SPEECH OF 
 
 T LI O M A. S D ELIOT, 
 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 Delivered in the House (f Representatives Feb. 10; 1864, on the bill for 
 the establishment of a Bureau of Freedmen's Affairs. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, in introducing this bill I bespeak for it the favor of the House, and*in- 
 voke their attention to the arguments constraining us to its speedy passage. 
 
 In December, 1860, the Legislature of South Carolina enacted her ordinance of se¬ 
 cession. The evil example of that traitor State was followed by the independent action 
 of other States, and the Hebei Confederacy was organized. Its object was to destroy 
 this Union and to build upon its ruins another government to be Ipiown as the great 
 slave Power of the century. The first act of war was committed in April, 1861. On the 
 15th of April the President made his proclamation calling for seventy-five, thousandmen 
 and summoning both Houses of Congress in extra session. The Thirty-Seventh Congress 
 assembled on the 4th of July, 1S61. On the 6th of August an act was passed “to con¬ 
 fiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes.” The fourth section of that act 
 provided that when persons “claimed to be held to labor or service ” were required or 
 permitted to take up arms against the United States, or to work or be employed in 
 military service against the United States, the person who claimed such labor or ser¬ 
 vice should forfeit his right thereto. It was a gentle act, but it was the beginning of 
 a good work. By virtue of its provisions many thousands of slaves have been made 
 free. At the second session of that Congress I had the honor to report from the select 
 committee a confiscation bill, and after full debate the bill, as amended in committee of 
 conference, was finally passed. By the ninth section of that act it was provided that 
 slaves of rebels escaping within our lines or captured from them or deserted by them 
 and coming under our control, or found within any place occupied by rebel forces and 
 afterwards by our own forces, should be deemed captives of war and forever freed from 
 slavery. On the 1st of January, 1863, the President, as Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Army and Navy in time of "armed rebellion, and as a fit and necessary war measure for 
 suppressing the lebellion, declared free all persons held as slaves in certain specified 
 States and districts. In his proclamation, the President recommended to those people 
 so declared free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense, and ad- 
 . vised them to labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And upon that great act, which 
 the President sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution 
 upon military necessity, he “invoked the considerate judgment of mankind and the 
 generous favor of Almighty God. ’ ’ 
 
 The immediate effect of such legislation and of the proclamation of the President 
 was to bring under the control of our Government from rebel States, and in districts 
 conquered by our arms, large multitudes of freedmen who had ceased to be slaves but 
 had not learned how to be free. 
 
 On the 19th of January, 1863, I introduced a bill to establish a Bureau of Emancipa¬ 
 tion. It was referred to a select committee, but for want of time was not reported by 
 them to the House. That bill, again introduced at this session, and made .more effi¬ 
 cient in the light of a year’s experience, is now before us. Its provisions have been 
 carefully examined in committee, and I will endeavor to explain them and the neces¬ 
 sity of this legislation, its object, and its expected benefits to the freedmen and to our¬ 
 selves. 
 
 The question is not now whether Mr. Lincoln was correct as a statesman when he 
 declared that his proclamation was “warranted by the Constitutisn upon military ne¬ 
 cessity.” The question is n®t now whether Congress did or did not transcend its pow¬ 
 ers in August, 1861, or in July, 1862. Upon those questions we have all arrived at a 
 judgment. During the debate upon the confiscation act they were fully discussed ; 
 and whatever our judgment may be, a great fact now exists which we must recognize, 
 and which cries out to us for legislation. By reason of that proclamation, and of our 
 past legislation, and of the successes which have been achieved by 'our armies under 
 their valiant generals, three million persons held as slaves have become ard are be¬ 
 coming in fact free. 
 
f 
 
 By the census of I860, the lonowing stave population i« iound to have been xu the 
 rebel States : 
 
 Alabama.435,080 
 
 Arkansas. 111,116 
 
 Florida. 61,745 
 
 Georgia.462,198 
 
 Louisiana.331,726 
 
 Mississippi., ...436,631 
 
 North Carolina.331,059 
 
 South Carolina.402,406 
 
 Tennessee.275,719 
 
 Texas. 182,566 
 
 Virginia. 490,865 
 
 Slaves.3,521,110 
 
 Deduct the slaves in Tennessee, o wit:. 275,139 
 
 And estimate the excepted portions of Louisiana and Virginia, at:. 246,971 
 
 and there will remain affected by the terms of the proclamation three millions of 
 slaves. 
 
 When Mr. Lincoln declared that “all persons held as slaves within the designated 
 districts” are and henceforward shall be free, he did an act as Commander-In-Chief, 
 which was irrevocable. Whatever rights it conferred cannot be withdrawn. He may, 
 as Commander-in-Chief, strike off the chain, but he cannot in any capacity, as chief¬ 
 tain, or as President, make of a freedman a slave. And we know that Mr. Lincoln so 
 holds the law to be. And as his heart was in that great proclamation of freodom, so 
 his matured judgment rests upon it firmly content . In his message to the present 
 Congress he say3, “While I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to re¬ 
 tract or modify the emancipation proclamation ; nor shall I return to slavery any per¬ 
 son who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.” 
 Shortly after that proclamation was made, I had an interview with the President, and 
 he then said, “I think that proclamation will not of itself effect the good which you 
 anticipate, nor will it do the mischief which its opponents predict.” Bnt he “ builded 
 better than he knew.” That act was the great act of his life. It has become greater 
 daily in the judgment of the worfd, and in the ages that are to come it will be the cor- 
 ner-etone of his immortal fame. Never before had such opportunity been given to 
 man. For one I reverently recognize the hand of God. He created the occasion, and 
 His servant^oheyed the divine command which it involved. 
 
 Bnt Mr. Lincoln’s proclamation cannot effect the good it contemplated unless, first, 
 it be vindicated and made effective by military sneoess, and, secondly, by appropriate 
 legislation. The shackles have been loosened from the slave, bnt defeated armies 
 w*ould leave the conquerors free to weld them on again with bolts that could not be 
 stricken off. Mr. Lincoln referred to this possibility in his recent annual message. 
 “ It was all the while deemed possible,” he says, “that the necessity for it might 
 come;” that is to say, the necessity of emancipation as a military measure; “and 
 that, if it should, the crisis of the contest would then be presented. It came, and as 
 was anticipated it was followed by dark and doubtful days. Eleven months having 
 now passed, we are permitted to take another review. The rebel borders are pressed 
 still farther back, and by the complete opening of the Mississippi the country domi¬ 
 nated by the rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no practical communication 
 between them.” The successes which onr Union armies have achieved during the past 
 year have been undisturbed by any failure that can cast a shadow upon the bright cer¬ 
 tainty of final triumph. In the graveyard at Gettysburg the rebel hopes of victory on 
 northern soil were buried. The stricken hosts of Lee’s army will not revisit those 
 fields of blood, where the unlaid ghosts of rebel traitors would taunt them with their 
 defeat. Upon the Mississippi, when Vicksburg fell before the consummate genius of 
 Grant and the heroism of his officers and men, and when the keys of Port Hudson were 
 yielded to Banks by hands unwilling to surrender but impotent to resist, a free high¬ 
 way was again thrown open, dividing the region where treason had prevailed and 
 breaking its strength in twain, while it drew ^together again the North and .the loyal 
 South by that bond of living waters which God from the beginning had established. 
 All honor to those men, heroes all of them, in those great battles which crushed the 
 hopes of rebel leaders in the East, and northern traitors, their allies an<Mrue friends 
 and have sealed our assurance of ultimate success. At every step made hy our armies 
 upon southern soil freedmen have come within onr actual control, and^nave sought to 
 prove their allegiance and to receive protection. The President tells us that— 
 
 “ Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full one hundred thou- 
 “ sand are now in the United States military service, about one half of which number 
 * actually hear arms in the ranks.” 
 
 Bat three times that number would not more than state the aggregate of those who 
 were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion and are now under the protection of oatr 
 Government. In November, 1862, a committee of Friends, or Quakers, under appoint¬ 
 ment from the New York Yearly Meeting, visited Washington,, Alexandria, Fort Monroe, 
 
v_ 
 
 Hampton, Norfolk, and Craney Island, to investigate the condition and wants of colored 
 refugees. At that time, before the military proclamation of the Commander-in-Chief, 
 there were in and around Washington about six thousand refugees, at Alexandria, 
 twelve hundred and thirty, at Fort Monroe, Hampton, Fort Norfolk, Craney Island, and 
 Norfold, six thousand and fifty-four, and many others, whose numbers they could not 
 then ascertain, at Yorktown, Suffolk, and Portsmouth ; that is to say, at that early day 
 within this territory there were known to be thirteen thousand two hundred and eighty 
 of these freedmen who wanted work and wages. This commission issned from the 
 New York Yearly Meeting of Friends, was one of the pioneer missions in this great 
 work. The report of William Cromwell and Benjamin Tatham is full of interesting facts 
 and of sound practical suggestions. 
 
 The destitution of these people, their suffering from neglect and disease, their will¬ 
 ingness and ability to work, their wages promised and earned and half paid, and the 
 ascertained value of their labor to the Government beyond the whole expense involved, 
 are stated in brief and plain language, without exaggeration, and with no harsh com¬ 
 ment. Before this action by the New York Yearly Meeting, associations had been 
 initiated in several places by humane men, who contributed freely both time and money 
 in this work ; ascertaining facts by personal investigation, and working with the Gov¬ 
 ernment so far as they might to relieve, to educate, and to employ those freedmen of 
 the South. The educational commission of Boston, the national freedmen’s relief asso¬ 
 ciation of New York, and Port Royal relief committee of Philadelphia, had been organ¬ 
 ized and were actively at work. 
 
 Mr. Edward L. Peirce, under instructions from the Secretary of the Treasury, before 
 the supervision of affairs at Port Royal, was transferred from the Treasury to the War 
 Department, went to Port Royal and examined and reported on the condition of the 
 freedmen and on their self-sustaining ability when aided in their early efforts by the 
 Government that had made them free. His earnest labors, aided by the associations of 
 New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, and his admirable reports to Mr. Chase, whose 
 personal and offioial care have been given heartily to freedmen as well as to finance, 
 have furnished to the committee information of the highest practical character and 
 value. The friends of emancipation in the West have contributed their proportion of 
 monoy and labor to ascertain the condition of the freedmen upon the Mississippi and 
 to give them the welcome and protecting hand which their untried freedom might 
 require. The contraband relief commission of Cincinnati, Ohio, has recently appointed 
 a committee to suggest a plan for the benefit of freedmen and for the occupation 
 of tli8 lands from which white traitors had fled and on which loyal black men 
 lived. In an s' >le report made by George Graham and John W. Hartwell the establish¬ 
 ment of a Bureau of Emancipation is recommended. 
 
 • At St. Louis the Western Sanitary Commission has been actively employed in the 
 same direction. Of the humane agencies which this rebellion has called into life no 
 one has done more to relieve the soldiers of our western army than this commission. 
 From the beginning of the war these earnest men have labored in their great work. 
 And now they have found opening to them this new field of labor. Their president, 
 Mr. James E. Yeatman, has recently returned from a tour of observation in the lower 
 Mississippi valley from Cairo to Natchez. He has gone in person to the camps where 
 the freedmen are collected and has examined into their condition that he might “ as¬ 
 certain their wants and how they can be relieved and make such recommendations and 
 suggestions for their management and improvement as will bring them as speedily as 
 possible to the enjoyment of the blessings which the President’s proclamation of free¬ 
 dom was designed to confer upon them. ’ 
 
 During the past year the Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, and the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, Mr. Chase, have done all that could be done without definite legislation by 
 Congress to make the labor of the freedmen profitable to themselves and serviceable tie 
 the country in the camp and in the field. How the freedmen have become soldiers, 
 and wbat brave soldiers they are, 1 do not stop to consider. Gentlemen doubted last 
 year whether they would fight. Nobody doubts now. I would that I had time, for I 
 could tell of one from my own city, Sergeant Carney, of the Massachusetts fifty-fourth 
 whose dark complexion covers but cannot cloud a true soul and a brave heart. I could 
 tell you how he seized the regimental colors and planted them upon Fort Wagner; how 
 he was shot down holding firmly aloft his sacred banner ; how he kept his post while 
 men wfcre falling around him, his own blood pouring out the while, until the attack 
 was over; how, after his regiment retired, he remained, his colois flying and within 
 Hie fort, but no one there to defend or to support him; how he dragged his shattered 
 body alone, holding his banner up, supporting himself with it as with a staff; how be 
 was again sorely wounded by a rebtl ball, but kept on his way undaunted and tuasab- 
 dued until he had drawn himself, his colors flying, toward his regiment ; and how 
 wearied and fainting, he found his men. saying as he fed exhausted and spent, tJ^re 
 
4 
 
 are the oolors hoys, they have not touched the ground!” Other men wear stars upon 
 their shoulder ; hut this man, black though he may he shall live in history, himself a 
 star, fixed and luminous forever. 
 
 Sir, where these men have bad opportunity they hav vindicated their full manhood. 
 They have shown more manly treatment than they have received. They have not 
 feared to fight or to die in battle. We have feared to pay them as soldiers or to ac¬ 
 knowledge them as men. At some time prior to June, 1863, Messrs. Robert Dale 
 Owen, James McKay, and Samuel 0. Howe were appointed commissioners from the 
 American freedmen’s inquiry commission, under authority from the Secretary of War, 
 to examine into the condition and the management of emancipated refugees. In June 
 they made their preliminary report, which has been published by authority of the War 
 Department. It concerns the refugees in the District of Columbia, Virginia, North 
 Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. This report describe's their condition as refu¬ 
 gees, speaks of them as military laborers, and discusses their ability as soldiers, and 
 it recommends also the establishment of a Bureau in the War Department for the su¬ 
 pervision and conduct of their affairs. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, your committee has sought and acquired information from all these 
 sources. I have also conferred i» person and by correspondence with parties whose 
 business has led them among these refugees, and whose means of personal knowledge 
 of their condition and wants have enabled them to speak with some authority. 
 
 Upon one proposition we have found a decided and united judgment. Everyone 
 whose knowledge has been personal declares the imperative and immediate importance 
 of such a bill as your committee has reported to the House. For it is true that milita¬ 
 ry successes alone cannot make the great proclamation of Mr. Lincoln fully effective as 
 an act of justice to the freedman, nor as a benefit to the nation at large. To that end 
 there must be appropriate and efficient legislation. Without that a generation of freed- 
 men would be destroyed before a generation of free men would live. Mr. Lincoln says, 
 “ I recommed to them,” that is, the freedmen, “that in all 'cases when allowed, they 
 labor faithfully for reasonable wages.” So they will if allowed. But who is to allow 
 them ? Will you let harpies go among' them, or white blood-hounds whose scent is 
 keen for prey, whose fangs are remorseless, whose pursuit is for gold at any cost of hu¬ 
 man life ? Such men have been there ; they are there now, under color of Government 
 authority; and the abuses practiced by them sadden and depress the freedmen. The 
 President of the Western Sanitary Commission, speaking from his own observation, 
 says, “ he sighs to return to his former home and master. He at least fed, clothed, 
 and sheltered him. Something should be done, and I doubt not will be done, to cor¬ 
 rect these terrible abuses, when the proper authorities are made to comprehend them. 
 The President’s proclamation should not thus be made a living lie, as the Declaration of 
 Independence hass too long been, in asserting the inalienable rights of man, while the 
 nation continued to hold millions of human beings in bondage.” Neither the conside¬ 
 rate judgment of mankind nor the gracious favor of God can be reasonably invoked 
 upon the President’s act of freedom unless the law shall protect the freedom which the 
 sword declared. 
 
 The President submitted recently to the consideration of the House a letter which he 
 had received from a joint committee' of the freedmen’s aid societies of Boston, New 
 York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. The sources of accurate knowledge which have 
 been open to these parties entitle what they say to great consideration. We look into 
 history and it is silent. No voice of the past can define the duties which the great 
 facts of the present time enjoin upon us. We look to England, and the story of her 
 emancipation in the West India Islands is fresh in our memory. The English oak is 
 thrifty in its green old age, in whose shade Wilberforce and Pitt took counsel together 
 before the bill to abolish the slave trade was introduced. But the act of June, 1833, 
 declared to be free some six or eight hundred thousand persons. We have, and shall 
 have, as the free fruits of this rebellion, more than three millions. Yet the act of 
 England also provided for the early years of freedom. Ten years before, Parliament 
 had voted to adopt decisive and effectual measures to ameliorate the condition of the 
 slave population. Those who are familiar with the literature of abolition know what 
 those measures were. * The Colonial Secretary of State addressed the Colonial Governors, 
 directing them to submit certain propositions to their Legislatures. The propositions 
 were submited, but they were all rejected, and the condition of the slaves remaned 
 unchanged. Then, ten years afterwards, came the act of emancipation. But that act 
 sought to break gently to the eye the light of day. The slave was to be an apprentice 
 before he became a man. For these apprentices special guardians were appointed and 
 their duties were defined. Before the term of apprenticeship had expired, full freedom 
 was proclaimed in all the colonies. But between the date of the act of emancipation 
 and the final proclamation of freedom in 1839, the Government of England published 
 in documents of aM kinds—orders, dispatches, reports, and decrees—fifteen folio vol- 
 
5 
 
 times, which contained more than seven thousand pages, and we may learn there how 
 their early freedom affected the freedmen and the colonies. 
 
 But the condition of things in the West India Islands differed so essentially from the 
 state of facts caused by this rebellion that colonial experiences are only or ohiefly val¬ 
 uable to us as demonstrating the necessity of timely and efficient legislation. And if 
 we turn to France, and recall the story of her action to liberate the colonial slave and 
 to elevate the enfranchised man, and review the facts with which that nation had to 
 deal, we find after years of discussion and inaction convulsive abolition decreed in 1794 
 and deliberate slavery re-established in 1802, until another convulsion created the re¬ 
 public and compelled the decree of 1848. And here also we find legislation and de¬ 
 crees and regulations aiming to protect both freedman and Government, and although 
 we may learn no other lesson we are compelled to learn this—that emancipation, while 
 it restores rights to the slave, devolves high duties upon the Government by whose 
 decree it has been proclaimed. If we look to what was done in Sweden two years be¬ 
 fore the provisional Government of France had acted, or in Denmark following her ex¬ 
 ample the next year, or in Portugal, or much later in Russia, we still come back to 
 consider our own present duties, guided by this light alone which the experience of 
 other nations gives to us, and which reveals to us the need of immediate and efficient 
 action. No nation upon the face of the earth with whose history I am conversant has 
 held in bondage over so wide extent of country so many millions of human beings as 
 this nation has dared to hold under a Constitution which the people ordained to secure 
 the blessings of liberty and to establish justice; nor has human ingenuity ever devised 
 a system of slavery more debasing in its character to the slave or to his master. Even 
 in Spanish colonies, where the condition of the negro slave has been and is degraded 
 below the level of humanity, rights are secured by law which the master is bound to 
 respect. He may ransom himself and his wife and children by the produce ok his 
 labor. He may have a wife by law, and *he may change his master if he can find 
 a purchaser .whom he confides in. No such rights, nor any others that 'I know of, are 
 so secured by law as to be made available to the slave in our southern States. Yet the 
 service of a person , and not the body and life of a human being, is all that our Consti¬ 
 tution ever meant to recognize as the subject of property. Where slavery has been 
 most uncompromising and cruel the freedman*is found most helpless and most deserv¬ 
 ing aid. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, this war has been continued for nearly three years. From its com¬ 
 mencement it was plain that the freedom of the slave must follow military success. 
 But up to this day not one act has been done by the Congress of the United States to 
 protect freedmen or to aid them in self-protection or self-support. This great work, 
 the greatest work which this rebellion casts upon the Government, has yet to be com¬ 
 menced. 
 
 Why, sir, what has been done hitherto? Let me tell. you. The rebellion began in 
 April, 1861. In August, at an extra session, an act was passed providing for an annual 
 direct tax of $20,000,000, duly apportioned anmng all the States. There were $5,153,- 
 981 28 apportioned to the rebel States. In June. 1862, an act was passed for the col¬ 
 lection of those taxes in insurrectionary districts. The lands were charged with the 
 payment of the tax, and sales of the lands were provided for. Tax commissioners 
 were created and their duties specified. After .sales had been effected and the lands 
 purchased on account of the United States, under the terms of the act these commis¬ 
 sioners were empowered to lease certain of the lands together or in parcels, the leases 
 to be “in such form and with such security as shall, in the judgment of said commis¬ 
 sioners, produce Jo the United States the greatest revenue.” By the tenth section of 
 the act the commissioners are empowered to make rules and regulations, and insert 
 such clauses in the leases as will secure proper and reasonable employment and sup¬ 
 port, at wages or on shares, of persons and families residing on the lands. That was 
 the first notice taken by legislation of the freedmen. 
 
 It is important, because it was a recognition by Congress of an obligation to see that 
 'some proper and reasonable employment and suppgrt were given to these loyal men. 
 But it was an act whose object was to raise money and get revenue. The lands are to 
 be leased in such form and with such security as will produce the ‘ ‘ greatest amount of 
 revenue. ’ ’ The act itself was not dictated by humanity, but by prudence and national 
 thrift. And, sir, I greatly fear that in its administration the “greatest revenue” has 
 had the largest consideration.* I trust in God the time is not remote when they may 
 have fair wages for fair work. At this moment there is, as I believe, in the Treasury 
 more than a million dollars which the freedmen have contributed largely to produce. 
 The testimony of parties who have personally examined into the facts concerning work 
 and wages of the freedmen is uniform that not only are those men often employed upon 
 leased lands at less than half wages, but that in many cases, when employed directly 
 by officers of the Government, they are compelled te receive less than one-third of the 
 
wages that similar service from others at the same place and at the same time demanded 
 and received. I know very well how difficult it may be to protect fiom the calculating 
 speculator who has power the thoughtless and improvident man who wants bread. 
 But over the thoughtlessness and improvidence which oppression has eausod, it is both 
 a privilege and a duty to keep kindly guard until the liberty we have vouchsafed shall 
 give to the freedmen mental nerve and moral self-reliance. Mr. Speaker, besides the 
 law I have referred to there have been throe distinct appropriations of money made fer 
 purposes of colonization. 
 
 Already ttie experience of a year, with the ombarassrnents created by disloyalty, 
 timidity, distrust, and avarice, has satisfied all who have sought to know the facts that 
 at the end of this rebellion there will be no freedmen whom the economical interests of 
 this Union can afford to spare. My friend from Illinois [Mr. W ashrutjnb] is seeking to 
 make it easier by legislative provision for white emigrants to come among us. I wish 
 him success. Let them come—the healthy, sturdy, and studious German from the 
 Rhine to the Vistula. We will welcome them all—and the impetuous Irish and the canny 
 Scotch ? We have room enough for all loyal men from all lands under the sun. But 
 we cannot spare the freednfbn. In those tropical regions of ihe South where they have 
 been deprived of themselves they have a right to live. And the industrial interests of 
 our country require that their compensated labor should enrich the land which has 
 ween cursed by their unpaid toil. But, sir, all our legislation thus far has been for 
 ourselves. We have imposed taxes upon the lands and subjected them to sale. The 
 Government of the United States has become the owner of large tracts of abandoned 
 property. We have appointed tax commissioners and laid on them the duty of leasing 
 lands so as to bring to the Treasury the greatest revenue. We have provided for the 
 ©x-patriation of the freedman, but not for his relief. Tho necessity for practical legis¬ 
 lation upon this great subject is thus made plain. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the purposes and objects of this law ar twofold ; and they are vindi 
 eatea by the plainest considerations of justice and of self-interest. The Government of 
 the United States stands committed before the world this day l>y the laws which we 
 have passed, by the proclamation of the President, and indeed by the neccessary issues 
 of this rebellion, to a humane and enlightened policy toward the freedmen of the South. 
 Our laws have made them free ; the proclamation of the Commander-in-Chief has de¬ 
 clared them free ; and day by day, as this war has culminated toward the meridian of 
 freedom, hundreds of thousands of loyal men, slaves heretofore, stand before your 
 armies waiting your action, that the freedom you have vouchsafed shall be a blessing 
 and not a curse. Why were these men made free? Was it because slavery was 
 wrong, because it degraded the slave and tempted the master away from the great 
 truths of our common Master who spoke upon the mount ? Was it that we might 
 “ render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s ?” Was the conscience of the nation 
 troubled by reason of its sins, and did the Commander-in-Chief therefore proclaim his 
 gospel of glad tidings, and did the Congress of the United States therefore emancipate 
 the slaves of rebels ? If that had been so in fact; if Congress could have seen that it 
 was better m the sight of God to obey the laws of God rather than the constitutions of 
 men ; if the Commander-in-Chief could under his oath of office as a high act of justice, 
 justified as such and not by military necessity, have decreed freedom to the enslaved, 
 it would nevertheless have been incumbent on ns to lead them gently into the land of 
 promise, and not to permit them to wander through the wilderness until a generation 
 had died by the way. 
 
 But it was not so, and upon the facts of history it would be an act of meaness which 
 no language can fitly describe, and 'for which no national suffering could fitly atone, if 
 we should leave those men, freshly freed after a life of servitude, children of the na¬ 
 tion as they are, to grope their way into the light without parent or guardian or friend. 
 Why, sir, we freed them for our own selfish ends. It was to weaken the enemy. It 
 was as a means of crushing the rebellion. It was because they were made to work 
 while tho rebels fought. It was .because we wanted their strong arms upon our side. 
 It was because we began to see that we must fight them or free them. Let us not he 
 too self-righteous, for “even the publicans” would have done the “same.” Look 
 back and recall the arguments upon which the constitutionality of all legislation has 
 been defended. Sound arguments they were, and by slow degrees they have commend¬ 
 ed themselves to magistrates and to men, until now the heart of the nation rests eon- 
 ten tly upon the logio of their conclusions. But they were argumentsxlrawn from the 
 arsenal of military necessity. They woro hurled by the power of the laws of war 
 against a national iniquity, it is true, but against it, not because it was a sin, but be- 
 eause it was a strength to the enemy which we had a right to annihilate and destroy. 
 "Well, sir, we have destroyed it, and as our, armies march on, its destruction becomes 
 more certain and more universal, and now a great national duty looks us in the 
 
7 
 
 Sir, we had no right to decree freedom and not to guaranty safe guidance and protec¬ 
 tion. It does not meet the case to say we had no right to free them, and therefore we 
 will not act. And I invoke the practical statesmanship and the personal humanity of 
 those who do not see their way open to act with ns who are now charged with the ad¬ 
 ministration of this Government, to unite with us here and now upon this legislation 
 which existing facts demand. For, whether it was right or wrong under the Constitution 
 to decree emancipation by law or proclamation, it has been done,. and it cannot be un¬ 
 done. We ar<? responsible for it. But because of it, and because of the rebellion it¬ 
 self, which preceded military orders and ail congressional enactments, three millions, 
 of enslaved men have become and ai'e becoming free. Concede it was wrong. Wnat 
 then ? Is there a man upon this floor who would send them back to slavery ? If not, 
 what shall bo done ? Shall tlie Government support them ? They must do so in some 
 way, with law or without law. They must riot starve. They have been driven into 
 their grave by hunger and by neglect already. Shall this continue ? Mr. Yoatman, 
 of the Western Sanitary Commission, after his examination into the condition of freed- 
 men between Memphis and Natches, writes as follows : 
 
 “ The poor negroes are everywhere greatly oppressed at their condition. They all 
 “ testify that if they were only paid their little wages as they earn them, so that they 
 “ could purchase clothing, and furnished with the provisions promised they could stand 
 “it; but to work and get poorly paid, poorly fed, and not doctored when sick, is mure 
 “ than they can endure. Among the thousands whom I questioned none showed the 
 “least unwillingness to work. If they could only be paid fair wages they would be 
 “contented and happy. They do not realize that they are free men. They say that 
 “ they are told they are, but then they are taken and hired out to men who treat them, 
 “so far as providing form them is concerned, far worse than their ‘secesh ’ masters 
 “ did. Besides this they feel that their pay or hire is lower now than it was when 
 “ ‘ the seeosh 5 used to hire them.” 
 
 “The parties leasing plantations and employing these negroes do it from no motives 
 “either of loyaity or humanity. The desire of gain alone prompts them, and they 
 “ care little whether they make it out of the blood of those they employ or from the 
 “soil. There are of course exceptions ; but I am informed that the majority of the 
 '•‘lessees were only adventurers, camp’ followers, ‘Army Sharks,’ as they are termed, 
 “ who have turned aside from what they consider tlieir legitimate prey, the poor sol- 
 “ dier, to gather the riches of the land which his prowess has laid open to them.. I 
 “ feel that the fathers and brothers and friends of these brave men should have an op¬ 
 portunity to reap, under a more equitable system for the laborer, the reward of the 
 “ months of toil and exposure it lias cost to open this country to the institutions of 
 “ freedom and compensated labor. If these jilantations were required to be sub-divided 
 “ into parcels or tracts to suit the views and means of our western men, say in farms 
 “of from one to two hundred acres, thousands would soon flock to the South to lease 
 “them, especially when it was known that one acre of ground there cultivated in cot- 
 “ton would yield, in dollars, ten times as much as at home. Besides this, subdivision 
 “ would attract a loyal population, who would protect the country against any guerrilla 
 “bands that might infest it.” 
 
 This testimony from one who speaks of what he saw and knows does not stand 
 alone. It is indeed the voice of many who have gone among the freedmen in 
 their new homes along the Mississippi. Yet the Government at Washington has en¬ 
 deavored to do all that in the absence of any legislative authority could have been done 
 without more means of knowledge to guide them in their action. General Thomas, 
 who has been organizing colored regiments under oiders from the War Department, 
 found that some plan should be adopted at once to regulate the labor and wages of the 
 freedmen. Sucli work was not fairly within the scope of his authority, and great er¬ 
 rors have been committed ; but experience was gained which will be made valuable 
 ''both to control the rapacity of men whose sole object is gaifc and to secure the honest 
 laborer his fair compensation. But to illustrate somewhat the treatment these freed¬ 
 men have been receiving at Memphis, I call attention to one other statement made by 
 Mr. Yeatman ; 
 
 “ Within the city of Memphis, not directly connected with any of the camps or with 
 “ the colored regiments, there are some three thousand freed men and women, mostly 
 “ freed men, who are employed in various ways and at various rates of compensation. 
 “Those employed by Government receive but ten dollars per month; while many 
 “could readily earn from thirty to fifty dollars per month. Those thus employed are 
 “ outside of the military organization. 
 
 “ To give an instance : one quartermaster told me that he had in his employment a 
 “ harness maker, to whom they could only pay ten dollars per month, while they were 
 “ paying white men doing the same work forty-five dollars per month ; and that the 
 “colored man could readily procure the same wages were he allowed to seek a market 
 
“for his labor in the same town. I saw a number of colored men pressed into service 
 “ fnot military) to labor at the rate of ten dollars per month, one of whom petitioned to 
 “be released as he had a good situation at thirty dollars per month. The firemen on 
 *• the steamboat on which I was passenger from'St. Louis to Memphis were all colored, 
 “ and were receiving forty-five dollars per month. These men were afraid to go ashore 
 “at Memphis for fear of being picked up and forced into Government employment at 
 “ less than one-fourth their existing wages. Besides the fact that men are thus pressed 
 “into service, thousands have been employed for weeks and months who have never 
 “received anything but promises to pay. The negligence and failure to comply with 
 “obligations have greatly disheartened the poor slave who comes forth at the call of 
 “the President, and supposes himself to be a free man, and that by leaving his rebel 
 “master he is inflicting a blow on the enemy, ceasing to labor and provide food for him 
 “and the armies of the rebellion. Thus he was promised freedom, but how is it with 
 “him ? He is seized in the street and ordered to go and help unload a steamboat, for 
 “which he will be paid, or sent to work in the trenches, or to labor for some quarter- 
 “ master, or to chop wood for the Government. He labors for months, and k sX last is 
 “ only paid with promises, unless perchance it may be with kicks, cuffs, and curses.” 
 
 Now, sir, I have faith to believe that this House will, by no party vote, determine 
 that these abuses, so far as they aje controllable by legislation, shall be controlled. 
 These facts are not isolated. Indeed I fear they are not exceptional. But they de¬ 
 monstrate that on grounds of humanity—and it is the argument for humanity that I 
 am trying to present—the time has come when the representatives of the people should 
 act. Longer delay is criminal. Why, sir, if this bill as it was introduced one year 
 ago had then become a law, and if the bureau it contemplates had been organized by 
 a man of genius and of heart—for both are wanted for this work—many hundreds of 
 lives would have been saved, much gross injustice would have been prevented, and a 
 large profit would have been realized by the Government that would have amply reim¬ 
 bursed their entire outlay. And that brings me to consider the object of this bill as 
 connected with the interests of the people and of the Gonernment. That it is for our 
 interests, material, political, and pecuniary, to protect these men so far as they require 
 protection, and no further, it will not be difficult to prove. It is almost to be regretted 
 that the argument is so strong. The necessities of war compelled us to make them 
 free. We are entitled to a small praise for that. And if now, besides all reasons rest¬ 
 ing on broad grounds of justice and humanity, it shall appear that a decent regard to 
 prudential and pecuniary considerations requires just such legislaiion as we are trying 
 *o initiate, it will not become us, I fear, to assume much credit for a philanthropy 
 which will be profitable as well as godly! 
 
 It would be but fair in this argument to credit the freedmen with one hundred thou¬ 
 sand men in the military service of the Govenrment. That number will be doubled 
 before many months have passed. Every man of them stands for a son, a brother or a 
 friend. By just so many men our own homes are the happier and the more productive. 
 What would those lives be worth to us if we could compute their value in money ? 
 But it may be said that does not tend to prove that a bureau is wanted : we may take 
 all the strong men that can bear arms without being troubled with women and children. 
 I do not believe any gentleman will be found with hardihood enough to m-ake such 
 suggestion. But it is not true. How long will those strong men fight in our ranks 
 when it shall be known to them that the Government for which they peril their lives 
 permits the unarmed freedmen and all the women and children upon the plantations 
 of the South ‘to be oppressed ? These freedmen are men, and although they have been 
 humbled by their condition they have the affections of men. They know their value 
 to us, and they know our value to them ; they will fight bravely, heroically, to the 
 death. But you may depend upon it they will not fight, and they ought not to fight, 
 if the Government shall declare its policy to be that plantation lessees may absorb the 
 muscle and sinew and labor of all who do not fight but can work, and that for half 
 wages half paid, while they wage battle with the rebels at the risk of slaughter upon 
 the field and with the certainty of death if captured by the enemy. 
 
 It is then but fair, when we consider the selfish reasons urging us to action in the 
 direction of this bill, that we remember the priceless value of these fighting men, and 
 that we appreciate the importance of giving to them legislative assurance that those 
 who are left at home are not left subject to the caprices and the avarice of men who 
 regard them as serfs of, the soil, and as instruments by which to work 'out their own 
 way to fortune. 
 
 But, Mr. Speaker, the uniform testimony of the men who have witnessed the will¬ 
 ingness and the ability of these freedmen by profitable employment demonstrates that, 
 by judicious and timely aid and under the supervision of superintendents able and 
 willing to “organize and direct their labor and to adjust with them their wages,” the 
 liberated slaves who shall not have been received into our ranks will return to the 
 
9 
 
 Government in produce and in money more than shall he expended on their account. 
 
 At Fort Monroe more than a year ago it was ascertained that although the colored 
 laborers employed by the Government were paid less than half the price paid for the 
 same service here at Washington, a sum not less than thirty thousand dollars was due 
 to them for work. At Lawrence in Kansas, where a school for refugees had been estab¬ 
 lished before October, ^862, a stranger who visited them and saw the cleanliness and 
 good order that prevailed said to the superintendent, “This must have cost a good 
 deal of money. ” “ Not a cent, not a cent, ’’ was the reply. ‘ f These children are dressed 
 
 at the expense of their parents from the proceeds of their own earnings since they have 
 been here.” These refugees had gone from Missouri and Arkansas. There were but 
 a few hundreds, but where they found employment they accumulated money and pro¬ 
 perty at once. But they had required help. One man of some means had given to 
 them orders for supplies to the amount of five or six hundred dollars. But the whole 
 sum excepting eight dollars had been paid by the refugees themselves. Captain E. W. 
 Hooper, aid to General Saxton, one year since wrote from Beaufort that after an expe¬ 
 rience then of eight months among the freedmen of South Carolina, where we know 
 that slavery has done its worst to brutalize the master and to enfeeble its victims, and 
 with good opportunity tp observe the conduct of the freed negroes as laborers, it was 
 his “personal conviction that almost without exception they would readily become in¬ 
 dustrious and productive, laborers under any liberal system which should offer a fair 
 and reasonably certain compensation proportioned to the work actually done.” From 
 Craney Island, in Virginia, from Helena, in Arkansas, from St. Helena and ocher islands 
 in South Carolina, the proof is plenary that with judicious aid and under a fair system 
 of labor and wages the expenses involved in the first necessary outlay would be reim¬ 
 bursed by the productive labor of freedmen within a reasonable period of time. The 
 “facts ” published by the emancipation league and the letters and reports to which I 
 have already adverted permit us to entertain no doubt that this bureau will, if placed 
 in the charge of able and administrative men, be conducted substantially without cost 
 to the Government. 
 
 Mr. CLAY. I wish to know whether the gentleman intends to include within this 
 emancipation bill the State of Kentucky; whether he intends to trample under foot the 
 constitution of Kentucky, and free every slave without the consent of their ownere ? 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. I am happy to say to the gentleman that Kentucky is this time out of 
 the ring altogether. This bill does not contemplate Kentucky at all, and has no refer¬ 
 ence to it. 
 
 Mr. CLAY. I will say that the gentleman goes so far as not only to take all the ne¬ 
 groes in the South, but he is disposed to seize all the lands in that country, under the 
 idea that they are abandoned. I have many constituents who hold property in that 
 country who are all loyal men, but who are living in the State/of Kentucky and never 
 have lived in the South. I wish to know whether the lands of residents in Kentucky 
 are to be considered as abandoned, and hence to be seized and disposed of under this 
 bill? 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. Where do the loyal citizens, the constituents of the honorable gentle 
 man, reside ? 
 
 Mr. CLAY. In my district. 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. Where are their plantations ? 
 
 Mr. CLAY. In Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. And those plantations‘are owned by men residing in the district of my 
 honorable friend ? 
 
 Mr. CLAY. Yes, sir. 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. If they are not abandoned plantations they do not come at all under 
 the range of this law. If those plantations are abandoned I think the honorable gen¬ 
 tleman’s constituents are rebels. 
 
 Mr. CLAY. I go further, and say that I am the owner of a plantation there myself. 
 [Laughter.] Because I am attending to my duties here on behalf of my constituents 
 is my plantation there to be considered as abandoned and to come under this law ? 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. No, sir; the gentleman is constructively upon his plantation. 
 
 Mr. CLAY. The overseers'on those plantations have been driven off by the military 
 authorities; and are the plantations to be seized as abandoned property on that ac¬ 
 count ? 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. Why did they not remain upon their property if they were loyal men ? 
 If they were rebels they have probably gone South and are in the ranks of the rebel¬ 
 lion. But the desertion by the overseer does not leave the gentleman’s farm “aban¬ 
 doned.” 
 
 Mr. CLAY. They have gone off because the law did not prote«t them on their plan¬ 
 tations. I was myself in Kentucky, and had to go over into Ohio for protection. 
 
10 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. If the owners of these plantations are rebels, we will take their slaves 
 if we can, and take earo of them until they can contribute to their own support. 
 
 Mr. HOLMAN. I desire to ask the gentleman from Massachusetts whether, under 
 the sixth section of this act, abandoned plantations in Kentucky, Maryland, or any one 
 of the slave States, may not be subject to colonisation and settlement through the 
 agency of the commission ? I call his attention to the proposed amendment to the 
 sixth section, which expressly provides for colonization on these plantations which have 
 been abandoned, without making any distinction between loyal and disloyal slave 
 States. 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. If I understand the inquiry of the gentleman from Indiana, it is 
 whether, under the provisions of this bill, some portion of the State of Kentuoky may 
 not be taken as colony ground. No, sir ; it may not be. This bill proposes no such 
 scheme. 
 
 Mr. MALLORY. I wish to ask the gentleman from Kentucky- 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. Massachusetts, sir. 
 
 Mr. MALLORY. I beg pardon of Kentucky, and of the gentleman from Massachu¬ 
 setts. [Laughter.] I wish to ask the gentleman from Massachusetts whether, when 
 he made the remark just now that Kentucky was out of the ring for the present, he 
 intended to bring Kentucky into the ring, and how, and when ? 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. I should like right well to answer that question, but it will take a little 
 time. It is a mere matter of personal opinion that the gentleman inquires about, how 
 long it would be before I should want to bring Kentuoky into the ring, and what I 
 would do with her. I have no sort of objection to answer the gentleman’s question. 
 
 Mr. MALLORY. I want to ask the gentleman from Massachusetts whether he wants 
 to confiscate the landed estate of my colleague [Mr. Clay] in the State of Mississippi, 
 knowing my colleague to be a Union man ? Is he willing that this bill shall so operate 
 as to call my colleague’s property in Mississippi abandoned property, and to have that 
 property taken and settled by freedmen, perhaps the slaves of my colleague ? 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. Certainly not, sir. Certainly not. We are kind-hearted people on 
 t^jis side of the House. 
 
 Mr. MALLORY. The gentleman’s bill does that very thing. 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. Oh no, sir. I pray you read it. 
 
 Mr. MALLORY. I have read it, and I think the gentleman himself does not clearly 
 comprehend it. 
 
 Mr. KNAPP. If I understand the gentleman, he claims that it is not proposed that 
 this bill shall not operate in the State of Kentucky at all. 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. No, sir, it does not. 
 
 Mr. KNAPP. I call the attention of the gentleman from Massachusetts to that part 
 of the sixth section which gives the commissioners power to permit persons of African 
 descent, and persons who are, or shall have become, free, to occupy,’cultivate, and im¬ 
 prove, all lands lying within those districts now or heretofore in rebellion, and all real 
 estate to which the United States shall have acquired title. Now, under the operations 
 of the various confiscation laws, the United States may acquire title to lands in Ken¬ 
 tucky, and I desire to know from the gentleman from Massachusetts whether this hill 
 is not intended to operate on these lands. 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. I ask tho gentleman whether he intends to say that the State of Ken¬ 
 tucky is in rebellion ? 
 
 Mr. KNAPP. No; but I understand that a good many of the citizens of Kentucky 
 have joined the rebellion, and that their property in Kentucky is liable to confiscation. 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. Mr. Speaker, there is another view to take of this question of expense. 
 There has not been a day since the fortunes of war first opened to the slave his way to 
 freedom when there have not come to our forts and military camps and within our 
 lines, everywhere when fort or camp or line was accessible, men and women, old and 
 young, of all ages and conditions, healthy and strong, disabled and infirm. Every¬ 
 where our banner has been raised the fugitives have tended toward it as the needle 
 turns towards its pole. And the^ have come under the stars of onr flag with the faith 
 of the mariner,who holds his helm so that liis disabled bark may keep its coarse north¬ 
 ward although the tempest shall threaten and darkness is all around him, for he knows 
 right well that above the storm the north star is shining and will guide him safely to his 
 home. When they began to come, General Butler received and retained them, for 
 they were “ contraband of war.” 
 
 In old England, when, by mischanee, a man was killed, the thing that caused his 
 death was held sacred, and called “deodand.” The Union “as it was” has been 
 dashed against the slave and destroyed. Let the slave be “ deodand” forever, for he 
 has been forfeited to God ! But coming as these slaves did before proclamation or con¬ 
 fiscation acts, onr Government has been compelled to take them, to feed them, to clothe 
 them, to shelter them, and they still come, and they would come without proclamation 
 
11 
 
 or law. They hail oar successful generals as angels of deliverance, and when the Ga- 
 fena chieftain, who is sometimes alluded to on this floor by his irrepressible Representa¬ 
 tive, shall advance again bis conquering armies, ho will hear sounding through rice 
 field and cane-brake and savanna and swamp, hearty and earnest hosannas to Univer¬ 
 sal Salvation Grant l These freedmen must live at the Government charge until they 
 are permitted to support themselves. Wo cannot help it. We have not been able 
 from the beginning to avoid it. In Virginia and Maryland and North Carolina and all 
 down the Mississippi, and upon the sea islands of the South, the same oauses have 
 operated and the same results have followed. We have no means of knowing until the 
 facts can be gathered from the different military departments how many rations or what 
 other aid it has been necessary to provide for refugees from bondage. It ought, indeed, 
 to be stated that such, aid has been given not only to colored refugees, but to the “poor 
 whites ” to keep them from starvation. In the report of Messrs. Owen, McKay, and 
 Howe to the War Department, it is said that— 
 
 “In November last General Butler was feeding in New Orleans thirty-two thousand 
 “whites, seventeen thousand of whom were British born, and only ten thousand ne- 
 11 groes ; these last chiefly women and children, the able-bodied negro men being usu- 
 “ ally employed on abandoned plantations. Nor where relief has been required, by 
 “both whites and blacks have the latter usually applied for or received in proportion 
 “ to their number nearly as much as the former. Mr. Vincent Colyer, appointed by 
 ;{ General Burnside at Newborn, North Carolina, superintendent of the poor, white and 
 ‘ black, reports that while seven thousand five hundred oolored persona and eighteen 
 “hundred white persona received relief,” * * * “the average 
 
 ‘ 1 proportion dealt out ” * * * “ was about as one to each col- 
 
 “ ored person to sixteen for each white person. At the time this occurred, work wan 
 11 offered to both blacks and whites—to the whites at the rate of twelve dollars a 
 “ month, and to the blacks at the rate of eight dollars a month.” 
 
 It is also true that no needless expense^has been inourred. Captain Hooper, in speak¬ 
 ing of the department of the South, says : 
 
 “ Where the Government has been obliged to support destitute contrabands it has 
 1 * issued only such portions of the Army rations as were absolutely necessary to sup- 
 “ port life. No fair-minded man acquainted with the facts of the ca^e can say that 
 “ in this department they have so far been a great burden to such a Government as 
 “ our.” 
 
 I have no reason to believe that in any of our departments aid has been given where 
 it was not necessary. 
 
 But the point I make is that large expenses are now incurred. And it i3 impossible 
 to prevent this change from being continued needlessly unless the Government shall 
 take this matter in hand and by its own organized and systematic action enable the 
 freedmen to support themselves. The sooner this bureau is efficiently established, the 
 sooner that expense will be avoided. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, it is not possible that the work of this bureau can be properly per¬ 
 formed by any agency except that of the Government. The argument on this point is 
 well stated in the letter to the President from the freedmen’s societies of Boston, New 
 York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati: 
 
 “There is not yet in the public mind any duly awakened sense of the magnitude of 
 ' ‘ the negro question, as for two years there was not of the war itself. The Government 
 11 must know, even better than the people, what the vastness of the question is, and is it 
 * * not proper for us to ask if, Mr. President, the Government is doing, or preparing to do, 
 
 11 what is necessary to meet it; to reduce the evils connected with emancipation to their 
 “lowest point, and to elevate its blessings to the highest; to establish a system, care- 
 11 fully considered and adapted, and executed with energy and zeal, for the thorough 
 “ and general dealing with the freedmen? It is plain to us, with our experience, that 
 “the question is too large for anything short of Government authority, Government 
 “resources, and Government ubiquity to deal with. The plans, the means, the agen- 
 “ cies within any volunteer control are insignificant in their adequacy to the vastness 
 “ of the demand- Our relief associations have discharged ther highest duty in testing 
 “ many of the most doubtful questions touching the negroes’ ability and willingness 
 “ to come under direction when direction has lost its authoritative character. They 
 “have proved the freedman’s diligence, docility, and loyalty, his intelligence and value 
 “ as a laborer. They have alleviated much want and misery also. But wore their re- 
 “ sources ten times what they are, and ten times what they can he made, they would 
 “ be no substitute for the governmental watchfulness a:*d provision which so numerous 
 “a race under such extraordinary circumstances requires. In our judgment the pre- 
 “ sent and future of the freedmen demands a kind and degree of study, of guidance, 
 
 ‘ 1 and of aid, which it is in th8 nature of things impossible the Government should 
 “ give indirectly, or by means of any existing bureau or combination of bureaus. The 
 
12 
 
 “case is large enough, serious enough, urgent enough, involving the nation’s interest, 
 “its humanity, the respect of the people for the Administration, and our reputation 
 44 throughout the world, to require the best ability the country offers, organized in a reg- 
 “ ularly constituted Government bureau, with all the military and civil powers of the 
 4 4 Government behind it, with all the existing machinery of transportation, commissary 
 44 stores, and quartermaster’s facilities, with all the omnipresence of the national agen- 
 44 cies co-ordinated and brought to bear upon the treatment of the case. 
 
 44 We ask, then, your interposition with Congress, recommending the immediate 
 44 creation of a Bureau of Emancipation, charged with the study of plans and the exe¬ 
 cution of measures for easing, guiding, and in every way judiciously and humanely 
 “aiding the passage of our emancipated and yet to be emancipated blacks from their 
 4 4 old condition of forced labor to their new state of voluntary industry. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I will not at this time discuss at length the brief and simple provisions 
 of this bill. The duties imposed on the commissioner are large, but not more so than 
 is necessary to make the bureau effective. It is connected with the War Department 
 for obvious reasons. From the beginning of the rebellion the military power which 
 effected the freedom of the slave has been invoked for his protection. The power of 
 the War Department is required to command respect and obedience where rebellion has 
 so recently had control. In fact, most that has hitherto been accomplished to organize 
 and adjust labor, excepting the action under the tax act of June, 1862, has been done 
 under authority and pursuant to orders which have emanated from that Department, 
 and for the present there can be no doubt that the functionaries employed should find 
 their official chief in the Secretary of War. 
 
 Sir, my duty will not have been performed without stating distinctly the clear con¬ 
 stitutional power of Congress to legislate in the direction of this bill. 
 
 First, by the Constitution the President is made Commander-in-Chief of the Army 
 and Navy of the United States. He has, therefore, in time of war all the powers which 
 by the recognized laws of war are conferred upon that high office. Such powers are as 
 constitutional as that to appoint an embassador with the advice and consent of the 
 Senate, or a judge of the Supreme Court. 
 
 By the rebellion the war powers of the President and Congress have been invoked 
 and are in force ; among them the power to liberate the slaves of the enemy is one of 
 the most efficient and humane. That has been used. But the power to liberate three 
 million slaves involves the duty of their needful protection. Without that the exer¬ 
 cise of the power to liberate might be a crime. Such protection by the Government 
 whichmade free cannot be given without the action of Congress. Without that the power 
 of the President cannot be carried into effect. By the direct terms of the Constitution 
 Congress has power to make all laws necessary to carry into execution all the powers 
 conferred upon the President. 
 
 Secondly, Congress has power to declare war and to 44 make rules concerning captures 
 on land.” The slaves liberated by the confiscation act, and to be liberated by its pro¬ 
 visions, are captives of war, and as such are proper subjects of our legislation. 
 
 Thirdly, Congress has power 44 to make rules for the government and regulation of 
 the land and naval forces.” Legislation has become necessary and laws have been 
 passed to regulate the conduct of the Army in regard to slaves found in the enemy’s 
 country, and to prohibit our officers from returning them to slavery. But those laws 
 would be imperfect in their operation and might be oppressive in their results without 
 further legislation ; and so a necessity has arisen for an act to protect the freedmen. 
 
 Fourthly, the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has a right to issue all proclama¬ 
 tions, as recognized by the laws of war, addressed to the public enemy. The faith of the 
 nation is pledged to make good those proclamations, to maintain their provisions, and 
 to fulfill the pledges which they contain or by necessity imply. The proclamation of 
 freedom has liberated men oppressed by a life-servitude. Those men are now subjects 
 of the Government. They owe to it allegiance, and are as such entitled to its protec¬ 
 tion. To that end this legislation is required. 
 
 Upon all these grounds this bill may securely rest. But if all proclamations were 
 wrong and all laws were without constitutional support which have sought to liberate 
 the slaves of enemies, still the rebellion itself has freed them and they are subjects of 
 our charge. We must protect them or be faithless in our office. 
 
 And now, Mr. Speaker, I have stated the imperative necessity of this bill, the high 
 objects which it would accomplish, its brief provisions, and its legal right to our support. 
 It remains to discuss its expected benefits to the freedmen and to ourselves. But 
 first I would invoke the attention of the House to a report submitted by the honorable 
 gentlemen from New York, [Mr. Kalbfleisch, ] and signed by him and by his colleague 
 on the committe, [Mr. Knapp, ] in opposition to this bill, for it assumes to present the 
 argument against the legal power of Congress to legislate and against the expediency of 
 our present action. Its formidable exordium is worthy of note : 
 
13 
 
 ‘‘ That a careful examination of the provisions of the bill under consideration has 
 “convinced your committee that it not only involves grave and important questions, 
 “but likewise a task of great magnitude to overcome the legal and apparently just ob¬ 
 jections which arise upon a fair scrutiny of its contents. Humanity may be pleaded 
 “in favor of the passage of the bill, but great caution will have to be exercised, not 
 ‘‘‘only that the plea be well founded, but that no unintentional injustice be perpe- 
 ‘ ‘ trated thereby. ’ ’ 
 
 One may feel justified in approaching with some timidity an argument thus heralded. 
 But there need be no fear. These four questions are proposed for discussion : 
 
 “1. Has Congress the legal power to establish a bureau for the purposes contem- 
 ‘ ‘ plated in the bill; and are the matters intended to be legislated upon within the 
 “province of and of a character to make them proper subjects for national legisla¬ 
 tion.” 
 
 “2. Has Congress the constitutional power to impose a tax upon the citizens of one 
 ‘ ‘ State to support the indigent freedmen of another State, no matter how humane and 
 “ charitable the motives prompting the act ?”• 
 
 “3. Will the passage of the bill in question produce the effect intended or desired? 
 ‘ ‘ May not results directly opposite from |hose anticipated by its friends flow from it, 
 “ and a new system of vassalage, only differing in its appellation with the one hitherto 
 “existing between the freedmen and their masters, be inaugurated ?” 
 
 “4. Should not the bureau, if established, be under the control and direction of the 
 “Department of the Interior, instead of the War Department ? ” 
 
 It would be a figure of speech which I am not bold enough to use, to say that these 
 questions are argued. The legal argument upon the first two propositions is disposed 
 of summarily. This is it: 
 
 “ Your committee are of opinion that Congress has no legal power to carry into effect 
 “ all the provisions of the contemplated bill. A plea of humanity, policy, or war ne- 
 ‘ ‘ cecessity may be urged in favor of assuming the power, and a forced construction 
 “ placed upon the plain letter of the Constitution to sanction the act. But a great 
 ‘ ‘ stretch of power and an unwarranted perversion of the language of the fundamental 
 “law will have to be resorted to in this instance to attain this end.” 
 
 But the minority of the committee da not deem it to be worth thfir while to state 
 the grounds of their opinion, or any reasons or authority in its behalf. The Command- 
 er-in-Chief lias used the power of war to declare freedom to the slaves of enemies. 
 Had he a right to do so ? The minority of the committee do not deny it. Laws of 
 Congress have been passed to the same end. But the validity of these laws is not 
 brought in question. The fact exists that a nation of freedmen has been created, and 
 that many hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, who had been in slavery 
 are now within our lines and under our protection, and that they must be at Govern¬ 
 ment charge until aided to self-support. The great question is not approached. But 
 the “ committee fail to comprehend ” “why the freedmen of African descent should 
 become these marked objects of special legislation to the detriment of the unfortunate 
 whites.” These freedmen when in slavery composed the working power of the rebel¬ 
 lion. That power has been wrested from the enemy so far as the proclaimed free¬ 
 dom has been enforced. We have a right to make that power available to ourselves. 
 But to this end legislation is required. This is one reason. After a life of servitude, 
 inherited from slave ancestors stolen from their homes and subjected by force to tho 
 control of their masters, these freedmen thus invited to freedom for our own security, 
 and recognized as men, have this right, which will not be denied by any theorist of any 
 party ; that is to say, the right to earn among us their own subsistence. To that end 
 this legislation is required. 
 
 But to what “detriment” of what unfortunate whites ? ” The burden of their 
 support is now on the Government and must be borne, and if a “ tax upon the labor 
 of the poor ” is the detriment and the “less favored white men ” are the “unfortu¬ 
 nate whites ” referred to by the report, who must bear the tax ? Then let this bureau 
 be quickly organized, for so the burden will be at once lifted up and the “detriment ” 
 be converted into profit. It is objected to this, bill that its ‘.‘machinery” is insuffi¬ 
 cient, and that it will be well to leave it with its originators until an intelligent and 
 well-defined system has been matured. Then let the objectors suggest more operative 
 machinery, and by judicious amendments perfect the system. Men, who know by 
 study and by sight the wants of the freedmen and of the Government, have carefully 
 examined the provisions of this bill. The “machinery” by which this bureau will 
 become most useful and effective must be made in the light of experience and by judi¬ 
 cious and wise men, mindful equally of the rights of the Government and the neces¬ 
 sities of the freedmen. A detailed system of government embodied in this organic law 
 would be unwise and prejudicial to all the interests concerned. But two gentlemen, 
 who represent the minority of the committee, say : 
 
u 
 
 ■ ‘If thesefreedmen of African descent are still slaves, and the Government have in- 
 ‘ 4 herited or taken by conquest the position of their masters, they are of course liable 
 “ to be separated from the free population, have their tasks assigned them, and their 
 “wages controlled and established by the representatives of their masters; but if the 
 44 presidential proclamation has had any effect, and if they are freedmen in anything 
 4 ‘ else but in name, in the opinion of your committee, the Constitution of the United 
 “ States and of the several States prescribes that jurisdiction over most of the subjects 
 44 mentioned in the bill shall be vested in the judiciary.” 
 
 Mr. KALBFLEISCH. Do 1 understand the gentleman from Massachusetts to say 
 that only two members of the committee dissented from the majority report ? 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. I say so. 
 
 Mr. KALBFLEISCH. That is not my understanding. Tbe gentleman from New 
 Jersey [Mr. Middubtobt] was not present in committee, but I believe he coincides with 
 our views. 
 
 Mr. ELIOT. The gentleman from New Jersey is present now, and can contradict my 
 statement if it is not correct. 
 
 What does this mean ? This hill does not seek to separate the freedmen from the 
 free population, or to assign them tasks, or to oontrol and establish wages. But assum¬ 
 ing the effectiveness of the proclamation, on what does the * 4 opinion ” rest that the con¬ 
 stitutions of the several States vest in the judiciary “jurisdiction over most of the 
 subjects mentioned in the hill? ” What constitutions and what States are referred to ? 
 Is the sovereign State of South Carolina one of them ? But the report finds that too 
 many clerks may be appointed at Washington ; that in fact they may be appointed 
 without any limitation as to number “except that they are restricted to two in a class, 
 but without any limitation as to the number of classes.” The “careful examination ” 
 which the minority of the committee have given to this matter has failed to inform 
 them that there are just four classes of clerks, and that two of each class would there¬ 
 fore give eight clerks precisely, if the whole number authorized by the bill should TO 
 appointed. “It appears,” argues the report, “ depending entirely upon the necessity 
 existing in his mind whether” “the power of disposing” of “ these freedmen ma^r 
 net revive most of the odious features of slavery without its name. This argument 
 defies analysis, and cannot be made more clear than by its statement; but it was not 
 quite fair to refrain from showing how it appears that such contingency might depend 
 on such necessity existing in the mind of the Secretary of War. 
 
 But the minority of the committee feel it to he right to say : 
 
 4 4 Under the provisions of the hill the freedman may be as effectually stripped of the 
 “proceeds of his labor to build up the fortunes of an avaricious superintendent as 
 4 4 though lie were under the control of a master, without enjoying the benefits of the 
 “protection and support the system of slavery affords.” 
 
 This gratuitous statement is without justice or fairness, or foundation in fact. Under 
 the fair administration of this bureau no superintendent can oppress the freedman for 
 personal gain. This must have been obvious if examination had been given to the pro¬ 
 visions of the bill. Tbe criticism is not true. But this remarkable report proceeds to 
 say : 
 
 “ Large [sections of rebel slave territory have been brought within the military 
 “ power of onr Government; and it is highly probable that still larger portions #f such 
 “ territory will be added thereto. Your committee cannot conceive of any reason why 
 44 this vast domain, paid for by the blood of white men, should he set apart for the sole 
 4 -‘ benefit of the freedmen of African descent, to the exclusion of all others, and leased 
 “for an unlimited time, thereby preventing its occupation, except by them, at least 
 “ for a long time to come. It seems to your committee incomprehensible, nay, ex- 
 “ tremely unjust.” 
 
 What seems “incomprehensible, nay, extremely unjust f” These gentlemen e&nnot 
 conceive of any reason why thi3 domain should he set apart for the exclusive benefit 
 of freedmen ! But why complain because of that inability ? This hill does not tax 
 their power in that direction. Such proposed use of these lauds would be simple 
 enough and 44 comprehensible,” whether just or unjust, hut the proposition before the 
 House involves tbe consideration of no such question. 
 
 The report of the minority becomes more unfair as it draws to its close. It says : 
 
 “ The bill proposes to give to each petty superintendent the determination of ail quo* 
 “tions relating to the disposition and direction of all persons^©! African descent beoom- 
 “ ing free under any proclamation, military rule or order, or by any act of the State 
 “ governments, with power to establish and enforce regulations such as may be deemed 
 “ proper for the judicious treatment and disposition of such freedmen, and with power 
 44 to assign lands, &o. An institution like this, which assumes the functions of fche 
 “ judiciary over a large portion of the population, and combines with it the domestic 
 “ management of the ffSedman, cannot be carried out without spreading a network of 
 
15 
 
 ‘'officials over all the conquered States, ’as numerous as the slavemasters whom this 
 “ system, supersedes.” 
 
 The bill proposes no such thing. It is difficult to see how one of fair intelligence 
 could examine its provisionsjand make such a statement. But it is as difficult to believe 
 that an honorable opponent could make it without examination. Upon this point the 
 bill shall speak for itself. The President is empowered to appoint, with the adviee and 
 consent of the Senate, a “ Commissioner of Freedmen's Affairs”— 
 
 44 To whom shall be referred the adjustment and determination, under the direction of 
 i: the Secretary of War, of all questions arising under this act, or under any laws now 
 4 4 existing or hereafter to be enacted, concerning persons of African descent and persons 
 44 who are or shall become free by virtue* of any proclamation, law, or military order 
 “issued, enacted, or promulgated during the present rebellion, or by virtue of any act 
 44 of emancipation which shall be enaoted by any State for the freedom of such persons 
 4i held to service or labor within such State, or who shall be otherwise entitled to their 
 44 freedom. And the said Commissioner shall have authority, under the direction of the 
 “ Secretary of War, to mftke all needful rules and regulations for the general superin- 
 “tendence, direction, and management of all such persons, and to appoint a chief clerk 
 44 who shall be also a bonded disbursing officer, and shall have an annual salary of 
 44 $2,000 and such number of clerks, not exceeding two of each class, as shall be n«- 
 “oessary for the proper transaction of the business of said bureau. 
 
 The closing paragraphs of this report are as follows : 
 
 4 4 Could this at once be made a self-sustaining system, to be supported by the labor 
 “which it controls and direots, and for whose benefit it is intended to act, there might 
 “ be a semblance of propriety and justice in its proposed inauguration. But if it is to 
 4 4 be converted into a grand almshouse department, whereby the labor and proper! y of 
 “the white population of the country is to be taxed to support the pauper labor of the 
 “freedmen and mendicant officials of the oountry, its operations cannot be too closely 
 4 4 scrutinized. 
 
 44 The Government have as yet been rather unfortunate in their efforts in behalf of 
 “the freed slaves, and it seems to your committee to he very desirable that legislation 
 44 upon this subject, if it can be done legally, should be confined to the absolute exist¬ 
 ing wants of the country. After the transition state through which we are now 
 44 passing shall have ended, aud the character and position of this class of our popula¬ 
 tion shall have become better defined, the rights of the Government to the title of 
 4 4 the confiscated property determined by competent authority, it will be time enough 
 4 4 to initiate a system adapted to their wants and capacities, and calculated for their 
 4 4 protection and humane treatment. ’ * 
 
 How can this system be made self-sustaining until it is inaugurated* \Ye have no 
 doubt, and the minority of the committee do not deny, that the labor for whose benefit 
 it is proposed to act will support this bureau. Its propriety and justice will then be 
 vindicated upon industrial and material grounds as fully as upon grounds of humanity 
 its necessity is now apparent. Of course its operations must be closely scrutinized if 
 it is converted into an 44 almshouse department.” But the scrutiny will be in season 
 when the conversion is apprehended. But what if it he true that Government has been 
 unfortunate in its efforts in behalf of the freed slaves ? The Government has done 
 what it could. But Congress has done nothing. The fact asserts the need-of action, 
 at once and effective, that such reproach shall be removed. Let legislation be confined 
 to the “absolute existing wants of the country.” Thai is all we propose. But that 
 which is demanded should be had without delay. 
 
 Is it true, Mr. Speaker, that we should wait until the quiet of peace shall have hush¬ 
 ed the echoes of this war before we initiate any system adapted to the wants and ca¬ 
 pacities of these freedmen ? What can there he in the 44 character and position of this 
 class of our population ” that needs to he defined before we act? Their “character ” 
 is not unknown to us. Their social degradation compelled by slavery, their trustful 
 nature, their thirst for knowledge, their willingness to work for the wages of labor, 
 their yearning after what the white, man also covets—position, and property which will se¬ 
 cure position—we know these things. But we do not know, and shall not until we 
 give them the rights of men, what are their full capacities for that life which is above 
 the material life aud that “pursuit of happiness ” which aims at ends beyond the 
 horizon which slavery defines. 
 
 But what shall be done before that time arrives ? Is it the purpose of these gentle¬ 
 men and of those who act with them in this House that our Government shall maintain 
 these freedmen without system and at unlimited and indefinite cost, furnishing rations 
 and hospital supplies and clothing, and keeping them in camps under military rules ? 
 If this were possible Is it wise? And when the time shall have come at which the 
 gentleman from New York [Mr. KjLtBFLEiBon] suggests that a system for their humane 
 treatment may be Jautlated will it be more lawful or constitutional to act then than 
 
now ? Why, sir, the case is too plain for argument Now is the accepted time. And 
 this Congress will bear the deserved reproach, not only of this great-hearted nation, 
 but of all nations of Christian men, if we falter in this work. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, it has somewhat appeared already how the parties to this bill will be 
 the better for the law. But I would take a wider view of this grand work which the 
 war has put upon us. From its commencement no man has been able to anticipate 
 events. Nothing has occurred as the wisest seer predicted. Great generals have 
 failed, and men unknown to fame before have conducted us to victory. Battles have 
 been won in the valleys and “above the cloud ” by a rank and file bravery which the 
 annals of military history cannot rival. Who of us has not had occasion to say, “ Not 
 unto us, but unto Thee, 0 God! be rendered the praise ! ” 
 
 C And now out of the war a new nation of men has arisen. No power in Constitution, 
 in President, or in people outside of the rebel States could have held out to them its 
 liberating arm in time of peace. The mad ambition of slave owners, which struck at 
 the life of the nation to give new life to slavery, disclosed the power to strike back the 
 blow, and in the fullness of time a man was found commissioned to the work. 
 
 We read that in the beginning God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” 
 But since the beginning human agencies have worked out the ways of Providence ; 
 and never in history since that great fiat has it been given to more than one man to 
 lift up from three million souls the darkness and the doom of slavery. Our duty He 
 has assigned us now. I believe that this bill, wisely administered, will complete the 
 work. 
 
 It will enable the Government to help into active, educated, and useful life a nation 
 of freedmen who otherwise would grope their way to usefulness through neglect and 
 suffering to themselves, and with heavy and needless loss to us. 
 
 They are children of the Government. By the necessities of war deprived of the 
 guiding and controlling hand which had held in stern mastery their earthly destinies, 
 they are unused to rights heretofore denied them, yet they know somewhat of them 
 by instinct and by association. No matter how abject the slavery, the idea of freedom 
 is in the soul, and when the friendly hand has been extended the freedman has shown 
 capacity and will to walk as a man among men. What they require is to be made 
 sure that they are free, and to be furnished a chance to work and to be guarantied their 
 reasonable wages. Work they understand. Their mothers worked before them, and 
 went down into dishonored graves, cursed by the unpaid toil of bondage. But wages 
 they have not owned, and in the right to earn and to enjoy them they find their man¬ 
 hood. Soon they will find the place they have a right to fill. Quick to- learn, appre¬ 
 ciating kindnesses, and returning them with veneration and affection, earnest to acquire 
 property, because that too is proof of manhood, they ask but' opportunity, and guid¬ 
 ance, and education for a season, and then they will repay you some thirty, and some 
 sixty, and some an hundred-fold. 
 
 Without your legislation the freedmen able to fight will be alienated from your cause ; 
 the freedmen unfit for service, with the young and the aged and infirm, will be a charge 
 upon your Treasury. But give the aid which this bill can secure to them and you will 
 quickly find not only that peace which comes from duty well discharged, but material 
 strength and a recompense of reward which after all the expenses of your bureau shall 
 have been defrayed will contribute to your wealth. 
 
 So shall this, your act, give to the freedmen of the South and to all the freemen 
 whom you represent, “ beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment 
 of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” 
 
 H. Polkinhonn, Printer, 375 and 377 D sireet, near Seventh, Washington, D. C.