536 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



men most abound ; and it expressly extends the ex- 

 isting temporary jurisdiction of the Freedmen's Bu- 

 reau with greatly enlarged powers over those States 

 " in which the ordinary course of judicial proceed- 

 ings has been interrupted by the rebellion." The 

 source from which this military jurisdiction is to 

 emanate is none other than the President of the 

 United States, acting through the War Department 

 and the Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau. 

 The agents to carry out this military jurisdiction are 

 to be selected either from the army or from civil life ; 

 the country is to be divided into districts and sub- 

 districts ; and the number of salaried agents to be 

 employed may be equal to the number of counties or 

 parishes in all the United States where freedmen and 

 refugees are to be found. 



The subjects over which this military jurisdiction 

 is to extend in every part of the United States in- 

 clude protection to " all employes, agents, and officers 

 of this bureau in the exercise of the duties imposed" 

 upon them by the bill. In eleven States it is further 

 to extend over all cases affecting freedmen and refu- 

 gees discriminated against " by local law, custom, 

 or prejudice." In those eleven States the bill sub- 

 jects any white person who may be charged with 

 depriving a freedman of " any civil rights or immu- 

 nities belonging to white persons " to imprisonment 

 or fine, or both, without, however, defining the 

 " civil rights and immunities" which are thus to be 

 secured to the freedmen by military law. This mil- 

 itary jurisdiction also extends to all questions that 

 may arise respecting contracts. The agent who is 

 thus to exercise the office of a military judge may be 

 a stranger, entirely ignorant of the laws of the place, 

 and exposed to the errors of judgment to which all 

 men are liable. The exercise of power, over which 

 there is no legal supervision, by so vast a number of 

 agents as is contemplated by the bill, must, by the 

 very nature of man, be attended by acts of caprice, 

 injustice, and passion. 



The trials, having their origin under this bill, are 

 to take place without the intervention of a jury, and 

 without any fixed rules of law or evidence. The 

 rules on which offences are to be " heard and deter- 

 mined " by the numerous agents, are such rules and 

 regulations as the President, through the War De- 

 partment, shall prescribe. No previous presentment 

 is required, nor any indictment charging the com- 

 mission of a crime against the laws ; but the trial 

 must proceed on charges and specifications. The 

 punishment will be, not what the law declares, but 

 such as a court-martial may think proper; and from 

 these arbitrary tribunals there lies no appeal, no writ 

 of error to any of the courts in which the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States vests exclusively the judi- 

 cial power of the country. 



While the territory and the classes of actions and 

 offences that are made subject to this measure are so 

 extensive, the bill itself, should it become a law, will 

 have no limitation in point of time, but will form a 

 part of the permanent legislation of the country. I 

 cannot reconcile a system of military jurisdiction 

 of this kind with the words of the "Constitution, 

 which declare that " no person shall be held to an- 

 swer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless 

 upon a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, 

 except in cases arising in the land and naval forces, 

 or m the militia when in actual service in time of war 

 or public danger; " and that "in all criminal pros- 

 ecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a 

 speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the 

 State or district wherein ttie crime shall have been 

 committed." The safeguards which the experience 

 and wisdom of ages taught our fathers to establish as 

 securities for the protection of the innocent, the pun- 

 ishment of the guilty, and the equal administration 

 of justice, are to be set aside, and for the sake of a 

 more vigorous interposition in behalf of justice, we 

 are to take the risk of the many acts of injustice that 

 Would necessarily follow from an almost countless 



number of agents established in every parish ot 

 county in nearly a third of the States of the Union, 

 over whose decisions there is to be no supervision or 

 control by the Federal courts. The power that 

 would be thus placed in the hands of the President is 

 such as in time of peace certainly ought never to be 

 intrusted to any one man. 



If it be asked whether the creation of such a tribu- 

 nal within a State is warranted as a measure of war, 

 the question immediately presents itself whether we 

 are still engaged in war. Let us not unnecessarily 

 disturb the commerce and credit and industry of the 

 country by declaring to the American people and to 

 the world that the United States are still in a condi- 

 tion of civil war. At present there is no part of our 

 country in which the authority of the United States 

 is disputed. Offences that may be committed by 

 individuals should not work a forfeiture of the rights 

 of whole communities. The country has returned 

 or is returning to a state of peace and industry, and 

 the rebellion is in fact at an end. The measure, 

 therefore, seems to be as inconsistent with the actual 

 condition of the country as it is at variance with the 

 Constitution of the United States. 



If, passing from general considerations, we exam- 

 ine the bill in detail, it is open to weighty objections. 



In time of war it was eminently proper that we 

 should provide for those who were passing suddenly 

 from a condition of bondage to a state of freedom. 

 But this bill proposes to make the Freedmen's Bu- 

 reau, established by the act of 18G5 as one of many 

 great and extraordinary military measures to sup- 

 press a formidable rebellion, a permanent branch of 

 the public administration, with" its powers greatly 

 enlarged. I have no reason to suppose, and I do not 

 understand it to be alleged, that the act of March, 

 1865, has proved deficient for the purpose for which 

 it was passed, although at that time, and for a con- 

 siderable period thereafter, the Government of the 

 United States remained unacknowledged in most of 

 the States whose inhabitants had been involved in 

 the rebellion. The institution of slavery, for the mil- 

 itary destruction of which the Freedmen's Bureau 

 was called into existence as an auxiliary, has been 

 already effectually and finally abrogated throughout 

 the whole country by an amendment of the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States, and practically its eradica- 

 tion has received the assent and concurrence of most 

 of those States in which it at any time had an exist- 

 ence. I am not, therefore, able to discern, in the 

 condition of the country, any thing to justify an ap- 

 prehension that the powers and agencies of the 

 Freedmen's Bureau, which were effective for the pro- 

 tection of freedmen and refugees during the actual 

 continuance of hostilities and of African servitude, 

 will now,- in a time of peace and after the abolition 

 of slavery, prove inadequate to the same proper 

 ends. If I am correct in these views, there can be 

 no necessity for the enlargement of the powers of 

 the bureau, for which provision is made in the bill. 



The third section of the bill authorizes a general 

 and unlimited grant of support to the destitute and 

 suffering refugees and freedmen, their wives and 

 children. Succeeding sections make provision for 

 the rent or purchase of landed estates for freedmen, 

 and for the erection for their benefit of suitable 

 buildings for asylums and schools, the expenses to 

 be defrayed from the Treasury of the whole people. 

 The Congress of the United States has never hereto- 

 fore thought itself empowered to establish asylums 

 beyond the limits of the District of Columbia, except 

 for the benefit of our disabled soldiers and sailors. 

 It has never founded schools for any class of our 

 own people, not even for the orphans of those who 

 have fallen in the defence of the Union, but has left 

 tbe care of education to the much more competent 

 and efficient control of the States, of communities, of 

 private associations, and of individuals. It h?.s 

 never deemed itself authorized to expend the public 

 money for the rent or purchase of homes fc"* the 



