demagogues and therefore be incapable of self-government.nThey must be educated. … A republican form of governmentncannot long last without providing a system of freenschools. . . . Ignorant voters endanger liberty. With freenschools in the South there could have been no rebellion innthe future . . . when our youth learn to read similar books,nsimilar lessons, we shall become one people, possessing onenorganic nationality.”nSenator Justin Morrill, in explaining his authorship of thenMorrill Act, said, “The role of the national government is tonmold the character of the American people.”nAll this sounds similar to the Aryan dream. But notneveryone believed that spiritual dictatorship was the bestncourse to follow. When Justin Morrill first introduced hisnbill in 1857, Congress passed it, but President Buchanannvetoed it, saying, “I deem it unconstitutional. It wouldncontribute to the deterioration of the relations betweennstates and federal government.”nWith civil war and the expulsion of Southern Democrats,nthe act became law easily. Seemingly innocuous, in reality itnwas a war measure, education fused with military andnpolitical strategy. The land-grants had hidden strings; Washingtonncontrolled curriculum. To insure a uniformly nationalized,nanti-Southern slant, land and money could bentaken from one state and given to another. Morrill also saidnhis bill provided “something … for better support ofnChristian Churches,” a clearly unconstitutional act, bindingnstate and church together.nFreedmen’s Bureau Schoolsn1866. The war was over. Millions of former slavesnwandered around the South, without work and without thenskills and education to survive on their own. Congressncreated a Freedmen’s Bureau to ease their transition toncitizens.nBut martial law, via radical Congressional Reconstructionnpolicies, sat squarely on the shattered South. The Radicalsnenmity meant “turning Dixie into an obedient colony.”nThis pushed the Freedmen’s Bureau under the War Departmentninstead of the civil Treasury Department, where itnwas originally intended to go, uniting emancipation with thenbrutality of martial law. The Radicals saw the bureau as antool through which the ex-Confederacy could be politicallynand economically neutered forever and national powerncentered in the northern industrial states—the Radicals’nown states.nThe Freedmen’s Bureau had its own military courtnsystem which overruled all local civil courts. Bureau courtsntwisted decisions to fit War Department policies. ThenSupreme Court said this was unconstitutional in time ofnpeace. But the bureau went on, unabated, behind the cloaknof martial law.nFreedmen’s Bureau courts loosely interpreted the wartimenConfiscation Acts and the Morrill land-grant statutes tonexpropriate massive tracts of choice plantations for privatengain and land swindles. The bureau deflated real estatenvalues by the use of public auctions where the prices werenbid down to a fraction of their true worth. This way thenbureau bought what it could not steal. All this was done innthe name of “redistribution” for the Negroes.nThe Freedmen’s Bureau had a big education budget.nThis was the first direct federal aid to schooling. The neednto create school buildings fast, without wasting time andnmoney to build them, led to another round of massnconfiscation of property, this time in urban areas. PresidentnAndrew Johnson said this rape was unconstitutional. But itnwent on unabated, under the urgency of martial law. Innthree years the bureau built 630 school houses and placednhundreds more in seized buildings.nGradually the Freedmen’s Bureau became a shadowngovernment in the South, with more real power via itsnmilitary backing than either the local civil or carpetbag statengovernments.nThrough this monstrosity federal school aid poured. Atnfirst, only soldiers taught. The soldier-teacher obeyed bureaunpolicies via the War Department and the RadicalnCongress. The three R’s took a backseat; destruction of thenDemocratic Party was the highest objective. New textbooksnwere created and all subjects taught from this perspective.nWhen Negroes got the vote, John Alvord, the bureau’snsuperintendent of education, said: “Freedmen must benelevated, both in intelligence and character, to guide themnin the right use of the ballot and to save them from beingndupes of demagogues.” Demagogues were Democrats.nA Radical politician said: “Republicans notice that wherenthere has been the most schooling since the war, thenfreedmen are surest for our Party.” Few Republican organizersnwere more active in the South than superintendents andninspectors of freedmen’s schools. Negro schoolhouses becamenRepublican Party headquarters and sites for progressivelyngreater political activity.nAs a result of this perversion of education, it was soonnobvious that a glorious graft-filled carpetbag career couldnspring open via teaching. Loyal bureau men were placed innstate legislatures.nTo the naive, who thought that schools were for learning,nthere was a price to pay. Reverend Duncan was the bureau’snchief ofBcer in Florida. He had the audacity to refuse to usenhis school system to distribute copies of a Radical speech bynCongressman Thad Stevens, who proposed to pay the warndebt by confiscating more rebel property. Duncan lost hisnjob.nThe bureau’s mandate was only to teach blacks. But itnwas imperative to change the values of the Southern whites.nThere was less concern for their racism than for their abilitynto make war again. Thus, contrary to the law, classes werenforcibly integrated, not to promote healthy race relations,nbut to have captive whites to brainwash into being “loyal tonauthority.”nOf course this caused social unrest, which justified ancontinued military presence, continued funding of thenFreedmen’s Bureau, and continued domination of thenSouth. Chaos, not peace and racial harmony, was thenobjective of the bureau.nBureau education led to the same kind of dependency fornthe former slaves that they experienced on the plantation:ncontrol of their morals, views, and life-styles. SuperintendentnAlvord organized the “Lincoln Temperance Association,”nused force, violence, and jail to end their “superstitions,nimmorality,” and improper manners. Alvord’sn”Vanguard of Freedom” forced freedmen to pledge againstntobacco, alcohol, and profanity.nnnMARCH 1989/21n