lands belonging to the United
States. I think the justice of that provision will strike every one.
And it will be perhaps a merit in the eyes of many that it does not
call upon the Treasury for the expenditure of any money. In the bill
which was passed by the House, it will be recollected that there was a
provision under which there should be purchased by the commissioner of
the bureau enough public lands to be substituted for the lands at
first assigned to freedmen. Instead of that, provision is made by
which they can have property belonging to the United States which has
come into its possession under tax sales, and where the titles have
been made perfect by lapse of time.

"The next amendment of the Senate provides that certain lands which
were purchased by the United States at tax sales, and which are now
held by the United States, should be sold at prices not less than ten
dollars an acre, and that the proceeds should be invested for the
support of schools, without distinction of color or race, on the
islands in the parishes of St. Helena and St. Luke. That is all the
provision which was made for education.

"The only other material amendment made by the Senate gives to the
commissioner of the bureau power to take property of the late
Confederate States, held by them or in trust for them, and which is
now in charge of the commissioner of the bureau, to take that property
and devote it to educational purposes. The amendment further provides
that when the bureau shall cease to by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in exist, such of the
late so-called Confederate States as shall have made provision for
education, without regard to color, should have the balance of money
remaining on hand, to be divided among them in proportion to their
population."

The vote followed soon after the remarks of Mr. Eliot, and the bill,
as amended, passed the House of Representatives.

The following is the bill as it went to the President for his
approval:

"AN ACT to continue in force and to amend 'An Act to
establish a Bureau for the relief of Freedmen and Refugees,'
and for other purposes.

"_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled_, That
the act to establish a bureau for the relief of freedmen and
refugees, approved March third, eighteen hundred and
sixty-five, shall continue in