In short, Trumbull held that it was for Congress to decide what rights might be established and enforced by federal law, in addition to that of emancipation. That this was to be a troublesome question was shown a little later by a colloquy between Trumbull and Henderson. The latter was of the opinion that the only sure way to protect the freedmen was to give them the right to vote. Trumbull thought that, for the present purpose of providing them with food, clothing, and shelter, Dr. Townsend's Sarsaparilla or any other patent medicine, would be as effectual as the right of suffrage.[87] Sumner, a little later, thought that the right to serve on juries and to hold office was among the essential securities of freedom, and Thaddeus Stevens thought that land-ownership also was necessary. What could be done under the second clause of the Thirteenth Amendment was the question, either expressed or implied, underlying the whole controversy on Reconstruction during the next ten years. It was commonly believed that the President would approve the Freedmen's Bureau Bill; hence, when a veto message came, on the 19th of February, it was received with consternation by the Republicans in Congress. He held that the bill was both unconstitutional and inexpedient. It had been passed in the Senate by yeas 37, nays 10, every Republican voting for it and every Democrat against it. There were three absentees when the vote was taken: Cowan and Willey, Republicans, and Nesmith, Democrat. There was ample margin here for passing the bill over the veto, if the Republicans could hold together, but when the second vote was taken, February 20, the yeas were 30, and the nays 18, not two thirds. So the bill failed. Eight Republicans, Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, Morgan, Norton, Stewart, Van Winkle, and Willey, had sided with the President. There were two absentees: Foot (Rep.), of Vermont, and Wright (Dem.), of New Jersey, both sick. The question of negro suffrage had not yet become acute in public discussions. The state of public opinion in the North was fairly set forth by Dr. C. H. Ray in a private letter to Trumbull dated Chicago, February 7, thus: If he [Johnson] will agree to your bill giving the freedmen the civil rights that the whites enjoy, and if he halts at that, and war is made on him because he will not go to the extent of negro suffrage, he will beat all who assail him. The party may be split, the Government may go out of Republican hands; but Andy Johnson will be cock-of-the-walk. The people, so far as I understand, are of the opinion that the war for the Union is over.... And as for the negro, they think that when he has the rights which your bill will give him, he must be contented to look upon the elective franchise as a something to be earned by giving evidence of his fitness therefor.