f thousands of dollars for this object. Can any
body deny the right to do it? Sir, humanity as well as the
constitutional obligation to suppress the slave trade required it. So
now the people relieved by our act from the control of masters who
supplied their wants that they might have their services, have a right
to rely upon us for assistance till they can have time to provide for
themselves.

"This Freedmen's Bureau is not intended as a permanent institution; it
is only designed to aid these helpless, ignorant, and unprotected
people until they can provide for and take care of themselves. The
authority to do this, so far as legislative sanction can give it, is
to be found in the action of a previous Congress which established the
bureau; but, if it were a new question, the authority for establishing
such a bureau, in my judgment, is given by the Constitution itself;
and as the Senator's whole argument goes upon the idea of peace, and
that all the consequences of the war have ceased, I shall be pardoned,
I trust, if I refer to those provisions of the Constitution which, in
my judgment, authorize the exercise of this military jurisdiction; for
this bureau is a part of the military establishment not simply during
the conflict of arms, but until peace shall be firmly established and
the civil tribunals of the country shall be restored with an assurance
that they may peacefully enforce the laws without opposition.

"The Constitution of the United States declares that Congress shall
have authority 'to declare war and make rules concerning captures on
land and water,' 'to raise and support armies,' 'to provide and
maintain a navy,' 'to make rules for the government and regulation of
the land and naval forces,' 'to provide for calling forth the militia
to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel
invasion,' and 'to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper
for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.' It also declares
that 'the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States,' and that
'the United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a
republican form of government.' Under the exercise of these powers,
the Government has gone through a four years' conflict. It has
succeeded in putting down armed resistance to its authority. But did
the military power which was exercised to put down this armed
resistance cease the