Mr. MCDOUGALL. Mr. President, I move this proposition as a substitute for the entire bill. e are now engaged in the very vain work of undertaking by legislation to administer upon such things as may be the accident of the hour or the accident of the day. We are undertaking to provide general rules and laws that pertain to government, in and about business that belon s properly to administration. There are 3 Depts of government recognized under our system: the legislative, as being nearest the or nizin power, the executive, and the judiciali? the latter 2 properly subject to the former more or less in point of real dignity, yet made equal in power in their several spheres. All that belongs to the man agement of the enfranchised slave must necessarily depend upon judicious administration. What may be necessary in Louisiana may not be necessary in Maryland. What may be necessary in SCarolina may not be necessary in Kentucky. It is a question of administration to be applied wisely. This Freedmens Bureau is the result of an or nization under the executive power of the U.S. All its authorit, after all, rests upon that. It is a matter o administration. be POTUS, being clothed with proor authority, may realize all that can be desired, a plying administration to the various points where administration is renired, justly, according to circumstances. o general law, no general system of administration, no general popular judiciary, will answer that as well an the application of the constitution and laws, protecting all persons, caning out the spirit of the constitutional amendment, laws passed in pursuance of it protecting them with the judgment of our Chief Executive so far as they need protection. It is the best way, the most economical way, and the most constitutional way that we can express the power of this Government to protect the freedmen under the vision in the constitution that all laws maCpro e in pursuance of it by Congress shall belopg to the supreme law of the land. It Will be Infiltely better; it will save complwty. Our legislation now is full of confusion, and many men are confused about aim is questions of constitutional law. This legisation here will lead to confusion. A simple law, clothing the Executive with sufficientpower to aid in carrying out the amendment to the constitution and the laws which may be passed in accordance with it, will an swer all purposes will answer what GenlGrant suggests in his report. Sir, I would rather trust to a man elected by the people of the U.S. to the big place of Chief Magistrate to advise when and ow this owei shall be exercised than to this loose an, I will say, uninformed legislation; for what information have the Senators on this floor with remrd to the condition of things in the South? Both parties are making reports. If we ask what the condition of NCarolina is, what the condition of Louisiana is, what the condition of Georgia is, we receive a report. What information does that carry to you, Gentlemen, or what does it carry to me? As a general rule, it is simply a partisan report, unreliable, as, I may say, newspaper reports generally are. There is not a person who can understand the quadratic equation that can resolve out of any given statement of the reporters whether a thing is so or not so. In my opinion, it will be wiser to trust this power to t ie President, for it belongs to administration, not legislation. It cannot be brought within the purview of legislation. We cannot make rules for it, for we do not know the condition of things in the South. I live in a northern State, a free State, far away from here. I do not know how things are in thesesouthern States, and I think there is no Senator on this floor who understands the condition of the South any better than I do. Iwas born and have lived in the North, but it has been my fortune to mingle more with the people of the U.S., both North and Sout, than most Gentlemen who occupy seats on this floor. I say none of us understand their condition. It has to be administered by a knowledge of particular cases, and I would rather trust a man whom the people were willing to elevate to the high office o President with the particular adminis tration, than trust general rules pronounced by persons who know nothing of and about that which they legislate; and I undertake to say that Congress has been legislating of and about things of which they are profouudl ignorant. I move this amendment as a substitute for the whole bill, and call for the yeas&nays upon it. The yeas&nays were ordered.