te upon the bill when it
was on its passage. A majority of his political friends having
determined that the measure which passed the Senate was the best that
could be accomplished, he had deemed it his duty not to present his
individual objections to the bill. "I would have very much preferred,"
said he, "the Military Bill, as it was called, pure and simple,
without having any thing else upon it, and leaving to other
legislation, if it was judged expedient, what else might be done."

Mr. Trumbull had not before said a word in reference to this bill. He
never regarded the Military Bill as it came from the House of
Representatives as of the slightest importance. Section fourteenth, of
the Freedmen's Bureau Bill conferred all the powers given in the
Military Bill. If these had not been used for the protection of the
loyal people of the South, would the reiteration of the statute be to
any purpose? Yet Mr. Trumbull thought the amendment put upon the bill
by the Senate contained every guarantee that had ever been asked for
by any one. He was unwilling that a great question like this, open in
all its parts, should be submitted to a Committee of Conference.

[Illustration: Hon. John Conness, Senator from California.]

The vote was finally taken, after a prolonged discussion. The Senate
insisted on its amendment, and refused to appoint a Committee of
Conference.

The bill having gone back to the House of Representatives, they
resolved by a vote of one hundred and twenty-six to forty-six to
recede from their disagreement to the amendment of the Senate, and to
concur in the same with amendments, providing that no person excluded
from holding office by the recently proposed Constitutional Amendment
should be eligible for membership in the convention to frame a
constitution for any of the rebel States, nor should any such person
be allowed to vote for members of such convention. Another amendment
proposed by the House was the addition of a section (sixth) to the
bill providing that until the rebel States should be admitted to
representation in Congress, any civil governments existing therein
should be deemed provisional only, and subject to the paramount
authority of the United States, who may at any time abolish, modify,
control, or supersede them.

This qualified concurrence on the part of the House having been
announced in the Senate, that body proceeded immediately to consider
the question of acquiescence.

Mr. Sherman