Between the Freedmen's Bureau and the several aid societies there was perfect understanding. Howard announced: "In all this work it is not my purpose to supersede the benevolent agencies already engaged, but to systematize and facilitate them."[34] So close was the cooperation between the efforts of the Bureau and the societies that it is hard in places to separate the work of the two. Prior to the supplementary Freedmen's Bureau Act of July 16, 1866, the Commission had no funds appropriated to it for educational purposes. It was able to help only by supervision, transportation of teachers and occupation of buildings in possession of the Freedmen's Bureau. This action of the first year met the full approval of Congress, for in the Act of July 16, 1866, it was stated "that the commissioner ... shall at all time cooperate with private benevolent agencies of citizens in aid of freedmen ... and shall hire or provide by lease buildings for purposes of education whenever such association shall without cost to the government, provide suitable teachers and means of instruction, and he shall furnish such protection as may be required for the safe conduct of such schools." Further, "the commissioner of this bureau shall have power to seize, hold, use, lease or sell all buildings and tenements ... and to use the same or appropriate the proceeds derived therefrom to the education of the freed people."[35] In the following March, 1867, $500,000 was appropriated by Congress for the Freedmen's Bureau "for buildings for schools and asylums; including construction, rental and repairs."[36] The aid societies which under these provisions operated in South Carolina may be classified in three groups: 1. Non-sectarian: The New York National Freedmen's Relief Association, the New England Freedmen's Aid Society and the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association (as enumerated above). 2. Denominational: (_a_) The American Baptist Home Mission Society; (_b_) the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church; (_c_) the Presbyterian Committee of Missions for Freedmen; (_d_) the Friends Association of Philadelphia for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen; (_e_) and the Protestant Episcopal Freedman's Commission. 3. Semi-denominational: The American Missionary Association.