and of African servitude,
will now, in a time of peace and after the abolition of slavery, prove
inadequate to the same proper ends. If I am correct in these views,
there can be no necessity for the enlargement of the powers of the
Bureau, for which provision is made in the bill.

The third section of the bill authorizes a general and unlimited grant
of support to the destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen, their
wives and children. Succeeding sections make provision for the rent or
purchase of landed estates for freedmen, and for the erection for their
benefit of suitable buildings for asylums and schools, the expenses to
be defrayed from the Treasury of the whole people. The Congress of the
United States has never heretofore thought itself empowered to establish
asylums beyond the limits of the District of Columbia, except for the
benefit of our disabled soldiers and sailors. It has never founded
schools for any class of our own people, not even for the orphans of
those who have fallen in the defense of the Union, but has left the care
of education to the much more competent and efficient control of the
States, of communities, of private associations, and of individuals.
It has never deemed itself authorized to expend the public money for
the rent or purchase of homes for the thousands, not to say millions,
of the white race who are honestly toiling from day to day for their
subsistence. A system for the support of indigent persons in the United
States was never contemplated by the authors of the Constitution; nor
can any good reason be advanced why, as a permanent establishment,
it should be founded for one class or color of our people more than
another. Pending the war many refugees and freedmen received support
from the Government, but it was never intended that they should
thenceforth be fed, clothed, educated, and sheltered by the United
States. The idea on which the slaves were assisted to freedom was that
on becoming free they would be a self-sustaining population. Any
legislation that shall imply that they are not expected to attain a
self-sustaining condition must have a tendency injurious alike to their
character and their prospects.

The appointment of an agent for every county and parish will create an
immense patronage, and the expense of the numerous officers and their
clerks, to be appointed by the President, will be great in the
beginning, with a tendency steadily to increase. The appropriation