tional
government. It had not freed the slaves in the loyal states. It had not
destroyed slavery as an institution. Any state could reestablish slavery
whenever it chose. Slavery could be prohibited only by an amendment of
the Constitution. So the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted, December,
1865. This amendment declares that "neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime, ... shall exist within the
United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." In this way
slavery came to an end throughout the United States.

[Illustration: HORSE CAR.]

[Sidenote: Forced labor in the South. _McMaster_, 429.]

[Sidenote: The Freedmen's Bureau. _Source-book_, 339-342.]

440. Congress and the President, 1865-66.--Unhappily many of the
old slave states had passed laws to compel the negroes to work. They had
introduced a system of forced labor which was about the same thing as
slavery. In December, 1865, the new Congress met. The Republicans were
in the majority. They refused to admit the Senators and Representatives
from the reorganized Southern states and at once set to work to pass
laws for the protection of the negroes. In March, 1865, while the war
was still going on, and while Lincoln was alive, Congress had
established the Freedmen's Bureau to look after the interests of the
negroes. Congress now (February, 1866) passed a bill to continue the
Bureau and to give it much more power. Johnson promptly vetoed the bill.
In the following July Congress passed another bill to continue the
Freedmen's Bureau. In this bill the officers of the Bureau were given
greatly enlarged powers, the education of the blacks was provided for,
and the army might be used to compel obedience to the law. Johnson
vetoed this bill also.

[Sidenote: Civil Rights Bill, 1866.]

[Sidenote: It is passed over Johnson's veto.]

[Sidenote: The Fourteenth Amendment, 1866.]

441. The Fourteenth Amendment.--While this contest over the
Freedmen's Bureau was going on, Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill to
protect the freedmen. This bill provided that cases concerning the civil
rights of the freedmen should be heard in the United States courts
instead of in the state courts. Johnson thought that Congress had no
power to do this. He vetoed the bill, and Congress passed it over his
veto. Congress then drew up the Fourteenth Amendment. This forbade the
states to abridge the rights of the citizens, white or black. It further
pr