March 2d, in the Senate, this bill was referred to the Committee on Slavery and Freedmen, of which Mr. Sumner was Chairman.
May 25th, Mr. Sumner reported the bill to the Senate with a substitute. The intermediate period was occupied by the Committee in a careful and laborious consideration of the whole subject, involving the question of power proper for the Bureau, whether it should be placed in the War Department or in the Treasury Department, which already had the care of abandoned lands. No less than nine different projects were laid before the Committee, some by eminent citizens interested in the freedmen, among whom were Hon. Robert Dale Owen, of Indiana, Hon. John Jay, of New York, and Edward L. Pierce, of Massachusetts. The House bill was not satisfactory. Mr. Owen said, in a letter dated March 8th, “In my judgment the bill of the House will not work.”
The bill reported by Mr. Sumner was drafted by him, and adopted by the Committee. It was in ten sections, and began with these words: “That an office is hereby created in the Treasury Department, to be called the Bureau of Freedmen, meaning thereby such persons as have become free since the beginning of the present war.”
June 8th, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill, when Mr. Sumner explained and vindicated it.
MR. PRESIDENT,—The Senate only a short time ago was engaged for a week considering how to open an iron way from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is now to consider how to open a way from Slavery to Freedom.
I regret much that only thus tardily we are able to take up the bill for a Bureau of Freedmen. But I trust that nothing will interfere with its consideration. In what I have to say, I shall confine myself to a simple statement. If I differ from others, I beg to be understood it is in no spirit of controversy and with no pride of opinion. Nothing of the kind can enter justly into any such discussion.
I shall not detain the Senate to set forth the importance of this measure. All must confess it at a glance. It is clearly a charity and a duty.
By virtue of existing Acts of Congress, and also under the Proclamation of the President, large numbers of slaves have suddenly become free. These may be counted by the hundred thousand. In the progress of victory they will be counted by the million.
As they derive their freedom from the United States, under legislative or executive acts, the National Government cannot be excused from making such provisions as may be required for their immediate protection and welfare during the present transition period. The freedom conferred must be rendered useful, or at least saved from being a burden. Reports, official and unofficial, show the necessity of action. In some places it is a question of life and death.