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ESTIMATES  AND  OPINIONS  OF  THE
BUREAU'S  WORK


Carl  Schurz  Defends  the  Bureau

Senate  Ex.  Doc.  no.  2,  39  Cong.,  1  8es8.,  p.  40.     PYom  Schu-rz's
report  to  the  President.  [1865]

That  abuses  were  connected  with  the  management  of  freed-
men's  affairs;  that  some  of  the  officers  of  the  bureau  were  men
of  more  enthusiasm  than  discretion,  and  in  many  cases  went  be-
yond their  authority;  all  this  is  certainly  true.  But  while  the
southern  people  are  always  ready  to  expatiate  upon  the  short-
comings of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  they  are  not  so  ready  to
recognize  the  services  it  has  rendered.  I  feel  warranted  in
saying  that  not  one-half  of  the  labor  that  has  been  done  in  the
south  this  year,  or  will  be  done  there  next  year,  would  have
been  or  would  be  done  but  for  the  exertions  of  the  Freedmen's
Bureau.  The  confusion  and  disorder  of  the  transition  period
would  have  been  infinitely  greater  had  not  an  agency  interfered
which  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  emancipated  slaves;
which  could  disabuse  them  of  any  extravagant  notions  and
expectations  and  be  trusted;  which  could  administer  to  them
good  advice  and  be  voluntarily  obeyed.  No  other  agency,
except  <Mie  placed  there  by  the  naticKial  government,  could  have  |
wielded  that  moral  power  whose  interposition  was  so  necessary  {
to  prevent  the  southern  society  from  falling  at  once  into  the
chaos  of  a  general  collision  between  its  different  elements.  That  ^'

the  success  achieved  by  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  is  as  yet  very  i**^  \

incomplete  cannot  be  disputed.  A  more  perfect  organization  i^
and  a  more  carefully  selected  personnel  may  be  desirable ;  but
it  is  doubtful  whether  a  more  suitable  machinery  can  be  devised
to  secure  to  free  labor  in  the  South  that  protection  against  dis-
turbing influences  which  the  nature  of  the  situation  still  im-
peratively demands.
