And here a practical question arises with regard to the department in which this bureau should be placed. There are reasons for placing it in the War Department, at least during the war. There are other reasons for placing it in the Department of the Interior, which has charge of Indian Affairs, Pensions, and Patents. But, whatever the reasons on general grounds for placing it in one of these two departments, there are other reasons, of special importance at this moment, which point to the Treasury Department. Indeed, after careful consideration, the Committee were satisfied that it was so clearly associated with other interests already intrusted to this department, that it could not be advantageously administered elsewhere. Although beginning this inquiry with a conviction in favor of the War Department, I could not resist the conclusion of the Committee. Look, for one moment, at the class of duties already imposed upon the Treasury Department in connection with the very homes of these freedmen. Congress has, by special Acts, conferred upon the Secretary of the Treasury extraordinary powers with regard to trade in the Rebel States. There is, first, the Act of July 13, 1861, entitled “An Act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes,” which declares that commercial intercourse with any State or part of a State in rebellion, when licensed by the President, “shall be conducted and carried on _only in pursuance_ of rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury.” And it is further provided, that “the Secretary of the Treasury may appoint such officers, at places where officers of the customs are not now authorized by law, as may be needed to carry into effect such licenses, rules, and regulations.”[346] There is another Act of Congress, approved May 20, 1862, supplementary to that just named, which confers additional powers upon the Secretary of the Treasury with reference to trade with “any place in the possession or under the control of insurgents against the United States.”[347]