Freedmen's Bureau Records: Frederick S. Tukey to
John A. McDonnell, February 4, 1867
Summary:
Tukey refutes the various charges made against him in this lengthy statement to
McDonnell. In it he gives his own account of events, calling McDonnell's
attention to various statements and other evidence.
Bureau R
F & A
Lands
Sub Dist Augusta &
Highland Cos
Capt John A.
McDonnell
Supt. 9
th
Dist
Dept. Potomac
Winchester Va.
Feb 4th 1867
Staunton, Va
Captain
Having seen an order in which you were instructed to visit this Sub Dist, and investigate certain charges against me, and in which you were refered to call upon the Teachers of Freedmen, Trustees of the Church, and [added: Oscar Morris] the Asst Assessor at this place for proof of these charges, and you having kindly shown me the statements of the parties to whom you were refered, I beg leave therefore to respectfully invite your attention to the following explanation and rebutting statements.
Sometime in the latter part of the winter or the early part of the spring of 1866
the A.M.A. of New York sent
four boxes of clothing here through the Q. M.
Dept. three boxes of which were sent to Mr. John
Scott, (Teacher of Freedmen) in my care, and the other one to myself for
gratuitous distributions. At that time the colored people had just purchased an
old building which
[page 2]
was formrly used for a Market House, for which
they were to pay two thousand ($2000) dollars, to be converted into a Church,
one third to be hand payment, and the balance in installments of 1.283 years,
but were unable to meet the first payment. I suggested to the Teachers (who were
at that time boarding with me) that perhaps they might get some assistence for them by writing to their friends
North, which they did and received as contributions about one hundred and twenty
five ($125) dollars, which was turned over to the Trustees of the Church. I also
suggested to Mr. Scott that he had better write to the A.M.A. and get permission from
them for us to sell the clothing to those who were able to buy, at a nominal
price, and turn the money into the Freedmen, toward paying their first payment
on the Church, which he did and received for a reply as near as I can remember
in substance as follows - "It is our practice whenever we sent clothing to the
Freedmen to have it gratuitously distributed but if under the circumstances you
and Mr Tukey think it advisable to sell the clothing to such as are able to buy
it, you can do so and turn the money over toward the payment of the colored
peoples
[page 3]
church and we will send you other clothing to supply the
place of that you sell."
In accordance with above instructions, and as Mr Scott had three large boxes, I
gave him permission to occupy one of my rooms, for the purpose of unpacking and
selling the clothing, and I retained my box (which was quite small) in my
Office, for the purpose of supplying such cases as might come in when M Scott
was absent. As near as I can remember Mr Scott received about seventy ($70)
dollars for his three large boxes, and I received for mine eleven ($11) and some
cents. About the time the last of the clothing was sold I was relieved from duty
and about the same time Mr Scott turned the proceeds of his sales over to the
Treasurer of the Church. The next day after Mr Scott turned over his funds I met
the Treasurer and told him that I had something over eleven ($11) dollars in my
possession, received from the same source of Mr Scott, but had not got it with
me at the time, but would give it to him the first opportunity. That same night
I received a letter from a friend in Boston which led me to make up my mind to
start for the North the next
[page 4]
morning. I had previously however, made
arrangements with Lieut Cook to return at the
expiration of two weeks and enter upon the duties of Clerk in his Office. While
on my way through Baltimore, on board the cars in the night, while standing upon
the platform of the car, in a crowd, I had my pocket picked, and lost fourteen
hundred ($1400) dollars, among which was the eleven ($11) dollars which belonged
to the colored people, and which I did not have an opportunity to turn over
before leaving home and thought it could make no difference as I was to return
so soon. The money which I lost was not only all of my hard three years earnings
in the Bureau, but three hundred ($300) dollars of it was money which I brought
from the North in 1863, and was nearly every dollar I had in the world.
In a few days after my return to Staunton I met Thomas Carnell, (colored), Supt colored Sabbath School, to whom I
mentioned my misfortune, telling him that the eleven ($11) dollars belonging to
the colored people was among the money which I lost, and asked him if he thought
it my duty, under the circumstances
[page 5]
to make it up, to which he
promptly replied "No, by no means." My only regrets in the matter are, that I
did not at the time get a release in writing from the Trustees from paying said
claim, and that Mr Carnell is now absent from Town and unable to give his
testimony upon these points.
As to the statement made by Oscar Morris with reference to his pay, I beg leave to say, that at the time he was employed as messenger in this Office, I had never been furnished with a letter book for the purpose of recording Official Business. Consequently there are no records by which to get at the facts, but think however, reference to the pay rolls will set the matter all right. Be that as it may, this is the first time that Oscar has ever mentioned the subject, to my knowledge, and he never at any time, asked me for what he claims for the balance of his pay, or said one single word that he thought he had been wronged or unjustly dealth with and I never was more surprised in my life than when I saw his statement made to you upon the subject and can only explain the matter in the following manner.
He either was offended on account of his being discharged from the Office on account of my increased salary [added: as clerk] or else he thought that when I told him that I had received orders to reduce his pay that it was false, but I beg leave to call your [added: close] attention to his statement, and memoranda Book forwarded herewith - Also the order dated March 26th 1866 from Capt. How for the reduction of his pay. You will observe that on the first page of his statement, he says that he received only ten ($10) dollars for the first three months and on the opposite [added: page] of the same statement, he says he got twenty ($20) dollars the first month and $10 for each of the second and third months and that he was paid $20 by Capt. How for the fourth month. Again you will find by reference to his own memoranda book, (kept in his own handwriting) that he says he commenced work Jan 15th 1866 and that for Jan & Feb he was paid $30, and April 15th he received $20 more, and May 15th $15 and $15 more on June 15th making a total of eighty ($80) dollars.
Now it will be seen by reference to the accompanying order, that Oscars pay was
reduced on the 26th of March to $10 per month, and again
it will be seen, by reference to the order for his discharge that he was
discharged on the 10th of the following July, a copy of
said order which of course, can be found by reference to records in the Office
of Asst Comr, and which I find
recorded in the letter book in this Office, the whole showing that Oscar was
employed altogether six months lacking five days, and for the first two months
and a half, he received $20 per month and for the balance of the time, $10 per
month, which would have amounted to about $83,85/100, showing a discrepancy of
$3.85/100. and Oscar admits to me, that he is not sure that he credited all that
he received in his book. You will observe, therefore that his statements are
contradictory from beginning to end, but justice to him compels me to say that I
do not think it has been intentional for I have always regarded him as one of
the most honorable and upright colored men that I have ever met, and think he
would not have done it, had he not been influenced by others.
[page 8]
As to
his statement about my employing a Son of a Rebel in my Office, permit me to
say, that the boy was not employed by me in the Office, but by Lieut Cook, and I found him here when I entered
upon the duties of the Office on the 26 of Dec.
1866, and the boy cannot be called the Son of a Rebel, as his Father died some
years before the war. His Mother is a poor Widow woman, with two small children
to support, and ekes out a scanty subsistence made by her needle.
As to his statements concerning the lumber taken from the Barracks, they are in the main correct and to be explained in following manner. I received orders from Bt. Major W. S. How, late Supt of the Dist. to have the Barracks torn down, and after satisfying the claim of Mr Thomas Wholey, who owned the lot upon which they were built, to turn the rest over to the Freedmen for repairs to their Church
At the same time Mr Shaver (Proprietor of the Va
Hotel) had shown me an order given him by Bt.
Col. C. C. Clay, late Commander at this post, for nine hundred feet of
lumber, in payment for lumber taken from him by said Clays command to be paid
from lumber taken from said Barracks which order I at first refused to fill [added: but afterwards did so by advice from Capt How]. I had no means to pay expenses of
taking down the Barracks, but as there was an immediate demand for some of the
lumber, I employed as near as I can recollect - three or four colored men,
several days, and paid them out of my own pocket, for their labor, and charged
the same to the Trustees of the Church. After having torn down a sufficient
amount to satisfy the immediate demand, I came to the conclusion that it was
going to be too expensive a job to pay for out of my own pocket, and take my
chances of having the money refunded I therefore suspended operations and in a
few days after so doing Major How visited this Sub.
Dist, and I told him that I had no means for taking down the
Barracks, and asked him what I should do. he replied by asking me if there were
more than would be needed on the Church, and I told him I thought there were.
[page 10]
To which he said (I think) in these precise words. "Employ some
colored men to take them down, and sell enough of the lumber to pay the expense,
and make no explanations to any body." And in accordance with his orders
(although given verbally) I sold to Robert G. Bickle sixteen sills, or rather
sleepers, at sixty cents each, and to Edward Johnson three hundred and fifty
feet at $1.50 per hundred, and to James Patterson I sold a small lot for which I
think I received one dollar and seventy cts am
positive that it did not amount to two dollars.
It is impossible for me to tell how much I paid out to the men I employed as the memoranda of it has long since been destroyed, but of this fact I am willing to make oath, - (as I am of all the rest), that I never received full payment of all that I paid out.
As there were no means of hauling this lumber, and I often wanted a wagon for
such jobs, and had been informed by Major How that he had made application for
one which was refused, I went and bought out of my own private funds, a two
Horse spring wagon for which I paid
[page 11]
thirty ($30) dollars and a
[unclear: set]of double Harness for which I paid about eleven ($11)
dollars and then had to expend twelve ($12) dollars more on the wagon, and two
($2) dollars on the Harness, before they could be used. This wagon was used in
hauling all the lumber to the Church, and was so badly broken to pieces in the
operation that I had to expend according to the best of my recollections about
nine ($9) dollars to have it repaired again, making a total of about sixty-four
($64) dollars that I had paid out of my own private funds.
With reference to repairs on Church, I beg leave to say, that about the time they
got ready to commence work on it, I found that they had partially contracted
with a man to do [added: the work for] them, for, I
think, one hundred and twenty ($120) dollars, which seemed to me to be an
exorbitant price, and I advised them not to pay it, and told them I thought I
could have the work done so it should not cost them over seventy-five ($75)
dollars, and they requested me to go ahead and do it, which I did, paying out of
my own pocket eighty-eight ($88) dollars, without any security whatever, but
simply their verbal
[page 12]
promise to pay me when the work was done, at the
same time I agreed with them to do whatever Mason work there was to be done, and
make them a present of it, as my portion of a subscription which they were
taking up among their friends, for the benefit of the Church, which cost me
about eleven ($11) dollars, and of which I did make them a present according to
promise. In fitting up the Church I paid out as I said before eighty-eight ($88)
dollars, but in collecting the receipts, all of which were taken in the name of
the parties who did the work, and were given for work done on colored Church,
and turned over to Treasurer of said Church, there were minor articles to the
amount of eight ($8) dollars of which I made no account and turned over Receipts
to the amount of about eighty ($80) dollars, which they promised to pay. In
about two months time they paid me fifteen ($15) dollars, the balance remained
unpaid for a long time. When I sent word to them to one of their official
mettings if they would pay me twenty five ($25) dollars, I would make them a
present of the other forty, which they did. in proof of this your attention is
[page 13]
especially called to they statement of Aaron
[unclear: Shouler], Treasurer.
It will be seen by the foregoing statement that I paid out of my own pocket for repairs on the Church, fifty-one ($51) dollars, for which I never received one cent, forty dollars of the amount being proven by the statement of their own Treasurer, Aaron Shouler.
The lumber referred to by Oscar Morris as being used in my own House, was used for the special purpose of dividing the basement in to rooms for the purpose of giving temporary quarters and shelter to freed people who often came into Town, enroute for some other place, and were without friends or money to provide their shelter, and at no time during that winter was there less than three, and sometimes as high as eight and ten quartered in the rooms of my own House.
With reference to the pork and mackerel that Morris says was consumed in my own
family, I beg leave to say that he is simply mistaken. The dividing of my rooms
in the basement, forced me to keep my own family provisions in the
[page 14]
same room with the Government rations, and the mackerel and Pork [added: refered to by him]
were bought by me from the U.S. Commissary at Charlottesville Va. on the day
that the last U.S. Soldiers left here. In proof of this your attention is
especially invited to the accompanying Affidavit - of Catherine Cox (colored)
who was House Servant for me at the time.
With reference to Teachers, to whom you were refered,
permit me to say that it is an exceedingly painful duty for me to say one word
that can possibly be construed as derogatory to their characters, and especially
is this so when I consider the official relation which I sustain with them, and
shall only say what I feel compelled to in self defense, and to show their
connection with the charges that have been brought against me, and no earthly
consideration will ever induce me to so far forget the responsibility of my
position as to allow myself to enter into any personal quarrel with them, or
treat them in any other than a courteous, and Gentlemanly manner, and will only
say that while they were in my house there was a greater degree of intimacy
[page 15]
between Lieut Cook, and one Geo. Graham, who has figured conspicuously in this
whole affair and two of the female Teachers, than what a proper sense of
propriety would justify. to these improprieties my Wife and myself were much
opposed. hence their zeal and willingness to testify against me and from facts
which are in my possession, I am satisfied that these charges have either been
made or instigated by Lieut Cook in a spirit of
malice and have been thus far skilfully carried
out by a combination of these four persons. The said Geo. Graham came to this place about the middle of November last, and is
a perfect stranger to me. Notwithstanding this he has made himself very
officious in this whole affair, and has had no earthly cause for it, except his
intimacy with Lieut. Cook, and the Teachers
alluded to above. You will observe in his statement that he says that a petition
was drawn and placed in his hands to be signed by the colored people praying for
Lieut Cook to be returned here now I have
been reliably informed that he drew said petition himself and I know that he has
been very busy in circulating it among the colored people for signers
[page 16]
making all sorts of representations, and playing upon their credulity in all
manner of ways.
With reference to the statement that I have been too intimate with Rebels, and am
not a good Union man, I am inclined to the opinion that it is too absurd to call
for any notice by me, yet it is perhaps due to myself to say, that I am a Union
man through and through from navel to Backbone and back again but I have never
deemed it wise or prudent for me as a Bureau Officer to discuss political
subjects with any body, and it has always been my aim, to conduct myself in such
a manner toward the Whites as to compel them to respect me. I have always
regarded this as important for when we consider that civil
law is supreme it has seemed to me that such a course
with a fixed and firm purpose to do justice would best subserve the interest of
the Freedmen and maintain the dignity of the Government
[page 17]
With
reference to the statement made by Rev. Ephraim
Lawson, (colored) in which he said that I told him that I had been released, by
Gen'l Brown, from payment of the eleven ($11)
dollars received for sale of clothing, I simply wish to say, that he does not
quote me quite correctly, what I did tell him was this, "that after my return
from [added: the North] I had mentioned the subject
of the loss of my money, and that of the colored peoples, to Gen'l Brown and asked him if he thought it was my
duty, under the circumstances, to make it good and he told me that he thought I
ought to either make it up, or get a release in writing from the Trustees of the
Church from so doing.
In conclusion, permit me to say that I have the best of reason for believing that
these charges have been either made, or investigated, by Lieut. Cook in a spirit of malice and revenge, and
in proof of this you are respectfully refered to the
accompanying statements of various parties who with two or three
[page 18]
exceptions were here during the whole of my former period of service in the
Bureau, and I think are much better qualified to judge of my conduct than
several who have so willingly testified against me. And in further evidence of
this I beg leave to submit for your consideration the following fact. I was
employed in Lieut Cooks Office three months
after these offences were said to have been committed and have been here two
months since and submit it to you, whether it was not Lieut Cooks duty to have made these charges known long ago, and at
once to have discharged me from his Office instead of waiting five months until
he was ordered away from here and then doing it, the whole of which is submitted
for your and your superior Officers candid consideration.
I am Capt with much Respect
Your
Obedient Servant
Frederick S. Tukey
Asst Supt
B.R. &
A.L.
Virginia Auga County L.L. This day F. S. Tukey personally appeared before
me, a notary public for said county, & made oath that the foregoing
statement, signed by him, is true to the best of his knowledge &
belief.
Given under my hand this 13th Feby
1867
JB Watts N. P.
Auga County, Va
