[333] the negro. I simply conformed to the new law, as I had to President Johnson's previous plans.
It was all the while my steady and avowed purpose, as soon as practicable, to close out one after another the original Bureau divisions, namely, that of lands, commissary and quartermaster supplies, justice through Bureau or military courts, and the medical establishments, including provisions for the orphans and the destitute, while with all the energy I could muster I increased the school work. I hoped at the end of the Bureau term to transfer the educational division in a high state of efficiency to some more permanent department of the general Government for continuance and enlargement, certainly until the States should severally adopt a good, wholesome school system whereby all the children of every color and description should have the same facilities as those of Massachusetts or Ohio.
As a condensed account of this year's work let us take a survey of each assistant commissioner's field, instancing only enough of detail to show how the variety of conditions led the efforts of each State into directions peculiar to its own necessities.
I was glad enough that new laws and orders made General Swayne a district commander as well as my assistant commissioner for Alabama. From and after November 1, 1866, the status of freedmen, under the laws of that State, was the same as that of other nonvoting inhabitants. The Reconstruction Act of Congress gave the men the ballot. The school work though small was really hopeful. There were 68 white teachers and 15 colored. Preparations had been made to erect large buildings for educational use at Mobile, Montgomery, and Selma. At remote places and on
