I have dwelt with some minuteness on this question, because it seems to be the practical point on which there may be difference of opinion. Already gentlemen have taken sides, and newspapers also. I regret this difference, but I trust that a calm and dispassionate consideration of the subject will render it innocuous. The first thought of all should be for the freedmen. * * * * * There is another point, which ought not to be passed over in silence, arising from the just desire to protect the freedmen from any system of serfdom or enforced apprenticeship. It is well known that among former slave-masters there are many who continue to count upon appropriating the labor of their slaves, if not under the name of Slavery, at least under some other system by which freedmen shall be effectually held to service. This very phrase “held to service,” standing alone, is the pleonastic definition of Slavery itself. One of these slave-masters, in a public speech, said: “There is really no difference, in my opinion, whether we hold them as absolute slaves or obtain their labor by some other method. Of course we prefer the old method; but that question is not now before us.”[352] Such barefaced avowals were not needed to put humane men on their guard against the conspiracy to continue Slavery under another name. The bill before the Senate provides against any such possibility by requiring that the assistant commissioners and local superintendents shall not only aid the freedmen in the adjustment of their wages, but shall take care that they do not suffer from ill-treatment or any failure of contract on the part of others,--and also that the contracts for service shall be limited to a year. The latter provision is so important that I give it precisely. “_Provided_, That no freedmen shall be held to service on any estate above mentioned otherwise than according to voluntary contract, reduced to writing, and certified by the assistant commissioner or local superintendent; nor shall any such contract be for a longer period than twelve months.” Here is a safeguard against serfdom or enforced apprenticeship which seemed to the Committee of especial value. In this respect the House bill was thought to be fatally defective, inasmuch as it interposed no positive safeguards.