No. 51. Supplementary Freedmen's Bureau Act

July 16, 1866

A BILL to continue in force and amend the act of March 3, 1865, establishing a freedmen's bureau, and enlarging the scope of that act, was vetoed by President Johnson February 19, 1866. An attempt to pass the bill over the veto failed in the Senate. A bill of similar purport, but aiming to avoid the objections urged against the earlier act, was reported in the House, May 22, by Eliot of Massachusetts, from the Committee on Freedmen, and passed that body on the 29th by a vote of 96 to 32, 55 not voting. The Senate passed the bill with amendments June 26, without a division. The House disagreed to the Senate amendments, and the bill received its final form from a conference committee. July 16 President Johnson vetoed the bill. The bill was passed over the veto the same day, in the Senate by a vote of 33 to 12, in the House by a vote of 103 to 33, 46 not voting. An act of July 6, 1868, continued the bureau until July 16, 1869, but an act of July 25, 1868, provided for its discontinuance after January 1, 1869.

REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XIV, 173–177. For the proceedings on both bills see the House and Senate Journals, 39th Cong., Ist Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The bill introduced by Eliot, May 22, is compared with the vetoed bill in the Globe for May 23. On the work of the bureau see House Exec. Docs. 120-123, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., and ibid. 7, 39th Cong., 2d Sess.; Senate Exec. Doc. 27, 39th Cong., Ist Sess.

An Act to continue in force and to amend "An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees," and for other Purposes.

Be it enacted. . ., That the act to establish a bureau for the relief of freedmen and refugees, approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, shall continue in force for the term of two years from and after the passage of this act.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the supervision and care of said bureau shall extend to all loyal refugees and freedmen, so far as the same shall be necessary to enable them as speedily as practicable to become self-supporting citizens of the United States, and to aid them in making the freedom conferred by proclamation of the commander-in-chief, by emancipation under the laws of States, and by constitutional amendment, available to them and beneficial to the republic.

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SUPPLEMENTARY FREEDMEN'S BUREAU ACT [July 16

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the President shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint two assistant commissioners, in addition to those authorized by the act to which this is an amendment, . . . and each of the assistant commissioners of the bureau shall have charge of one district containing such refugees or freedmen, to be assigned him by the commissioner with the approval of the President. And the commissioner shall, under the direction of the President, and so far as the same shall be, in his judgment, necessary for the efficient and economical administration of the affairs of the bureau, appoint such agents, clerks, and assistants as may be required for the proper conduct of the bureau. Military officers or enlisted men may be detailed for service and assigned to duty under this act; and the President may, if in his judgment safe and judicious so to do, detail from the army all the officers and agents of this bureau; but no officer so assigned shall have increase of pay or allowances. . . . And it shall be the duty of the commissioner, when it can be done consistently with public interest, to appoint, as assistant commissioners, agents, and clerks, such men as have proved their loyalty by faithful service in the armies of the Union during the rebellion. And all persons appointed to service under this act and the act to which this is an amendment, shall be so far deemed in the military service of the United States as to be under the military jurisdiction, and entitled to the military protection of the government while in discharge of the duties of their office.

SEC. 4. [Officers of veteran reserve corps now in the bureau may be retained.]

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the second section of the act to which this is an amendment shall be deemed to authorize the Secretary of War to issue such medical stores or other supplies and transportation, and afford such medical or other aid as here may be needful for the purposes named in said section: Provided, That no person shall be deemed "destitute," "suffering," or "dependent upon the government for

employment, and could, by proper industry or exertion, avoid such destitution, suffering, or dependence.

[Sections 6-11 relate to the disposition of certain lands in South Carolina and Georgia.]

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the commissioner shall have power to seize, hold, use, lease, or sell all buildings and tenements, and any lands appertaining to the same, or otherwise, formerly held under color of title by the late socalled confederate states, and not heretofore disposed of by the United States, and any buildings or lands held in trust for the same by any person or persons, and to use the same or appropriate the proceeds derived therefrom to the education of the freed people; and whenever the bureau shall cease to exist, such of said so-called confederate states as shall have made provision for the education of their citizens without distinction of color shall receive the sum remaining unexpended of such sales or rentals, which shall be distributed among said states for educational purposes in proportion to their population.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That the commissioner of this bureau shall at all times co-operate with private benevolent associations of citizens in aid of freedmen, and with agents and teachers, duly accredited and appointed by them, and shall hire or provide by lease buildings for purposes of education whenever such association shall, without cost to the government, provide suitable teachers and means of instruction; and he shall furnish such protection as may be required for the safe conduct of such schools.

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That in every State or district where the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has been interrupted by the rebellion, and until the same shall be fully restored, and in every State or district whose constitutional relations to the government have been practically discontinued by the rebellion, and until such State shall have been restored in such relations, and shall be duly represented in the Congress of the United States, the right to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease,

sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to have full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings concerning personal liberty, personal security, and the acquisition, enjoyment, and disposition of estate, real and personal, including the constitutional right to bear arms, shall be secured to and enjoyed by all the citizens of such State or district without respect to race or color, or previous condition of slavery. And whenever in either of said States or districts the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has been interrupted by the rebellion, and until the same shall be fully restored, and until such State shall have been restored in its constitutional relations to the government, and shall be duly represented in the Congress of the United States, the President shall, through the commissioner and the officers of the bureau, and under such rules and regulations as the President, through the Secretary of War, shall prescribe, extend military protection and have military jurisdiction over all cases and questions concerning the free enjoyment of such immunities and rights, and no penalty or punishment for any violation of law shall be imposed or permitted because of race or color, or previous condition of slavery, other or greater than the penalty or punishment to which white persons may be liable by law for the like offence. But the jurisdiction conferred by this section upon the officers of the bureau shall not exist in any State where the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has not been interrupted by the rebellion, and shall cease in every State when the courts of the State and the United States are not disturbed in the peaceable course of justice, and after such State shall be fully restored in its constitutional relations to the government, and shall be duly represented in the Congress of the United States.

SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That all officers, agents, and employés of this bureau, before entering upon the duties of their office shall take the oath prescribed in the first section of the act to which this is an amendment; and all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

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No. 52. Restoration of Tennessee

July 24, 1866

A BILL to restore Tennessee, accompanied by certain testimony and other papers, was reported in the House, March 5, 1866, by Bingham of Ohio, from the Joint Select Committee on Reconstruction, and recommitted. It was taken up July 19, and agreed to on the 20th, the vote on the preamble being 86 to 48, 48 not voting, and on the resolution 126 to 12, 45 not voting. In the Senate an amendment proposed by Sumner, providing that there should be no denial of equal legal rights on account of race or color, was rejected, 4 to 34, and an amended preamble agreed to, the latter vote being 23 to 20. The amendments to the resolution were agreed to by the House, July 23, without a division, and the amendment to the preamble by a vote of 93 to 26, 62 not voting.

REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XIV, 364. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The majority and minority reports of March 5 and 6 are House Reports 29 and 30. In the history of the act the evolution of the preamble is particularly important.

Joint Resolution restoring Tennessee to her Relations to the Union.

WHEREAS, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-one, the government of the State of Tennessee was seized upon and taken possession of by persons in hostility to the United States, and the inhabitants of said State in pursuance of an act of Congress were declared to be in a state of insurrection against the United States; and whereas said State government can only be restored to its former political relations in the Union by the consent of the law-making power of the United States; and whereas the people of said State did, on the twenty-second day of February, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, by a large popular vote, adopt and ratify a constitution of government whereby slavery was abolished, and all ordinances and laws of secession and debts contracted under the same were declared void; and whereas a State government has been organized under said constitution which has ratified the amendment to the Constitution of the United States abolishing slavery, also the amendment proposed by the thirty-ninth Congress, and has done other acts proclaim