egulation of the land and naval forces' of the United States. Can it
be that that department of the Government, vested in express terms by
the Constitution itself with authority to make rules for the
government and regulation of the land and naval forces, has no
authority to direct that portion of the land and naval forces employed
in the Freedmen's Bureau to exercise this jurisdiction instead of
department commanders? Sir, it is competent for Congress to declare
that no department commanders shall exercise any such authority; it is
competent for Congress to declare that a court-martial shall never
sit, that a military commission shall never be held, and the President
is as much bound to obey it as the humblest citizen in the land."

The President said: "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."

"Do not all military trials take place in that way," asked Mr.
Trumbull. "Did any body ever hear of the presentment of a grand jury
in a case where a court-martial set for the trial of a military
offense, or the trial of a person charged with any offense cognizable
before it? This Freedmen's Bureau Bill confers no authority to do this
except in those regions of country where military authority prevails,
where martial law is established, where persons exercising civil
authority act in subordination to the military power, and where the
moment they transcend the proper limits as fixed by military orders,
they are liable to be arrested and punished without the intervention
of a grand jury, or without the right of appeal to any of the judicial
tribunals of the country. I would as soon think of an appeal from the
decision of the military tribunal that sat in the city of Washington,
and condemned to death the murderers of our late President, to the
judicial tribunals of the country! Where military authority bears
sway, where the courts are overborne, is it not an absurdity to say
that you must have a presentment of a grand jury, and a trial in a
court."

"I can not reconcile a system of military jurisdiction of this kind
with the words of the Constitution," said the President.

"If you can not reconcile a system of military jurisdiction of this
kind with the words of the Constitution, why have you been exercising
it," asked Mr. Trumbull. "Why have you been organizing courts-martial
and military commissions all over the South