The Freedmen’s Bureau, Politics, And Stability Operations During Reconstruction In The South by William H. Burks

Author:William H. Burks [Burks, William H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ACW
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

Bureau’s Influence on Southern Politics

As Bureau agents worked with the five military district commanders executing the tasks to build new governments per the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, Howard ordered them “not to mingle personally in the political contest[s] . . . nor to become partisans by accepting nominations to civil office.”{269} The reality was much different. The Union League of America, formed in 1862 to garner support for the Union war effort, became the main political organization among freedmen voters and, with the aid of the Bureau, led the majority of freedmen to the Republican Party.{270} As early as October 1865, the Bureau agreed to distribute Union League literature in the South; however, it was after the Reconstruction Acts of March 1867 their combined efforts grew more visible and thus more criticized by opponents.{271}

Original Louisiana Assistant Commissioner, Reverend Thomas W. Conway, embarked on a tour of the South the month following the Acts at the request of the Union League national president. While no longer employed in an official capacity with the Bureau, Conway stayed in constant contact with Howard as he traveled the South. Howard provided Conway an introductory letter to present to local Bureau agents during his trip imploring them to assist Conway in his cause. In return, Howard sought information on any substandard Bureau agents Conway encountered along his journey. Conway relayed to Howard that Bureau officers were an immense help to the Union League in Virginia, North Carolina, and Alabama. He also reported to the Union League president detailed praise for the League from Bureau assistant commissioners in Virginia, Alabama, and Louisiana. Delighted to hear this, the League president published Conway’s report in a Radical newspaper opening the Bureau to further criticism from antagonists.{272}

Perhaps even more influential among the freedmen was John Mercer Langston, a mixed-race abolitionist born in 1829 to a white plantation owner and a mother of native-American and African descent.{273} Howard appointed Langston as the Bureau’s Inspector of Schools in the spring of 1867. Langston visited the South one month after Conway, presumably to gain a first-hand account of the Bureau’s educational efforts. After the Cincinnati Gazette characterized his trip as one of many “Republicans Speakers Going South,” Howard warned Republican Party officials of the potential damage to the Bureau and Langston if he engaged in speeches advocating the Republican Party while on duty.{274} Yet additional headlines continued to present Langston as a Republican speaker. It is likely that Langston gave off-duty speeches educating the freedmen on their new responsibilities as voters and encouraged them to vote for Republican candidates. In January 1868, Conway wrote to Howard from Louisiana’s constitutional convention stating he and Langston had helped guide the uneducated delegates. Howard sent a note back to Conway urging him to attend Alabama’s constitutional convention as well remarking he sent orders to Langston to conduct an “inspection” of the state during the appropriate timeframe.{275}

Reasons for encouraging the freedmen to lean to the Republican Party were plentiful. Georgia and Mississippi both tried unsuccessfully to

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