view were summed up in the President's veto messages. The laws creating it
were based, he asserted, on the theory that a state of war still existed;
there was too great a concentration of power in the hands of a few individuals
who could not be held responsible; with such a large number of agents ignorant
of the country and often working for their own advantage injustice would
inevitably result; in spite of the fact that the Negro everywhere had a status
in court, arbitrary tribunals were established, without jury, without regular
procedure or rules of evidence, and without appeal; the provisions in regard
to abandoned lands amounted to confiscation without a hearing; the Negro, 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.