some way by the Government, I know not where to look for them. Surely, Sir, you will not hesitate to provide, so far as you can, carefully and wisely, the proper means to secure employment for them during the transition from one condition to another, and, above all, to throw over them everywhere the ægis of Constitution and Law. And such, permit me to say, is the single supreme object of the present bill, which has been so cordially misrepresented by the Senator from West Virginia, and so strangely misrepresented by my friend from Iowa. I have said that the object was care and protection for persons actually free, and so regarded, who, from the peculiarity of their condition, might not be able in all respects to secure these without assistance. To this end a central agency is proposed at Washington, with subordinate agencies where the freedmen are to be found, devoted to this work of watching over emancipation, so that it may be surrounded with a congenial atmosphere. Is not the object worthy of support? Who will question it? The language of the bill describing the functions of the Commissioner is plain and explicit; and yet out of this language, so guarded and so utterly inoffensive, the Senator from Iowa has conjured a phantom to frighten the Senate from its propriety. Why, Sir, if there were anything which by possibility could justify the fears of the Senator, if there were anything which even the most lively imagination could exaggerate into a lack of care and protection, then I should be the first to denounce it, and to ask forgiveness for an unconscious aberration. But there is absolutely nothing; and if you listen to the bill, you will agree with me. I begin with the very words which to the Senator from Iowa were so alarming:-- “The Commissioner, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall have the general superintendence of all freedmen throughout the several departments.” Here are duties imposed upon the Commissioner; but there is no power or control over the freedmen. Calling a man superintendent gives him no power except in conformity with law; but all the laws, general and special, are for Freedom. And yet the Senator has repeated, again and again, that this was a grant of unlimited power and control over the freedmen. To his mind here was an overflowing fountain of tyranny and wrong. MR. GRIMES. Will the Senator tell the Senate what is meant by it? MR. SUMNER. With great pleasure; and if I can have the candid attention of my friend, I believe that he and I cannot differ, for I will not doubt that we have the same object at heart. Obviously the language indicates in a general way the character of the duties to be performed. They are duties of superintendence, but we are to look elsewhere for the extent of the duties; and the words which follow in the same section show something of their nature. Thus:--