ss it might, perhaps, be
at Cairo, where there has been a large number of these refugees
congregated, without any means of support; they followed the army
there at different times.

"The provision of the bill in regard to holding courts, and some other
provisions, are confined entirely to the rebellious States, and will
have no operation in any State which was not in insurrection against
this Government. I make this explanation to the Senator from
Pennsylvania, and I think he will see the necessity of the bureau
going into Kentucky and some of the other States, as much as into any
of the Southern rebellious States."

Mr. Guthrie was opposed to the extension of the bill to his State. He
said: "I should like to know the peculiar reasons why this bill is to
be extended to the State of Kentucky. She has never been in rebellion.
Though she has been overrun by rebel armies, and her fields laid
waste, she has always had her full quota in the Union armies, and the
blood of her sons has marked the fields whereon they have fought.
Kentucky does not want and does not ask this relief. The freedmen in
Kentucky are a part of our population; and where the old, and lame,
and halt, and blind, and infants require care and attention they
obtain it from the counties. Our whole organization for the support of
the poor, through the agencies of the magistrates in the several
counties, is complete."

[Illustration: Hon. Henry Wilson.]

On the other hand, Mr. Creswell, of Maryland, saw a necessity for the
operation of the bill in his State. He said: "I have received, within
the last two or three weeks, letters from gentlemen of the highest
respectability in my State, asserting that combinations of returned
rebel soldiers have been formed for the express purpose of
persecuting, beating most cruelly, and in some cases actually
murdering the returned colored soldiers of the republic. In certain
sections of my State, the civil law affords no remedy at all. It is
impossible there to enforce against these people so violating the law
the penalties which the law has prescribed for these offenses. It is,
therefore, necessary, in my opinion, that this bill shall extend over
the State of Maryland."

Mr. Cowan, in the course of a speech on the bill, said: "Thank God! we
are now rid of slavery; that is now gone." He also said: "Let the
friends of the negro, and I am one, be satisfied to treat him as he is
treated in Pennsylvania; as he is treated in