who must in the end work out his own salvation, and who was protected
by the demand for his labor, would be deluded into thinking his future
secure without further effort on his part; although nominally under the
War Department, the Bureau was not subject to military control; it was
practically a great political machine; and, finally, the states most
concerned were not represented in Congress.

The Bureau was soon organized in all the former slaveholding States
except Delaware, with general headquarters in Washington and state
headquarters at the various capitals. General O. O. Howard, who was
appointed commissioner, was a good officer, softhearted, honest,
pious, and frequently referred to as "the Christian soldier." He
was fair-minded and not disposed to irritate the Southern whites
unnecessarily, but he was rather suspicious of their intentions
toward the Negroes, and he was a believer in the righteousness of the
Freedmen's Bureau. He was not a good business man; and he was not beyond
the reach of politicians. At one time he was seriously disturbed in his
duties by the buzzing of the presidential bee in his bonnet. The members
of his staff were not of his moral stature, and several of them were
connected with commercial and political enterprises which left their
motives open to criticism.

The assistant commissioners were, as a rule, general officers of the
army, though a few were colonels and chaplains.* Nearly half of them had
during the war been associated with the various attempts to handle the
Negro problem, and it was these men who shaped the organization of the
Bureau. While few of them were immediately acceptable to the Southern
whites, only ten of them proved seriously objectionable on account
of personality, character, or politics. Among the most able should
be mentioned Generals Schofield, Swayne, Fullerton, Steedman, and
Fessenden, and Colonel John Eaton. The President had little or no
control over the appointment or discipline of the officials and agents
of the Bureau, except possibly by calling some of the higher army
officers back to military service.

* They numbered eleven at first and fourteen after July
1866, and were changed so often that fifty, in all, served
in this rank before January 1, 1869, when the Bureau was
practically discontinued.

As a result of General Grant's severe criticism of the arrangement
which removed the Bureau from control by the military establish