Freedmen's Bureau Defunded and Closed

Congress effectively closed the Freedmen's Bureau on June 10, 1872, allowing funding to lapse for all functions except education claims. By closing, the Bureau left behind a record of approximately 4,000 schools and 247,000 students served. Over its seven-year existence it had issued over 21 million rations, settled nearly half a million labor disputes, and established over 40 hospitals. Conservative Democrats and Liberal Republicans had campaigned relentlessly against it as wasteful and paterna