States containing refugees and freedmen? The bill contains no such
clause. It is a misapprehension of the bill. The clause of the bill
upon that subject is this:

"'And the President of the United States, through the War
Department and the commissioner, shall extend military
jurisdiction and protection over all employes, agents, and
officers of this bureau in the exercise of the duties
imposed or authorized by this act or the act to which this
is additional.'

"Is not the difference manifest to every body between a bill that
extends military jurisdiction over the officers and employes of the
bureau and a bill which should extend military jurisdiction over all
parts of the United States containing refugees and freedmen? This bill
makes the Freedmen's Bureau a part of the War Department. It makes its
officers and agents amenable to the Rules and Articles of War. But
does that extend jurisdiction over the whole country where they are?
How do they differ from any other portion of the army of the United
States? The army of the United States, as every one knows, is governed
by the Rules and Articles of War, wherever it may be, whether in
Indiana or in Florida, and all persons in the army and a part of the
military establishment are subject to these Rules and Articles of War;
but did any body ever suppose that the whole country where they were
was under military jurisdiction? If a company of soldiers are
stationed at one of the forts in New York harbor, the officers and
soldiers of that company are subject to military jurisdiction; but was
it ever supposed that the people of the State of New York were thereby
placed under military jurisdiction? It is an entire misapprehension of
the provisions of the bill. It extends military jurisdiction nowhere;
it merely places under jurisdiction the persons belonging to the
Freedmen's Bureau who, nearly all of them, are now under military
jurisdiction."

"The country," objected the President, "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
States where freedmen and refugees are to be found."

Mr. Trumbull replied: "A single officer need not be employed other
than those we now have. I have already stated that it is in the power
and discretion of the President to detail from the army officers to
perform all the duties of the Freedmen's Bureau