Mr. TRUMBULL. I have abstained from makinglany remarks on the various amendments which have been proposed by the Senfrom Kentucky and the numerous speeches he has made denouncing the different provisions of the bill as unconstitution al. He now proposes a section asserting that judicial powers shall not be exercised by these commissioners where the civil courts are in operation. I have not ab stained from replying to him because I did not think there was a ready answer to all that he has said in his speeches and to every one of his amendments, but because I thought we should soonest get action on the bill by voting silently upon them. I endeavored at an early stage of our proceedings upon this bill to express my views in reference to it. H claim to be as much devoted to the constitution as the Senfrom Kentucky I wonld vote for no law in violation of it. Then he rises here and appeals to the constitution and asserts that the constitution is being violated, he only says that that is his opinion. I do not think it is being violated. I have just as high regard for it as he has; and while I vote silently against this amendment and sit silent under these speeches, it is not because there is not a perfect answer in my judgment to every one o his positions. Now, a word in reference to the particular amendment before us. He would have the country believe that here was a proposition to establish courts in States where the civil tribunals of the country are in full operation, and its judicial tribunals uninterfered with. There is no such proposition in the bill. The bill already provides that the judicial powers conferred upon these officers are to be exercised only in local ities where the civil tribunals have been over borne, and when the time comes that these in surgent States shall be restored in their constitutional relations to the Government, which I trust may soon come, no judicial power will remain in any of the officers of the hreedmens Buie eau. That is the provision of the billal rea y. But, sir, I did not rise to make any other remarks in reference to it than simply to say that in silently voting just this proposition and in sitting silent under the assertions which the Senator has so often made, I did not wish it to be taken for granted that we had not a ready reply to his assertions nor that the bill did not already provide for the very thing that he is seekin to provide for.