[Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) by James Gillespie Blaine]@TWC D-Link book
Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2)

CHAPTER VIII
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"It will certainly," said he, "remain in operation as a law until some months subsequent to the meeting of the next session of Congress, when, if experience shall make evident the necessity of additional legislation, the two Houses will have ample time to mature and pass the requisite measures." The President renewed in varied forms the expression of his belief that all the States should be admitted to the privilege of legislation, especially in matters affecting their own welfare.

The House proceeded at once to vote upon the reconsideration of the bill, and by 104 in the affirmative and 33 in the negative passed it over the veto of the President.

The Senate voted on the same day with the House, and passed it against the President's objections by 33 in the affirmative and 12 in the negative.
A measure of very great importance to the colored race was thus completed, after serious agitation in both Houses and against two vetoes by the President.

It required potent persuasion, re-enforced by the severest exercise of party discipline to prevent a serious break in both Houses against the bill.

The measure had lost, under discussion, much of the popularity which attended its first introduction in Congress.
On the same day that Mr.Trumbull introduced his original bill to enlarge the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau, he introduced another bill, more important in its scope and more enduring in its character, -- a bill "to protect all persons of the United States in their civil rights and furnish the means of their vindication." It was referred to the Judiciary Committee on the 5th day of January and was reported back on the 11th.


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