3479901 The Freedmen\'s bureau, started by the Republicans, was the Federal Governments first big venture into relief, 1865; (add.info.: The Freedmen\'s bureau, started by the Republicans, was the Federal Governments first big venture into relief. The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen\'s Bureau, was a U.S. federal government agency established in 1865 to aid freedmen (freed slaves) in the South during the Reconstruction era of the United States, which attempted to change society in the former Confederacy.); Universal History Archive/UIG; out of copyright.