, and, in case they are
detailed, the bill provides that they shall serve without any
additional compensation or allowance. But, sir, is it necessary, or
was it ever contemplated, that there should be an officer or agent of
the Freedmen's Bureau in every county and every parish where refugees
and freedmen are to be found? By no means. What is the bill upon that
subject? Does it make it imperative upon the President to appoint an
agent in each county and parish? It authorizes him 'when the same
shall be necessary for the operations of the bureau;' not otherwise.
He has no authority, under the bill, to appoint a single agent unless
it is necessary for the operations of the bureau, and then he can only
appoint so many as may be needed. Sir, it never entered the mind, I
venture to say, of a single advocate of this bill, that the President
of the United States would so abuse the authority intrusted to him as
to station an agent in every county in these States; but it was
apprehended that there might be localities in some of these States
where the prejudice and hostility of the white population and the
former masters were such toward the negroes that it would be necessary
to have an agent in every county in that locality for their
protection; and, in order to give the President the necessary
discretion where this should be requisite, the bill authorized, when
it was necessary for the operations of the bureau, the appointment of
an agent in each county or parish. In order to vest the President with
sufficient power in some localities, it was necessary, legislating by
general law, to give him much larger power than would be necessary in
other localities.

"Sir, the country is not to be divided, I undertake to say, into
districts and sub-districts unless the President of the United States
finds it necessary to do so for the protection of these people; and if
the law should be abused in that respect, it would be because he
abused the discretion vested in him by Congress, and not because the
law required it. It makes no such requirement."

"This military jurisdiction," said the President, "also extends to all
questions that may arise respecting contracts."

"So far," replied Mr. Trumbull, "from extending this military
jurisdiction over all questions arising concerning contracts, and so
far from extending military jurisdiction anywhere, it is expressly
provided, by the very terms of the bill, that no such jurisdiction
shall be