History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States

to the House - M

on vs. the Negro -

aylor counts the Co

rr - Mr. Marshall

Moulton - Oppositi

usseau's Threat - M

ble's Appeal - Mr.

rinnell on Kentuck

s - Mr. Shellabarg

ens' Amendments -

sage of the Bill

nate, it was sent to the House of Representatives, and

f this committee, reported the bill to the Ho

establishing a Freedmen's Bureau became a law. It was novel legislation, without precedent in the history of any nation, rendered necessary by the rebellion of eleven slave

y debated and passed by the House. The vote was sixty-nine in favor, and sixty-seven against the bill; but of the sixty-seven who opposed it, fifty-six had been counted against it, because of their political affinities. On the 1st of March, 1864, the bill went to the Senate. It came back to the House on the 30th of June, four days before the adjournment of Congress. To my great regret, the Senate had passed an amendment in the nature of a substitute, attaching this bureau to the Treasury Department; but it was too late to take action upon it then, and the bill was postponed until December. At that time the House non-concurred with the Senate, and a committee of conference was chosen. The managers of the two houses c

ned as commissioner of the bureau. The bill became a law so late in the session that it was impossible for Congress to legislate any appropriation for its support. It was necessary, therefore, that the management of it should be placed in the hands of military officers, and fortunately the pro

cy which he designed to pursue. The whole supervision of the care of freedmen and of all lands wh

industry of the freedmen. Notice was given that the relief establishments which had been created by law under the operations of the War Department should be discontinued as soon as they could be consistently with the comfort and proper protection of the freedmen, and that every effort should be made-and I call the attention of gentlemen to the fact that that policy has been pursued throughout-that every effort should be made to render the freedmen, a

re were no courts before which their rights could be brought for adjudication, military tribunals, provost-marshals' courts, were established, for the

ailed of overseer labor was ordered to be repudiated by the commissioners who had charge of the laborers, and I believe there has been no time since the organization of the bureau when there have not been reports made to head-quarters

n by the commissioner to his assistant commissioners to make repeated reports to him upon all the various subjects which had come under his charge-with regard to the number of freedmen, where they were, whether in camps or in colonies, or whether they were employed upon Government works, and stating, if they obtained supplies, how they were furnished, whether by donations or whether procured by purchase. Reports were also required as to all land

nate all that it would be needful for him to do, and, therefore, different instructions were issued from time to time from his office. The assistant commissioners were called upon thoroughly to examine, either by themselves or their agents, the respective districts allotted to them, to make inquiry

no compulsory or unpaid labor was tolerated, and that both the moral and intellectual con

t was stated here in debate that the bureau would probably be self-sustaining, it was supposed that from the lands abandoned, confiscated, sold, and the lands of the United States, which by the provisions of the bill had been placed under t

e law were known as 'abandoned lands,' and those which were in the possession of the United States, would be appropriated to the uses of these freedmen. Within a week after the commissioner assumed the duties of his office, he found it necessary to issue an order substantially like this: Whereas, large amounts of lands in the State of Virginia and in other States have been abandoned, and are now in the possessi

sioner of the bureau-'the above order will not be construed so as to relieve disloyal persons from the consequences of their disloyalty;

on its appearing satisfactorily to any assistant commissioner that any property under his control is not 'abandoned,' as defined in the law, and that the United States have acquired no perfect right to it, it is to be restored and the fact reported to the commissioner. 'Abandoned' lands were to be restored to the owners pardoned by the President, by the assistant commissioners, to whom applications for such restoration were to be forwarded; and each application was to be accompanied by the pardon of the President and by a copy of the oath of amnesty prescribed in the President's proclamation, and also by a proof of title to the land. It must be obvi

men will become a dead weight upon the Treasury, and the bill under consideration assigns other

His speech was not devoted to a discussion of the bill in question, but was occupied entirely w

itary and civil organization, who cultivated the arts at home, or conducted a regular commerce with their neighbors. No African general has marched south of the desert, from the waters of the Nile to the Niger and Senegal, to unite by conquest the scattered territories of barbarous tribes into on

ered a speech "on the Freedmen's Bureau Bill," in which the topic discussed was "

lightnings, may be rocked by earthquakes, may be devastated by all the terrestrial forces and overwhelmed in ruin, but far away in the everlasting depths, the sovereign sun holds the turbulent planet in its place. This earth may be overwhelmed until the high hills are covered by the sea; it may trem

pected to see the fabric of our institutions dissolve into chaos because their idol had fallen. He struck it again; Congress and the States repeated the blow, and its unsightly carcass lies rotting in our streets. The sun shines in the heavens brighter than before. Let us remove the carcass and leave not a vestige of the monster. We shall never have done

or proximate cost of the bureau for one year, confining its operation to the hitherto slave States, will be $25,251,600. That it is intended to put the bureau in full operation in every county and parish of

n for all refugees and freedmen who shall apply therefor." He advocated education as an efficient means of restoration for

of these 545,177 are found in the Southern States with a population of 12,000,000. In other words,

swered the question, "What has the South done for

mpelled to enter into contract with a master, and the district judge, not the laborer, is to fix the value of the labor. If he thinks the compensation too small and will not work,

Monday in January, or he will be bound out-in other words, sold into slavery; that if he runs away the master may recover him, and deduct the expenses out of his wages; and that if another man employs him he w

be sold to the highest bidder for a term of years; and that any person who entices him to leave his master, as by the offer of better wages, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be sent to jail for six months; and fu

he speaker thus epitomized their substance: "All

y judge or a Legislature made up of white masters, or by co

rsued as a fugitive, charged with the expenses of his recapture, and made to labor fo

aken from him and sold

the highest bidder for a term of months

im; he shall not own property; he shall not superintend the e

as no remedy; for the cour

ry congressional district, into every county, into every township and city of this broad Union; provided, only, that they can find some freedmen or refugees upon whom to exercise their jurisdiction. I submit that, before a measure of this kind should be adopted, we should reflect most carefully upon what we are doing. We should remember that this country is now almost crushed into the very earth with its accumulated burden of public debt, of State debts, of county

ly, that Congress had no warrant in the Constitution for passing such a measure. He said: "Instead of this being called a bill for the protection of freedmen and refugees, it ought to be call

t there is any authority in the Federal Constitution to authorize us to put our hands into their pockets and take therefrom a part of their hard earnings in order to distribute them as charity. I de

and they may enslave and put down the entire white people of the country by virtue of this law." He saw in the bill power "to rob the people by unjust taxation; to take the hard earnings from the white people of the West, who, unless wiser counse

e article of the immortal amendment of the Constitution, giving to Congress power to pass all appropriate laws and make all appropriate legislation for the purpose of carrying out its provisions. I commend to his careful study the spirit of the second section of that immortal amendment, and I think, if he will study it with a willingness to be convinced

ion, and in the light of that Constitution as amended I find ample power for the enactment of this law. It is the duty of Congress to exercise its power in such a time as this, in a time of public pe

he other side of this chamber for the last five years with reference to every single measure that has been proposed to this House for the prosecution of the war for the Union. No measure has been passed for the benefit o

h at length the authority of

the "grand purposes and designs of those who introduced this bill." In his opinion they intended "to commence a colony in each one of the five States above named, which is ultimately to drive out the entire white population

w, sir, if this should be the case (as I have no doubt it will) in the States in which you propose to establish these people, the whites and blacks will disagree to such an extent that, when people find that the colored people are permanently established, they will be compelled, in self defense, to seek a home somewhere else. No doubt, Mr. Speaker, but that those who prepared

f forty-three years it would require the sum of even $12,000,000 to fix up a machinery alone for the benefit of three or four million negroes, and more especially, sir, when it is understood that in 1820 we had a population, including white and colored, of 9,633,545. Mr. Speaker, how long will it be at thi

I was a Whig and a Union man, and belong to the Union party, and I am sorry to sa

reedmen's Bureau: "I said to him, 'if you intend to arrest white people on the ex parte statements of negroes, and hold them to suit your convenience for trial, and fine and imprison them, then I say that I oppose you; and if you should so

d make them paupers and vagabonds." He saw "revolution and ruin" in prospect. "I affirm," said he, "that in legislating for those States, or without allowing them any representation in these halls, you are violating one of the cardinal principles of republican government; you are tearing down the main pillar upon which our whole fabric of Government rests; you are sowing broadcast the seeds of revolution and ruin. Mr. Speaker, if the object of gentlemen here is to restore harmony and peace and prosperity thro

Constitution. There exists no power in this Government to deprive a citizen of the United States of his property, to take away the hard earnings of his own industry and bestow them upon this class of ci

to them to pause and reflect before they press this measure upon these people; for I tell you that, in my judgment, the effects of the provisions of this bill to us as a nation will not be told in our l

dent of the United States issued his call for troops they cried out, 'A monstrous usurpation of power.' When he sent a requisition to the Governor of my own State, what was the response? 'Not a man, not a dollar, to prosecute this wicked war against our Southern brethren.' And the Union party, God help them! in Kentucky, indorsed the sentiment at that day. I did not belong to that part of the Union party; I never belon

e most rebellious of the whole crew,) is there a single one of these States that has passed laws to give the freedmen full protection? In vain we wait an affirmative response. Until these States have done so, says this high authority, the Freedmen's Bureau is a necessity. This is to my mind a sufficient answer to the arguments of gentlemen on the other side. In none of those States has the black man a l

r, in the first year of the rebellion, refused to honor the call for troops made by the President of the United States in our darkest hour; nor can I forget that when her soldiers wished to organize regiments they were obliged to cross the Ohio River into the State of Indiana, that they might or

the black man can testify against himself. The white man can vote; the black man can not. The white man, if he commits an offense, is tried by a jury of his peers; the black man is tried by his enli

fine of five dollars if presuming to keep in his possession a musket which he has carried through the war. Arson of public buildings, if committed by a white man, is punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of from seven to twent

instance the rebel General Forest, who murdered white men at Fort Pillow, and is reputed the most popul

peculating affair, I wish to call attention to the fact that in the State of Kentucky, during the last five months, more white refugees than freedmen, in the proportion of se

ransportation has been furnished to 1,700 refugees and 1,900 freedmen. In the schools there are 80,000 people that have been instructed by this bureau. And now it is proposed to leave all these children of misfortune to the tender mercies of a people of whom it is true by the Spanish maxim, 'Since I have wronged you I have hated you.' I never can. Our authority to take care of them is founded in the C

lessons of the Czar of the Russias, who, when he enfranchised his people, gave them lands and school-houses, and invited school-masters from all the world to come there and instruct them. Let us hush our national songs; rather gird on sack-cloth, if wanting in mora

speech of Mr. Rosseau, provoked the pe

at this law, like most other laws on our statute books, works well where it is well administered. The practical operations of this bureau will depend upon the character of the agents into whose hands its management is intrusted. I certainly have no apprehension in this respect. I do not for one moment fear

and acceptance of the following amendment by Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio: "No person shall be deemed destitute, suffering, or dependent upon the Government for supp

the South. "The malignant party spirit and sectional hate," said Mr. Chanler, "that runs through this whole statement, needs no illustration." After presenting voluminous extrac

. It proposes to perpetuate and str

imperio' to protect black

migrant from the lands give

ng his patrimony, his self-respect, and his right to labor into the hand

unwilling to accept. Mr. Stevens further proposed to strike out the proviso "unless as punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted," giving as a reason for this amendment, "

tes in which the writ of habeas corpus was suspended on the 1st of February, 1866. Mr. Eliot closed the debate by answering some objecti

estion was taken, and the bil

y, Allison, Ames,

shley, Baker, Bald

jamin, Bidwell, Bin

, Bromwell, Broomal

arke, Cobb, Conkl

wes, Defrees, Dela

Dumont, Eckley,

r, Ferry, Garfield,

ng, Hart, Hayes, Hen

tchkiss, Asahel W.

ard, John H. Hubbar

ersoll, Jenckes, Ju

uykendall, Laflin

awrence, Loan, Long

cIndoe, McKee, McR

Morris, Moulton, My

erson, Perham, Ph

liam H. Randall, Ra

, Rollins, Sawyer,

h, Spalding, Starr

mas, John L. Thomas

Horn, Robert T. Van

William B. Washbur

James F. Wilson,

nd Woodbr

, Brooks, Chanler,

, Grider, Aaron Har

James M. Humphre

h, Niblack, Nichols

Rogers, Ross, R

, Taber, Taylor, Th

ght

. Ancona, Bergen,

Hulburd, Johnson, J

, and Wi