, trying offenders, and
punishing some of them with death? Why have you authorized the present
Freedmen's Bureau to hold bureau courts all through the South? This
has all been done by your permission, and is being done to-day. Then,
sir, if you are still in the exercise of this power now, if you have
been exercising it from the day you became President of the United
States, how is it that you can not reconcile a system of jurisdiction
of this kind with the words of the Constitution?

"Sir, does it detract from the President's authority to have the
sanction of law? I want to give that sanction. I do not object to the
exercise of this military authority of the President in the rebellious
States. I believe it is constitutional and legitimate and necessary;
but I believe Congress has authority to regulate it. I believe
Congress has authority to direct that this military jurisdiction shall
be exercised by that branch of the army known as the Freedmen's
Bureau, as well as by any other branch of the army."

"The rebellion is at an end," said the President. "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."

Mr. Trumbull replied: "If the rebellion is at an end, will anybody
tell me by what authority the President of the United States suspends
the writ of _habeas corpus_ in those States where it existed. The act
of Congress of March, 1863, authorized the President of the United
States to suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_ during the present
rebellion. He says it is at an end. By what authority, then, does he
suspend the writ? By his own declaration, let him stand or fall. If it
is competent to suspend the writ, if it is competent for military
tribunals to sit all through the South, and entertain military
jurisdiction, this bill, which does not continue military
jurisdiction, does not establish military jurisdiction, but only
authorizes the officers of this bureau, while military jurisdiction
prevails, to take charge of that particular class of cases affecting
the refugee or freedman where he is discriminated against, can not be
obnoxious to any constitutional objection."

"This bill," said the President, "proposes to make the Freedmen's
Bureau, established by the act of 1865, as one of many great and
extraordinary military measures to suppress a formidable rebellion, a
permanent branch of the public administration,