ve never doubted that, on the adoption of that
amendment, it would be competent for Congress to protect every person
in the United States in all the rights of person and property
belonging to a free citizen; and to secure these rights is the object
of the bill which I propose to introduce. I think it important that
action should be taken on this subject at an early day, for the
purpose of quieting apprehensions in the minds of many friends of
freedom, lest by local legislation or a prevailing public sentiment in
some of the States, persons of the African race should continue to be
oppressed, and, in fact, deprived of their freedom; and for the
purpose, also, of showing to those among whom slavery has heretofore
existed, that unless by local legislation they provide for the real
freedom of their former slaves, the Federal Government will, by virtue
of its own authority, see that they are fully protected."

On the 5th of January, 1866, the first day of the session of Congress
after the holidays, Mr. Trumbull obtained leave to introduce a bill
"to enlarge the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau." The bill was read
twice by its title, and as it contained provisions relating to the
exercise of judicial functions by the officers and agents of the
Freedmen's Bureau, under certain circumstances, in the late insurgent
States, it was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

On the 11th of January Mr. Trumbull reported the bill from the
Judiciary Committee, to whom it had been referred, with some
amendments of a verbal character. On the following day these
amendments were considered by the Senate, in Committee of the Whole,
and adopted. The consideration of the bill as amended was deferred to
a subsequent day.

The bill provided that "the act to establish a Bureau for the relief
of Freedmen and Refugees, approved March 3, 1865, shall continue until
otherwise provided for by law, and shall extend to refugees and
freedmen in all parts of the United States. The President is to be
authorized to divide the section of country containing such refugees
and freedmen into districts, each containing one or more States, not
to exceed twelve in number, and by and with the advice and consent of
the Senate, to appoint an assistant commissioner for each district,
who shall give like bond, receive the same compensation, and perform
the same duties prescribed by this act and the act to which it is an
amendment. The bureau may, in the discretion