Mr. DAVIS. Mr. President, I propose to submit to the Senate an argument in support of the Presidents veto of the act to increase the powers of the Freedmens Bureau. This act, and the law to which it is proposed as an amendm ent, are to “extend to refu see and freedmen in all parts of the U.S., ” and authorize the President to “divide the section of country containing such refugees and freedmen into districts, each containing one or more States, not to exceed 12 in number, to a point an asst commissioner for each of said districts; or to detail from the Army a Commissioner and asst commissioners.” The Commissioner with the approval of the President, is required “to divide each district into a number o subdistricts notto exceed the number of counties, or arishes in each State, and shall assign to 8351 sub district at least one agent.” “Each asst commissioner may emplo not exceeding 6 clerks, ” &c.; “the presient, through the War Dept and the Commissioner, shall extend military protection over the employee s, agents, and odi cers of the bureau.” “Tho SecyWar may direct such issues of provisions, clothing, fuel and other supplios. including, medical nseto. orersoatnhdetrrmansesp, aosrthaetiomna and eeumdonrdeesdutcuhl for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen, their Wivesand children. The President is authorized to reserve from sale or from settlement under the homestead or preemption laws, and to set apart for the use of freedmen and loyal refugees, unoccu ied public lands in Florida, Mississippi, Ar ansas, Alabama, and L0“l518118, not exceeding in all 3 million acres (good) land; and the Commissioner, under the direction of the President, shall cause the same, from time to time, to be allotted and assigned, in arcels not exceeding fort acres each, to the loyal refu gees and free men, who will be protected in the use and enjoyment thereof, for such term of time and such annual rentas maybe agreed on between the Commissioner and such refu gees and freedmenthey to have the right of preemption at the end of the term. The possessory titles, ranted in nrsuance of GenlSherman s field order of Janunry 16, 1865, to a large quantit of the best Sea Island cotton lands are conrmed for 3 years, which will result in a feesimple estate. The Commissioner, under the direction of the President is required to procure “in the name vof the U.S., by grant or ur chase within the districts aforesaid, such lands, ” without limit as to quantity, “as may be required for refugees and freedmen dependent on the Government, and he shall provide or cause to be built suitable asylums and schools for them.” The 7th section provides “that in any State or district in which the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has been interrupted by the rebellion, and in which there are discrimi nations to the prejudice of negroes, mulattoes, freedmen, or refugees in the right to make and enforce contracts, to sue be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold and conve real and personal property, and to have fuil and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and estate, or whenever they, or any of them, are subjected to any other or different punishment, pains, or penalties for the commission of any act or offense than are prescribed for white persons committin like acts or offenses, it she be the duty of the POTUS, through the Commissioner, to extend military protection and jurisdiction over all cases affecting such persons so discriminated against.” Section 8 makes it a misdemeanor to deprive any negro, mulatto, freedman, refugee, or other person, on account of race or color, of an civil right secured to white persons; or to in ict on them any other or dilierent punishment than white persons are subject to for the commission of like acts and offenses; and for such misdemeanor it declares punishment of fine not exceeding $1,000, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both. This section also makes it the duty “ of the officers and agents of this bureau to take jurisdiction of and hear and determine all offenses committed against its provisions” “and also of all cases atfectingnegroes, mulattoes, freedmen, refugees, or other persons who are discrimi nated against in any of the particularsmentioned in the preceding section, under such rules and regulations as the POTUS, through the War Dept, shall prescribe. ”. This is a synopsis of the act. It organizes the largest and most expensive eleemosynary institution that ever existed, and adopts all the negro population of the U.S., numbering about 4 and a half millions, as their wards; and it provides that the support of any of them may, as a large portion oft em necessarily must, become a charge upon it. 4000 officers, diffused over the U.S., with an a gregate of more than 5 million dollars of so ary, may be put into tlm service of this institution. Its annual expenditure of money will probably be not less than $50,000,000, and could, to carry out its full purpose, be pushed to 5 times that amount; and the quantity of land required for it may be reasonably estimated at not less than 30 million acres. But these are not by far the gravest and most objectionable features of the act. It establishes a military despotism in every State into which it may be carried, where “the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has been interrupted by the rebelion, ” an sustains it by the whole military power of the U.S. It confers upon t ie officers of this bureau extraordinary and dangerous legislative, executive, and judicial powers, and requires them by force of arms to trample down all State laws which deny to negroes and mulattoes an equality of the civil rights enumerated in it with white people; and to wrest negroes and mulattoes from all punishment different from what is declared y law against white persons for the same acts and offenses; and to substitute for the laws thus to be set aside an arbitrary code to be concocted in the War Office. It makes the enforcement of any State laws which make distinctions between the civil rights and pan ishments of negroes and mulattoes and white persons a high misdemeanor, and denounces against the State officers who enforce those laws heavy punishment, both by fine and imprisonment. It forces all causes of suit between the negro, and white persons from the civil law and civil judge and juries, and requires them to be tried by the officers of this bureau, according to its military code and it protects by U.S. bayonets “ all employee s, agents, and officers of this bureau” from any responsibility by the civil law and courts for any and every wrong perpetrated by them, however enormOus. Never before in this country did Congress attempt such legislation, and where is there any authority for it? It must be found in the constitution, or the act can have no validity. We propose to examine that general question. The States and their governments existed before. the U.S and the General Government. The States and their governments cooperated in forming the constitution and Government of the U.S., and without such 006 Ver atlon they could not have been formed. e fore the adoptionof the constitution the States were, each or itself, possessed of all sovereignty; but by that instrument their people delegated a portion of their sovereignty, and organized it into a general but limited Government for the people of all the States; and the sovereignt with which they parted, and the form of the Government they instituted, are expressed in the constitution. Every principle and every power of which they have become dispossessed, and their adjustment into a national Government, were written down in the constitution. Neither the States nor their governments were dissolved by the formation of the Government of the U.S.; but they remained as they had previously existed organized and possessed of all sovereignty an power, except the limited amount which they adparted with, and which is named in the constitution. The General Government was not only so framed as to leave the States in existence, but it was to some extent founded upon them, and for its existence and operation requires their cooperation as Senators in congress are to be chosen by their Legislatures, an “ each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature may direct, ” its presidential electors. If the States were to refuse to perform these functions it would bring the government of the U.S. to an end. The constitution of the U.S., and the acts of Congress made in pursuance of it, are the supreme law of the land. But every act of congress must be authorized by a power conferre upon it by the constitution to pass that act. ithin its constitutional sphere, even though it be in conflict with an or all the State governments, the authority of the U.S. Government is paramount and supreme but outside of the powers delegated to the U.S. by the constitution, and not pprohibitedby it to the States, they are paramount and so reinc. All political sovereignty is thus divided between the U.S and the States; and the main tenance of our complex stem of blended governments, national and State, require that all the powers and sovereignty a portioned to cither shall be held inviolate by the other; and if it is disadjusted by the eneroachments of either, it is the highest duty of the people of the U.S. to readjust it. These principles have often been pronounced in the opinions of the Supreme Court; and all of them are very clearly stated by Chief Justice Marshall in the opinion in the case of Mo Cullough vs. The State of Maryland, delivered by him. We Will quote several passages from that rich mine of constitutional aw: “In America the powers of sovereignty are divided between the Government of the Union and thoseof the States. They are each sovereign with respect to the objects committed to it, neither with respect to the objects committed to the other.” “This Government is acknowledged by all to be one olvonulner ted powers. The principle that it can exercise only the DOWLIS granted to it would seemtoo apparent to have required to beenforoedb all those argumentswhich its enlightened fricnds, whiile it was depending before the people, found it necessaryto “g. The 10th amendment, which was framed for the purpose of quicling the excessive jenlousies which:id been exeited, declares that the powers not dele gnted to the U.S. by the Constitution, nor prohibitedbyit to theStates. arcreserved to the States respectively, or to the people. ” Another great principle is thus stated in that Opinion: "The power of creating a corporation though appertaining to sovereignty, is not like the power of making war or levying taxes, or of regulating comworse, a great substantive and independent power, which cannot be implied as incidental to other ow ers, or used as the means of executing them. this never the end for which other powers are exercised, bu"tameansbywhich other objectsarcaccomplislied. The powerof creating a corporation is never used for its own sake, but for the purpose of effectingsome thing else. No sufficient reason is. therefore er ccived why it may not pass as incidental to those powers which are expressly given, (to colloct taxes, ay the debts of the U.S., 850. )if it be a girect modeof executing them.” Again, he says: “We admit, all must admit, the powersof the Governmentare limited. But we think a sound construction of the constitution must allow to the national Legislature the discretion with respect. to the mcans by which the powersit confersare to be carried into execution, which will enablethat bodyto perform the high duties assignedto it in the manner most bona ficial to the people. Lot the end be logitimato, let it bewithin the scopeof the constitution and all means which are appropriate, which are lainly adapted to the curl, which are not prohibite, but consonantto the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional.” Also: “Should Congress. in the execution of its powers, adoptmeasureswhich are pprohibitedby thoConstitution: or should Congress, under the pretext of exc enting its powers, pass laws for the accomplishment. of objectsnot intrusted to the Government, it would becomcthopainfulduty of this tribunal. should acase requiring such a decision come before it; to say that such an act wasnot the law of the land. The American people are more indebted to Mr. Madison than any other man for their constitution; and they are under not less obligation to Chief Justice Marshall for his able and lumine us expositions, of its great principles. If this act is examined in the clear light shed upon it by the principles stated in the extracts from this imperishable opinion which we have here presented, a correct judgment on the question of its constitutionality can be formed by all men of common honesty and understanding. But preliminary to this examination we will consider the 2 sources of power which its friends contend give authority to Congress to pass it: I. From this provision of the constitution: “The citizens o each State shall be entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States.” The correct interpretation of this clause, as to the persons comprehended by it, would seem to be without difficulty. It applies to 2 classes of persons: 1. The citizens of a State, who, Without changing their residence, go temporarily into another State, in transitu or on business or pleasure. 2. The citizens of any State who may remove their residence into another State. Both these classes become entitled to the privileges and immunities of American citizens in the several States, but the precise extent and the particular kinds of those privileges and immunities are questions not of eas solution. This provision of the constitution has been in a few cases before the U.S. circuit and 2 or 3 of the State courts for their considerations; and they have ruled definitelyl and unanimously that it does not extend tot e citizens of any State who have not changed their residence or gone into niiotherstate for some temporarypurpose. (See 3 Harris & McHenry, 564; 4Wash. Mr., 380; 6 Pick, 92.) But this bill by its terms applies to all the inhabitants of the U.S., withoutre rd to race or color, including the greatmass of the people, those who have not changed their resi dence from one State to another, nor gone into another State for any temporary purpose, nor are claiming any privilege or immunit of an American citizen in any other Statet an the one in which they reside. Consequently this provision of the constitution, allowmg to it the broadest application which can be claimed under its language, would only authorize an act of congress that would embrace but an incon siderab eportion of the people and their privileges an immunities, when this act, by its terms, is made to comprehend all. It is therefore palpably obnoxious to the objection of being in conflict with the constitution. It is indeed flagrantly so, because Congress has no constitutional power to bring a single person in the U.S., or hisproperty or rights, under the provisions or Operation of this act. I think this last pesition will be made good by my subsequent remarks. H. But the 2nd section of the last amendment of the constitution is mostly relied upon by the friends of this measure as conferring upon Congress the power to pass it. That amendment is in these words: “SEO. 1. Neither slaverynorinvoinntary servitude, exceptas punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the tU. S or any place subieet to their Jurisdic io“nSec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” The 2nd section invests Congress with no more power than it would have possessed without it. Paragraph 18, section 8, article 1, provides: “The congress shall have power to make all laws which shall a neecssarynndproper for carrying into execution the foregoingpowers and all other powers vested by this constitution in the Government of the U.S., or any Deptor officerthereof.” This provision gives to Congress the same faculty of ancillary legislation to execute powers that might be confisrred on the Government of the U.S. by all after amendments of the constitution, as to execute those given and enumerated by the constitution in the form in which it was 1st adopted; and it invests Congress with the same and equal power to pass auxiliary laws to give force and effect to the 1st section of tlus amendment that the 2nd section does. Between the words “Congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into executi n the 1st section of article 13 ” and the words “Congress shall have power to enforce that sectiOn by appropriate legislation, ” I know no difference o sense and meaning. If there be any, the 1st import the larger power. “To execute" is to carry into complete effect;” “to enforce ” is to urge on.” They both confer this incidental power; but any legislation to be lo itimate under either must be appropriate and consistent with the letter and spirit of the constitution; and that character o legislation, to execute the 1st section of this amendment, would be authorized by both. The 1st section simply abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude at that time, and inhibits them, prospectively, in the U.S and every place subject to their jurisdiction. It neither does nor attempts to do anything more. It does not directly on positively give geedom to the slaves; that is done conscquentially by the abolition of slavery. Slavery and freedom as here used are American terms and import definite American ideas; and in the American sense are they to be treated. Slavery is the state of entire legal subjection of one person to the will of another, and freedom is the total absence of such subjection from a person. Whatever force entirely and permanent y anni hilates that subjection of a person, and remits him from the will of his owner to his own will, to govern and control himself, both abolishes his slavery and gives him his freedom. Slavery is his individual personal condition of entire subjection to the will of another; his freedom is his personal, permanent deliverance from that subjection, and his protection by the law in this condition., The 1st section of the amendment, having no other object or effect than to abolish nff existing slavery and its prevention in the future, they are the only ends which would authorize any incidental and auxiliary legislation, and such legislation must. be “appropriate to those ends, ” “plainly adapted to them, ” “most suitable, fit, and proper to give them effect;” “it must not be prohibited, but consistent with the letter and spirit of the constitution.” “ It must not, under the pretext of executing” the 1st section of this amendment, ” be in fact to effect objects not intrusted to the Federal Government; by the constitution.” These are the tests, accordlg to Chief Justice Marshall, of all such legislation. Unless this act can stand each and every one of them, it, cannot, even with the approval of the President, become the law. Let us examine how it can sustain these tests. This amendment of the constitution does not enumerate the power to establish a freedmens Bureau as a congressional power; it does not expressly confer on Congress the power to create a Freedmen 5 Bureau. Then, ifsuch a power exist, like the power to establish a bank, it is an implied power. It is not a “substantive, independentpower, ” for the execution of which other and incidental powers may be invoked but it is itself an incidental power, to be use only to execute some other and an express or enumerated power. All concede that the only express or enumerated power to execute or enforce which the Freedmens Bureau can be claimed to be auxiliary is expressed by the fir“st section of the amendment: Neither slaverynor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime shall exist within the U.S. ” kc Then the power of Congress to organize this bureau is implied and incidental; it is not. for the purpose of creating the bureau itself, but because such a machinery “is necessary and proper, ” “ appropriate, ” to enforce the abolition and prohibition of slavery in the U.S. t might be plausibly, if not truthfully, argued that no legislation whatever was necessary to execute or enforce that section; that of itself it fully and completely abolished all existing, and prohibited all future, slavery in the U.S.; and that every being whose rights under it were infringed, would, by the principles of the common law, be entitled to redress, both in the form of civil suit and penal prosecution. But, if auxiliary legislation be necessary, it cannot appropriately and constitutionally do more than to give to injured parties efficient legal protection, by suit and penal and criminal proceedings in court. No human laws can prevent the rights uarantied by this revision of the constitution from being invade. All that is possible is to furnish the injured appropriate and constitutional redress. It is an inflexible rule of construction of all writings, instruments, laws, treaties, and constitutions, that a clearly expressed provision shall not be nullified or restricted by any implication, but shall have its full effect according to the language embodied in it. Article ten of the constitution reads: “Tho powers not delegatedto the U.S. by the constitution nor prohibited by it to the States, aile reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Yet this Freedmens Bureau act, passed with no warrant of authority but the implied incidental power to enforce the 1st section of the amendment, nnllifies this provision of the constitution, by absorbinal the essential sovereignty and rights of teStates, expressly, and so emphatically guarantied by it. The executive power only is vested by the constitution in the POTUS in the 1st section of article two; and the 1st section of article 3 says: "The judicial power of the U.S shall be vested in one Supreme Court and such inferiorcqurts Me lLTCIOIJEIOSS may from time to time ordain and as is i. Section 2 reads: "The judicial power shall extend to all cases. in law and equity, arising under this constitution. the laws of the U.S., ” do“ "between citizens of the differentStates, ” rice and section one, article 1, provides "All legislative powers herein granted, shall be vestedin:1Congressof the U.S. which shall consist of aSenate and HoRep.” to. All these principles established by express language, are flagrantly infracted by this act, in these respects: 1. It authorizes the President to detail “a Commissioner and asst commissioners for the bureau from the Army; and to assign an Officer of the Army, or an enlisted man, to act as agent in each sub district; which officers and military men are invested by it with judicial powers and functions. 2. No appeal, writ of error, or transfer from the judgments of this bureau is permitted to the supreme or inferior courts of the U.S., even though the case may arise under the constitution or the laws of the U.S., and be between citizens of different States. 3. It makes it “the duty of the officers and agents of this bureau to take jurisdiction of and to hear and determine all offenses committed against its provisions, and also of all cases affecting negroes, mulattoes, freedmen, refu gees, or other persons, who are discriminated against in any of the particulars mentioned in the act.” 4. It authorizes the President, through the War Dept, to dispense with all laws, whether of the States or the U.S., and to substitute such rules and regulations as he by that agency, in the possession of absolute and irresponsible power, may devise. The 3rd paragraph of section 2, article 3, provides: " The trial of all crimes. exceptin casesofimpeachment, shallbo hyju: and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed, ” &C. Article 5 defines the mode of accusation for crimes, and prescribes a “trial by due process of law, ” &o. Article 6 declares: enjoy Inthaell ricgrhimt itnoaal sppreoesdeycauntdiopnusb, tlhice accused shall partial trial by an injury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.” die. "Article 7 provides: trovIenrssyuits at common law. where the value in conshall exceed 20 dollars, the right of trial byjurg shall bepreserved and no fact tried by ajury shall o otherwiso reexamined in an court of the U.S. than according to the ru esof the common law.” This last provision has been construed by the Supreme Court in a very careful opinion an nounced by Justice Marshall, in which it is ruled that in all civil cases in which the matter in contest is above 20 dollars, either party is entitled to a jury in every court into which it may be taken; and that this principle extends to all subjects of suit of which courts of equity and admiralty have not the exclusive juridbiction. (See Weston vs. Council of City of Charleston, 2 Pet., 440, 449.) The inestimable right of trial by jury, so prized by our ancestors, so sedulous y guarded and assured to every person by those express provisions of the constitution, is wholly ren iated, both in criminal and civil cases, by this act requiring them to be tried by the officers and agents of this military bureau; and for the law is substituted the will of a military des 0t. But this measure is not merely to secure ree doin now and rospectively to the no to population of the U.S. Besides being fla gitiously unconstitutional in all its principal provisions, it is not as a means suitable, fit, appropriate, lainly, and directly adapted to those ends. nder the pretext of enforcin the 1st section of the amendment, the practical operation would be unfriendly, hostile to its true and honest purposes; and it has other objects altogether alien to them, transcending the powers of Congress and the Federal Government, and subversive of the constitution and the liberties of the people. It has been devised by the leaders of the party in (power as a most potent, extensive, an pervaing party machinery; and while holding out to the negro the magic lure of liberty and homes and largesses at the cost of the white people of the U.S., the design is to ree nslave the freedmen and to reduce the white race of the southern States to a slave even lower than that of the blacks, and with the aid of general negro suffrage to hold them permanently in that condition. f the negro is ree in law and fact, why is he not in the enj0yment of the free will, the unfettered conduct and action of the white man? The plea that this bureau is necessary to protect the freedman from his late masteris false, and those who make statements to that effect are holding places, public or private, in connection with this bureau or are plundering under its cover. These testimonies, as a General rule, originate in mercenary sources and are not entitled to any credit. Their former owners are a much surer reliance for justice, protection, kindness, and sympathy to their late slaves than this bureau, its o cers and agents, and the plundererswho are living and fattening y it. The white people of the South generally, almost universally, submit to the fact that the negroes are permanently free. The 2 races are living in the same country, and so must continue. hey know each other better than they or either of them are known to the people of the free States. The white race, either natives of the South or from other localities, will be the proprietors of the land and the black its cultivators such is their destiny. The late owners and their slaves know, or would soon learn and recognize the fact, that mutual confidence and good will are essential to the welfare of both races. The white man would be taught that he could win these from the black man only by justice, kindness, and respectful treatment; and the latter would not he show in understanding that a dili cut and faithful performance of his duties to is emplo er, an an obliing disposition toward him an his family, wou d not only secure his rights, but also a Generous sympathy. The general good of each State would require the establishment of such relations, and their legislation and polic would be faithfully and wise y applied to establish and perpetuate them. If Congress would refrain rein all intermeddling with these matters, over which it has not apartiele of legitimate authority, and would remit them to the respective States, where alone the properly belong, they would soon be adjuste upon a basis combin in justice, humanity, and the soundest policy. at it is the fixed purpose of the party which sustains the Freedmens Bureau to prevent the late masters and the late slaves from coming to any friendly settlement. That party has 2 cardinal purposes to which it intends to appropriate the freedman: 1st, by military coercion to work the cotton and sugar lands of the southern States for the benefit of its section and of those who constitute the party; 2nd, to confer on the freedman the right of suffrage and constrain them to vote for the perpetuation of their party power and, with the aid of these allies, to control teelections in the late slave States and hold possession of the Government of the U.S. To achieve these grand party ends the Freedmens Bureau, with its enormous and irresponsible military powers, is a necessary engine. B its great largesses of lands, homes, and supp ies it fixes the entire negro masses of the U.S. in the interests of the northern radical party; and by its diffused and vigorous military government it will hold together, control, and give direction to all their etiicient labor. Its various, exten sive, and arbitrary powers, grasping in its embrace the whole of both races in the late slave States and their property, business, and concerns, and especially their relations with each other, will enable it to depress the whites, to favor and hold up the blacks, to flatter the vanity and excite the insolence of the latter, to mortify and irritate the former, and perpetuate between them enmity and strife. This is the state of relations between the 2 races which the Freedmens Bureau will bring about and protract, to afford a pretext, in the absence of war and military necessity, for its continuance. The law of the last session organizing it, lprovided for its continuance only 12 mont s after the war should have closeg; more than 8 months of that time has passed, but the bureau is too important a party power to be allowed such an early termination. On its limited scale, it has shown great capabili ties; and, may nified as it has been by this act, its etiicieney or party service will be proortionably increased. The some real motives of having the freedmans labor in cotton and sugar fie ds and his vote at elections will continue indefinitely, and the operations of the bureau itself will furnish the simulated necessity of protection of the freedmen against their former masters for its continuance. In that way the design of the party is to make it a permanent institution. It has been clearly shown that this act is pprohibitedby the constitution inconsistent with both its letter and spiritthat under the pretext of executing another power, congress has passed it for the accomplishment o objects not intrusted to the U.S. Government. Each and all of these objections to an act of Congress, Chief Justice arshall has declared, would make it the painful duty of the Supreme Court to pronounce it “not to be the law of the land. This act is unconstitutional also because it intervenes military power to prevent the officers and agents of this bureau from being held to any responsibility in civil courts, State or federal, however wrongful, ille H and criminal their acts may have been. f it be unconstitutional it is utterly void, and furnishes to those who may attempt to execute it no ground of defense if they should be sued or criminally prosecuted for what they may do under it. be great constitutional principle, that an act of Congress in conflict with the constitution must yield to it, and is of no validity whatever, was 1st enunciated by the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Marshall being the organ, in the case of Marbury vs. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, since which it has never been questioned. It is strange that it ever was controverted in the face of the provision: “This constitution and the laws of the U.S. which shall be madein pursuance thereof.” &. c. "shall be the supremelaw of the land.” This act, therefore, as a whole and in all its parts, is a flagitious infraction of the Constitution; and et, under covert of it, the employees, agents, and ofhicers of this bureau may cominit the most outrageous wrongs, the most shocking crimes, and the President is required. by it, “through the War Dept and the commissioner, ” to extend to them “ military jurisdiction and protection.” Congress s no power to pass laws to organize a vast system of poorhouses, to endow them, and to establish and support in them the pau pers of the U.S., black or white; or to subject the whole people of the U.S. black and white, or ei or race, and their civil rights, property, contracts, offenses, and punishments, their suits and legal responsibilities, to the civil, much less to the military authorities of the U.S.; all those matters are by the constitution reserved to the States respectively; and in virtue of their original and unnted sovereignty they have exclusive juris didtion over them; and yet this act proposes to usurp absolute power as to this whole mass of reserved State rights, and to govern them by amilitary despotism to be organized in this bureau. If the 2nd section of the amendment could be tortured to give some semblance of authority to pass such an act, it could be claimed With any show of reason to extend only to the slaves freed by the 1st section, and not to those already ree. This section was intended for and only operated upon slavery and the enslaved, not upon freedom and the free. In 1860 the total free negro population of the U.S. was 488, 005, 11nd it may be assumed to have been 500,000 at the commencement of the rebelliou. Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee had liberated all their slaves before the adeption of the amendment. It is claimed by the friends of this measure that the slaves of the rebel States had been made free by the presidents proclamation or having enlisted into the Army or by being the wives and children of those who had. In Kentucky about 35,000 slaves have become soldiers and their wives and children were estimated by officers connected with the negro recruiting in that State to be 76,000. According to this computation there were about 140,000 slaves in Kentucky, not more, when this amendment of the constitution went into effect, and could not have been 500,000 in the whole U.S.; and on this small amount of negro population only, by the principles contended for by its friends, is there even a pretext to make this act operate; and yet by its terms it extends not only to the whole negro, but also to the entire white population of the U.S. The oriinal 13, as colonies and States, were all shiveholding for more than 100years, and that continued to be the condition of 6 of them down to this great insurrection. 9 of the new States adopted slavery, and with that institution were admitted into the Union as having a RFG, in accordance with the requisition of the constitution. It was States hollding slaves as property that formed the constitution, and in corporated the provision that the U.S. should guaranty to all the States a RFG, and they each continued one of the U.S., adherin to slavery as long as it was their will, and t cir RFG was never questioned. The position thata sLtveholding State could not have a RFG in the sense of the constitution is one of the senseless extravagances of the day. Every slaveholding State, throughout the entire period of its continuance of that institution, had a mode established by its laws to enable the owners of slaves, by their own act, to emancipate them. In all the States but 3, it is a wellknown fact that the emancipation of a slave conferred on him no politica right whatever; and we have met witl no evidence that it had any such component part or consequencein either of those 3 States. When ever a slave was manumitted, he became entitled to some civil rights by the laws of the State; but their number and extent varied in different States, and in none were they a part of the act of manumissioh. The deliverance of the slave from subjection to the will of all other persons, and the guarantee by the laws of that deliver ance, are all there is of emancitation. His acquisition of civil rights is altogether a distinct matter; and until the adoption of this amendment of the constitution, the power of each State over both subjects had been exclusive and sovereign u, and it still continues so over the matter of civil rights. Every State had some population that were neither slaves nor citizens, to which it extended some civil rights, but the quantum was not Uniform or stable. This concession was deter mined by each State for itself, and the rightto make it more or less, or to alter it according to the varying condition or sense of policy and justice, from time to time, was never doubted. On their emancipation, slaves, by general laws, were remitted to all the civil rights of that portion of the pbpulation of the State who were not citizens, unless some of them were with held by special enactments or inflexible cus tom. lntermarriage with white persons, commingling with them in hotels, theaters, steam boats, and other civil rights and privileges, were always forbid to free negroes, until Massachusetts has recently achieved the unenvinble noto riety of making herself an excetionahle case. lhese observations are equal y applicable to the general systems of emancipation of some of the States, acting by their Legislatures or conventions. But under the power to enforce the simple abolitibn and protibition of slavery in the U.S., the frantic friends of the nevro claim that Congress has the authority an is bound to pass laws to secure to all the negroes in the U.S. farms of 40 acres of good land, build houses upon them; to found churches and schools, an furnish “them with preachers and teachers; to build and maintain the requisite number of poorhouses for that whole population, to supply the indigent and destitute with provisions, clothing, and medical service, and a l with transportation; to secure the negro an equality of civil rights and disabil ities, and of palms, penalties, and punishments; to guaranty to him suffrage in elections, and to give evidence in courts; and as a necessar sequel, eligibility to all the offices by which the laws are made. adjudged, and executed, State and Federal courts, inferior and supreme, shrievalties and marshalcies, governorships, and residency and to hold the negro up to this high estate, they say power enables and duty demands of congress to organize a Military autocracy in this freedmens Bureau, with absolute will to repudiate the laws of Congress and the States, the courts Federal and State, the supreme law of the land, the constitution of the U.S.; and itself to absorb all political sovereignty and powers, legislative, executive, and judicial, concerning the negro generally, and particularly in all his relations with the white man.” This sketch falls below the enormity of the act to increase the powers of the Freedmens Bureau.” It requires madness, or something worse, to pronounce such a measure just, wise, or constitution al. The President has put his veto upon it. This power originated in Rome while Rome was yet a republic. It was raised a by the people, an by them vested in their tribunes to forbid the Senate to pass improperlaws. In our Government it has a similar Office. It is confided to the President, the tribune of the people of the U.S., and chosen by them. It is a constitutional check upon congress when they are about to pass unjust, mischievous, o)pressive, and unconstitutional laws. It is one of the great defenses of the Constitution and popular liberty. It has been intervened on this occasion to check an act unparalleled in its enormous and profligate expenditure of the public moue, in its grinding oppression of 8 million white people, and in the num her and enormity of its aggressions upon the constitution. An act, the authors of which have dissolved the Union by excluding the 11 States which are to be enslaved by it from all representation in the 2 Houses of Congress, and which could not be passed ifthose States were represented. Never was there an occasion or a measure which so imperatively demanded the residential veto.