ent, has recognized as placing the States in
full possession of all the constitutional rights pertaining to States
in full communion with the Union.

"The Executive has not recognized any one, for he still continues to
exercise military jurisdiction and to suspend the privilege of the
writ of _habeas corpus_ in all of them. Congress has not recognized
any of them, as we all know; and until Congress and the Executive do
recognize them, let us make use of the Freedmen's Bureau, already
established, to protect the colored race in their rights; and when
these States shall be admitted, and the authority of the Freedmen's
Bureau as a court shall cease and determine, as it must when civil
authority is fully restored, let us provide, then, by other laws, for
protecting all people in their equal civil rights before the law. If
we can pass such measures, they receive executive sanction, and it
shall be understood that it is the policy of the Government that the
rights of the colored men are to be protected by the States if they
will, but by the Federal Government if they will not; that at all
hazards, and under all circumstances, there shall be impartiality
among all classes in civil rights throughout the land. If we can do
this, much of the apprehension and anxiety now existing in the loyal
States will be allayed, and a great obstacle to an early restoration
of the insurgent States to their constitutional relations in the Union
will be removed.

"If the people in the rebellious States can be made to understand that
it is the fixed and determined policy of the Government that the
colored people shall be protected in their civil rights, they
themselves will adopt the necessary measures to protect them; and that
will dispense with the Freedmen's Bureau and all other Federal
legislation for their protection. The design of these bills is not, as
the Senator from Indiana would have us believe, to consolidate all
power in the Federal Government, or to interfere with the domestic
regulations of any of the States, except so far as to carry out a
constitutional provision which is the supreme law of the land. If the
States will not do it, then it is incumbent on Congress to do it. But
if the States will do it, then the Freedmen's Bureau will be removed,
and the authority proposed to be given by the other bill will have no
operation.

"Sir, I trust there may be no occasion long to exercise the authority
conferred by this bill. I hope th