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Table of Contents:
Chapter
47
: freedmen's aid societies and an act of congress creating a Bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands
Chapter
55
:
first
appropriation by congress for the bureau; the reconstruction Act,
March
2
,
1867
; increase of educational work
Chapter
60
: opposition to Bureau and reconstruction work became personal; the
Congregational Church of
Washington
Chapter
62
: life in
Washington, D. C.
,
1866
to
1874
; assigned to duty in regular army as commander,
Department of the Columbia
Chapter
63
: in the
Northwest
, among the
Indians
; trip to
Alaska
; life in
Portland, Ore.
;
1874
to
1881
Chapter
64
: superintendent of the
United States military Academy
; commanding
Department of the Platte
,
Omaha, Neb.
Chapter
68
:
French
army maneuvers,
1884
; promotion to
Major General
,
United States army
,
San Francisco
1886
-
88
[281] January 5, 1866, he introduced in the Senate a new Freedmen's Bureau bill. On the 12th of the same month it was brought up for discussion, when he explained what he wished to accomplish with it: (1) An essential extension beyond the one year to be terminated by a future Act of Congress. (2) That it should apply to the whole country wherever were the beneficiaries; (3) That the President should give them land by reserving not exceeding 3,000,000 acres from settlement or sale in certain Southern States where public lands still remained; (4) That General Sherman's possessory titles on the sea islands be made real; and (5), more important still, that when discriminations against negroes were made Bureau officers and agents should take and hold jurisdiction of the offenses. Much feeling and bitterness were evolved in the discussion that followed the senator's statements. Yet all hindering amendments were voted down, and January 25th, the bill passed the Senate by 27 majority. In the House there was a like fiery discussion. The bill was amended so as to limit it to sections of the country where the habeas corpus remained suspended on February 1, 1866. The Senate removed the amendment, so that the original bill passed both Houses and February 10th went to the President. He returned it with a veto. He objected to thus legislating without the new representatives and senators from the South. He declared that the bill interfered with the local administration of justice; that it was unconstitutional for the general Government to support indigent persons; that it was unreasonable to make provision for a class or color; that it was extravagantly expensive, there being $11,745,--000, according to the commissioner's estimates for the
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