Union General Oliver Otis Howard, who had the unpleasant task of taking the land back from the freedmen after he had helped administer the order, nevertheless reasoned that the “freedmen should have land, but they … must pay for their land.”50 President Johnson said that the Freedmen’s bill was advantaging blacks over whites and that it was time for blacks to fend for themselves. “It is earnestly hoped that instead of wasting away, they will, by their own efforts, establish for themselves a condition of respectability and prosperity.” Johnson claimed that the laws of capitalism and free trade
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