There is no question that in sound political science the House was entirely correct in its theory, and that the objection of the Senate to that part of the Stevens resolution which provided that no member should be received into either House from any of the so-called Confederate States until the report of the Committee on Reconstruction should have been finally acted on by Congress, as trenching upon the exclusive power of the Senate to judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its members, rested upon a confounding of the {44} function of Congress to admit "States" into the Union with the power of each House to judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of those claiming to represent "States" or constituencies in "States" about whose position in the Union there was no question. The Senate finally swung into line, however, by passing this part of the House resolution as a concurrent resolution instead of as a joint resolution. [Sidenote: Legislation of the reconstructed "States" concerning the status of the freedmen, and the Freedmen's Bureau.] There were two other considerations which moved the Republicans in Congress to assume this attitude in regard to Reconstruction. One was the legislation of the "States" reconstructed by the President concerning the status and the rights of the freedmen. On the 3d of March preceding, Congress had passed an act organizing a bureau in the War Department for the care of refugees and freedmen in the districts in rebellion or in the territory embraced in the operations of the army. This bureau was officered by a chief commissioner and assistant commissioners for each of the "States" declared to be in insurrection. These officers were authorized to take possession of the abandoned lands within these "States," and other lands belonging to the United States, and parcel them out to the loyal male refugees and freedmen, not more than forty acres to each, and protect them in the use and enjoyment of the same for the term of three years. They were also authorized to issue under the direction of the Secretary of War provisions, clothing and fuel to such loyal refugees and freedmen as were destitute. [Sidenote: The administration of the Freedmen's Bureau.]