First: That the Freedmen’s Bank, like the Freedmen’s Bureau,
was an offspring of the Republican party.
Second: That its managers were Republicans of the most radical
type, from O. O. Howard down to ex-Senator Pomeroy; and from
Pomeroy down to G. W. Stickney.
Third: That the men who invented the diabolical plot to rob the
bank, and did rob it, were not only Republicans holding front
seats in its political tabernacle, but friends and associates
of ex-President Grant.
Fourth: That the Commissioners, who have so shamefully
neglected their trust, were high-church Republicans, one of
them an ex-member of Grant’s cabinet.
Fifth: That with the single exception of Vice-President Wilson,
not a Republican, high or low, in or out of Congress, has
raised a hand or voice against the robbers, or come to the
defense of the poor negroes who were being so cruelly robbed.
Sixth: That Republicans have, with the single exception I have
named, invariably apologized for and defended the robbers.
Seventh: That the thoughtful reader will agree with me that
there is a meaner and more despicable class of theft than that
which applies to chicken-roosts.
Eighth: That the men guilty of this robbery are all well known;
that the most prominent of them, to use the language of Mr.
Frederick Douglass, “live in palaces and ride in coaches,” and
yet Justice has not laid even its most dainty finger on them.
It now remains for Congress to assert its prerogative, to rise up and
wipe out this abomination, to put a stop to a scandal that has become
national, and place the winding up of the affairs of the bank under
the Secretary of War, with authority to appoint a competent officer to
perform the duty, to the end of saving what there is left of the wreck to
the poor victims of this cruel robbery, instead of having it pass into
the pockets of the Commissioners and their legal retainers. We all know
and appreciate the prompt, honest, and economical way in which Adjutant
General Vincent brought the affairs of the Freedmen’s Bureau to a close,
and exposed the canting hypocrites who had grown rich by pocketing the
colored man’s bounties. We want just such a faithful and efficient
officer to wind up the affairs of the Freedmen’s Bank.