interests of four millions of people, scattered
over a vast territory, living in the midst of another people claiming to
be superior, and known not to be altogether friendly.”

It was, indeed, a desperate ‘‘ cauldron,” to all appearance, into
which the General and his assistants were plunged.

‘In every State many thousands were found without employ-
ment, without homes, crowding into the towns and about military
posts, where they hoped to find protection and supplies. The sudden
collapse of the rebellion, making emancipation an actual universal
fact, was like an earthquake. It shattered and shook the whole social
system. It broke up the old industries, and threatened a reign of an-
archy. Even the well-disposed and humane land-owners were ata
loss what to do, or how to begin the work of re-organizing society .
and of rebuilding their ruined fortunes. Very few had any knowledge
of free labor, or any hope that their former slaves would serve them
faithfully for wages. On the other hand, the freed people were in a
state of great excitement and uncertainty. .... Many were afraid
to remain on the same soil that they had tilled as slaves, lest by any
trick they might find themselves again in bondage. Others supposed
that the Government would either take the entire supervision of their
labor and support, or divide among them the lands of conquered
rebels, and furnish them with all that might be necessary to begin
life as independent farmers.’

Under the pressure of the enormous mass of business thus thrown
upon him, General Howard had the good sense to perceive that this
was not a case for fixed uniformity of system,

‘‘ No one minute system of rules could have been rigidly adhered