was too late to take action upon it then, and the
bill was postponed until December. At that time the House
non-concurred with the Senate, and a committee of conference was
chosen. The managers of the two houses could not agree as to whether
the War Department or the Treasury should manage the affairs of the
bureau. They therefore agreed upon a bill creating an independent
department neither attached to the War nor Treasury, but communicating
directly with the President, and resting for its support upon the arm
of the War Department. That bill was also passed by the House but was
defeated in the Senate. Another Conference Committee was chosen, and
that committee, whose chairman in the House was the distinguished
gentleman from Ohio, then and now at the head of the Military
Committee, agreed upon a bill attaching the bureau to the War
Department, and embracing refugees as well as freedmen in its terms.
That bill is now the law.

"The law was approved on the 3d of March, 1865. Nine months have not
yet elapsed since its organization. The order from the War Department
under which the bureau was organized bears date on the 12th of May,
1865. General Howard, who was then in command of the Department of
Tennessee, was assigned as commissioner of the bureau. The bill became
a law so late in the session that it was impossible for Congress to
legislate any appropriation for its support. It was necessary,
therefore, that the management of it should be placed in the hands of
military officers, and fortunately the provisions of the bill
permitted that to be done. General Howard was, as I stated, in command
of the Department of Tennessee, when he was detailed to this duty. But
on the 15th of May, that is to say, within three days after the order
appointing him, was issued, he assumed the duties of his office.

"In the course of a few days, the commissioner of the bureau announced
more particularly the policy which he designed to pursue. The whole
supervision of the care of freedmen and of all lands which the law
placed under the charge of the bureau was to be intrusted to assistant
commissioners.

"Before a month had expired, head-quarters had been established for
assistant commissioners at Richmond, Raleigh, Beaufort, Montgomery,
Nashville, St. Louis, Vicksburg, New Orleans, and Jacksonville, and
very shortly afterward assistant commissioners were designated for
those posts of duty. They were required to possess themselves, as s