210 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



country, as it properly was. I did not approve 

 at the time of the attempt to put it in any shape 

 upon the Treasury Department ; it did not be- 

 long there. It was connected with our military 

 operations, and could best be carried on as a 

 part of them. Those operations having ceased 

 in the field, we were not by that means de- 

 livered from what remained to be done in 

 order to carry out to the full all that was in- 

 cumbent upon us to do to accomplish the pur- 

 pose. "We could not divest ourselves if we 

 would of the responsibility that was upon us 

 in reference to that matter, and we would not 

 if we could ; and again I will do the honorable 

 Senators on the other side the justice to say 

 that if the responsibility was on them they 

 would not attempt any such thing for their 

 own good name and for the good name and 

 credit of their country. 



" "With regard, therefore, to all these details 

 of objection to the bill and I rose principally 

 to say this I see nothing which should trouble 

 anybody arising from the considerations which 

 have been advanced to us with reference to 

 the constitutionality of the bill itself. "We must 

 meet it, and we must meet it under some power. 

 There is no positive prohibition. It is a thing 

 to be done. We have the power to appropriate 

 money, and though we do not find a specific 

 power to appropriate money for this particular 

 purpose, it is yet an object of Government, a 

 thing that the Government and country must 

 provide for, and there is no other way of doing 

 it. If we may appropriate money for this pur- 

 pose, I ask the Senator to tell me what the dis- 

 tinction is between money and land ; for, much 

 as the objection originally struck me, I have 

 been obliged to inquire why if I found the 

 power to do the one I did not find the power 

 to do the other. "We may give away the pub- 

 lic lands, but it does not follow from that pow- 

 er that we cannot purchase laud. "We may 

 take tho title and the power of Government 

 over lands that are purchased for the mere pur- 

 pose of carrying into execution certain specified 

 powers. That has been decided. But because 

 we may have specific permission in the Consti- 

 tution to do that, it is a non sequitur that we 

 have no power beyond it. To be sure, the law- 

 yer's argument may be that from the fact of 

 certain powers being specifically granted others 

 are excluded ; but we cannot argue thus in this 

 case when we come to apply it to a state of 

 facts that could not be contemplated before 

 they arose." 



On January 24th, Mr. Davis of, Kentucky, 

 stated his objections, as follows : " I oppose 

 the passage of this measure 



" 1. Because a majority of the Senate exclude 

 Senators from eleven States from their seats for 

 the purpose of securing the passage of this and 

 other measures : 



" 2. The measure is unconstitutional, because 

 it proposes to invest the Freedmen's Bureau 

 with judicial powers; because it authorizes the 

 President to assign army officers to the exercise 



of those judicial powers; because it breaks 

 down the partition of the powers of the Govern- 

 ment made by the Constitution, and blends and 

 concentrates in the same hands executive and 

 judicial powers; and because it deprives the 

 citizen of his right to trial by jury in civil 

 cases. ' 



" 3. It ought not to pass because it is a 

 scheme devised to practise injustice and oppres- 

 sion upon the white people of the late slave- 

 holding States for the benefit of the free negroes, 

 to engender strife and conflict between the two 

 races, and to prostitute the powers of the Gov- 

 ernment for the impoverishment and degrada- 

 tion of the white race and the enrichment and 

 exaltation of the negro race. 



"4. It will produce a profligate, wasteful, 

 and unnecessary expenditure of the public 

 money. 



"5. It is one of the bold, reckless, and un- 

 constitutional systems of measures devised by 

 the radical party to enable it to hold on to 

 power and office." 



These objections were sustained by lengthy 

 remarks, after which the bill was passed by tho 

 following vote : 



TEAS Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chandler, Clark, 

 Conness, Cragin, Creswell, Dixqn, Doolittle, Fessen- 

 den, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Harris, Henderson, How- 

 ard, Howe, Kirkwood, Lane of Indiana, Lane of 

 Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Norton, Nye, Poland, Pom- 

 eroy, Ramrey, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, Sumner, 

 Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade, Williams, Wilson, and 

 Yates 37. 



NATS Messrs. Buckalew, Davis, Guthrie, Hen- 

 dricks, Johnson, McDougall, Riddle, Saulsbury, 

 Stockton, and Wright 10. 



ABSENT Messrs. Cowan, Nesmith, and Willey 3. 



In the House, a new bill as a substitute to 

 the Senate bill, was passed by the following 

 vote: 



YEAS Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, 

 Delos R. Ashley, James M. Ashley, Baker, Baldwin, 

 Banks, Barker, Baxter, Beaman, Benjamin, Bidwell, 

 Bingham, Elaine, Blow, Boutwcll, Brandagee, Brom- 

 well, Broomall, Bundy, Reader W. Clark, Sidney 

 Clarke, Cobb, Conkhug, Cook, Cullom, Darling, 

 Davis, Dawes, Defrees, Delano, Doming, Dixon, 

 Donnelly, Driggs, Dumont, Eckley, Eggleston, Eliot, 

 Farnsworth, Farquhar, Ferry, Garfield, Grinnell, 

 Griswold, Hale, Abner C. Harding, Hart, Hayes, 

 Henderson, Higby, Hill, Holmes, Hooper, Hotchkiss, 

 Asahel W. Hubbard, Chester D. Hubbard, Demas 

 Hubbard, John H. Hubbard, James R. Hubbell, 

 James Humphrey, Ingersoll, Jenckes, Julian, Kas- 

 son, Kelley, Kelso, Ketcham, Kuykendall, Lafliu, 

 Latham, George V. Lawrence, William Lawrence, 

 Loan, Longyear, Lynch, Marston, Marvin, McClurg, 

 Mclndoe, McKee, McRuer, Mercur, Miller, Moorhead, 

 Morrill, Morris, Moulton, Myers, Newell, O'Neill, 

 Orth, Paine, Patterson, Perham, Phelps, Pike, Plants, 

 Pomeroy, Price, William H. Randall, Raymond, 

 Alexander H. Rice, John H. Rice, Rollins, Sawyer, 

 Schenck, Scofield, Schellabarger, Smith, Spalding, 

 Starr, Stevens, Stillwell, Thayer, Francis Thomas, 

 John L. Thomas, Trowbridge, Upson, Van Aernam, 

 Burt Van Horn, Robert T. Van Horn, Ward, War- 

 ner, Elihu B. Washburne, William B. Washburn ; 

 Welker, Wentworth, Whaley, Williams, James F. 

 Wilson, Stephen F. Wilson, Windom, and Wood, 

 bridge 136. 



NATS Messrs. Boyer, Brooks, Chanler, Dawsoa 



