Viewing page 174 of 199

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

29.

The next subject reported upon is as follows:

MORE [[illegible]]
At Goldsboro the superintendent, one W.O. Glavis, chaplain United States army, is cultivating one farm on Government account, and is interested in cultivating two farms on his own account. This officer stated in his examination before us that he was not interested in the cultivation of plantations except indirectly by loaning money to a Mr. Brooks, a farmer from the North, who was engaged in planting; but we obtained from Mr. Carr and Mr. Lane, citizens of the vicinity of Goldsboro, that he is interested and joined with them in contracts for the cultivation of their plantations. He and his friend Mr. Brooks entered into a contract with Mr. Lane to furnish rations and pay for forty laborers, and to provide eight good mules. Mr. Lane offered to furnish the land, to superintend in person the cultivation thereof, the crops to be equally divided, one half to Mr. Lane and the other half to Mr. Brooks and Glavis. Mr. Lane states that the enterprise failed after the freedmen had worked over two months; they then left, Brooks and Glavis having failed to pay them [[illegible]] contract. The freedmen received for their [[illegible]] clothing, such as coats, pants, shoes, &c. [[illegible]] Glavis and but little or no money [[illegible]] made by Glavis and Brooks with [[illegible]] that Captain Glavis is paying the [[illegible]] thing, but chiefly in clothing."

SELLING FREEMEN'S CLOTHES
We ascertained by the testimony of Messrs. Barham & Ballard, auctioneers at Goldsboro, that they had sold at auction for Chaplain Glavis forty blankets marked "U.S." and a quantity of clothing that had been sent to Goldsboro for gratuitous distribution to the needy by a Freedmen's Aid Society at or in the vicinity of Rochester, New York. We learned also that he had disposed of a large amount of such clothing at private sale. The Chaplain stated himself that he had received from such sales two hundred and sixty dollars, ($260) though subsequently stated that the total cash receipts of his office, from all sources, amounted to one hundred and twenty-six dollars and fifty cents, [[illegible]]. He kept no books or even memoranda of moneys received or expended.

Mr. Glavis has been more bitterly opposed and abused than any officer in the Department. On one occasion he was threatened with mob violence for defending the character of lady teachers of Freedmen, who has been assailed in the public prints. He may have acted in some instances rashly, but he has shown great energy and diligence in the discharge of his duties and his honesty, I have had no reason to doubt. All the government property transferred to him has been properly accounted for and the retained copies of his vouchers could have been seen by the Commissioners in his office. The clothing entrusted to him by the Freedmen's Aid Society consisted in part of blankets, marked U.S. and was disposed of, as he states, by authority of the Secretary of that Society, Mr Estis.

In confirmation of this statement, I find in the "National Freedmen" published in N.Y. an acknowledgement of receipts from Mr. Glavis, and a letter from him stating, that he had