by this bill to station an agent in every
county. I have already stated that but a small proportion of the
freedmen are aided by the Freedmen's Bureau. In this official document
the President has sent to Congress the exaggerated statement that it
is a question whether this bureau would not bring under its control
the four million emancipated slaves. The census of 1860 shows that
there never were four million slaves in all the United States, if you
counted every man, woman, and child, and we know that the number has
not increased during the war. But, sir, what will be thought when I
show, as I shall directly show by official figures, that, so far from
providing for four million emancipated slaves, the Freedmen's Bureau
never yet provided for a hundred thousand, and, as restricted by the
proviso to the third section of the present bill, it could never be
extended, under it, to a larger number. Is it not most extraordinary
that a bill should be returned with the veto from the President on the
ground that it provides for four million people, when, restricted in
its operations as it is, and having been in operation since March
last, it has never had under its control a hundred thousand? I have
here an official statement from the Freedmen's Bureau, which I beg
leave to read in this connection:

"'The greatest number of persons to whom rations were
issued, including the Commissary Department, the bureau
issues to persons without the army, is one hundred and
forty-eight thousand one hundred and twenty.'

"Who are they? I said there were not a hundred thousand freedmen
provided for by the bureau.

"'Whites, 57,369; colored, 90,607; Indians, 133. The
greatest number by the bureau was 49,932, in September. The
total number for December was 17,025.'

"That sounds a little different from four millions. Seventeen thousand
and twenty-five were all that were provided for by the Freedmen's
Bureau in the month of December last, the number getting less and less
every month. Why? Because, by the kind and judicious management of
that bureau, places of employment were found for these refugees and
freedmen. When the freedmen were discharged from their masters'
plantations they were assisted to find places of work elsewhere.

"The President says," continued Mr. Trumbull, "that Congress never
thought of making these provisions for the white people. Let us see
what provisions have been made for the white