hich this bill confers.

"Slavery has been abolished, and, at present, nowhere exists
within the jurisdiction of the United States; nor has there
been, nor is it likely there will be, any attempt to revive
it by the people of the States. If, however, any such
attempt shall be made, it will then become the duty of the
General Government to exercise any and all incidental powers
necessary and proper to maintain inviolate this great
constitutional law of freedom.

"The fourth section of the bill provides that officers and
agents of the Freedmen's Bureau shall be empowered to make
arrests, and also that other officers may be specially
commissioned for that purpose by the President of the United
States. It also authorizes circuit courts of the United
States and the superior courts of the Territories to
appoint, without limitation, commissioners, who are to be
charged with the performance of _quasi_ judicial duties. The
fifth section empowers the commissioners so to be selected
by the courts to appoint, in writing, under their hands, one
or more suitable persons, from time to time, to execute
warrants and other processes described by the bill. These
numerous official agents are made to constitute a sort of
police, in addition to the military, and are authorized to
summon a _posse comitatus_ and even to call to their aid
such portion of the land and naval forces of the United
States, or of the militia, 'as may be necessary to the
performance of the duty with which they are charged.'

"This extraordinary power is to be conferred upon agents
irresponsible to the Government and to the people, to whose
number the discretion of the commissioners is the only
limit, and in whose hands such authority might be made a
terrible engine of wrong, oppression, and fraud. The general
statutes regulating the land and naval forces of the United
States, the militia, and the execution of the laws, are
believed to be adequate for every emergency which can occur
in time of peace. If it should prove otherwise, Congress
can, at any time, amend those laws in such manner as, while
subserving the public welfare, not to jeopard the rights,
interests, and liberties of the people.

"The seventh section provides that a fee of ten dollars
shall be paid to