reedmen dependent on the Government for
support; and he shall provide, or cause to be erected, suitable
buildings for asylums and schools.' Upon what principle can you
authorize the Government of the United States to buy lands for the
poor people in any State of the Union? They may be very meritorious;
their cases may appeal with great force to our sympathies; it may
almost appear necessary to prevent suffering that we should buy a home
for each poor person in the country; but where is the power of the
General Government to do this thing? Is it true that by this
revolution the persons and property of the people have been brought
within the jurisdiction of Congress, and taken from without the
control and jurisdiction of the States? I have understood heretofore
that it has never been disputed that the duty to provide for the poor,
the insane, the blind, and all who are dependent upon society, rests
upon the States, and that the power does not belong to the General
Government. What has occurred, then, in this war that has changed the
relation of the people to the General Government to so great an extent
that Congress may become the purchasers of homes for them? If we can
go so far, I know of no limit to the powers of Congress. Here is a
proposition to buy a home for each dependent freeman and refugee. The
section is not quite as strong as it might have been. It would have
been stronger, I think, in the present state of public sentiment, if
the word 'refugee' had been left out, and if it had been only for the
freedmen, because it does not seem to be so popular now to buy a home
for a white man as to buy one for a colored man. But this bill
authorizes the officers of the Freedmen's Bureau to buy homes for
white people and for black people only upon the ground that they are
dependent. If this be the law now, there has come about a startling
change in the relation of the States and of the people to the General
Government. I shall be very happy to hear from the learned head of the
Judiciary Committee upon what principle it is that in any one single
case you may buy a home for any man, whether he be rich or poor. The
General Government may buy land when it is necessary for the exercise
of any of its powers; but outside of that, it seems to me, there is no
power within the Constitution allowing it.

"The most remarkable sections of the bill, however, are the seventh
and eighth, and to those sections I will ask the very careful
a