s
asked by the Freedmen's Bureau as now established, for the year 1866,
amount to $11,745,000. It may be safely estimated that the cost to be
incurred under the pending bill will require double that amount--more
than the entire sum expended in any one year under the Administration of
the second Adams. If the presence of agents in every parish and county
is to be considered as a war measure, opposition, or even resistance,
might be provoked; so that to give effect to their jurisdiction troops
would have to be stationed within reach of every one of them, and thus a
large standing force be rendered necessary. Large appropriations would
therefore be required to sustain and enforce military jurisdiction in
every county or parish from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. The condition
of our fiscal affairs is encouraging, but in order to sustain the
present measure of public confidence it is necessary that we practice
not merely customary economy, but, as far as possible, severe
retrenchment.

In addition to the objections already stated, the fifth section of the
bill proposes to take away land from its former owners without any
legal proceedings being first had, contrary to that provision of the
Constitution which declares that no person shall "be deprived of life,
liberty, or property without due process of law." It does not appear
that a part of the lands to which this section refers may not be owned
by minors or persons of unsound mind, or by those who have been faithful
to all their obligations as citizens of the United States. If any
portion of the land is held by such persons, it is not competent for
any authority to deprive them of it. If, on the other hand, it be found
that the property is liable to confiscation, even then it can not be
appropriated to public purposes until by due process of law it shall
have been declared forfeited to the Government.

There is still further objection to the bill, on grounds seriously
affecting the class of persons to whom it is designed to bring relief.
It will tend to keep the mind of the freedman in a state of uncertain
expectation and restlessness, while to those among whom he lives it will
be a source of constant and vague apprehension.

Undoubtedly the freedman should be protected, but he should be protected
by the civil authorities, especially by the exercise of all the
constitutional powers of the courts of the United States and of the
States. His condition is not so exposed as