regulations, which were afterward closely followed by General
Howard. Under Treasury agents, large quantities of land were
leased in the Mississippi Valley, and many Negroes were em-
ployed; but in August, 1864, the new regulations were
suspended for reasons of "public policy," and the army was
again in control.

Meanwhile Congress had turned its attention to the subject;
and in March the House passed a bill by a majority of two
establishing a Bureau for Freedmen in the War Department.
Charles Sumner, who had charge of the bill in the Senate,
argued that freedmen and abandoned lands ought to be under
the same department, and reported a substitute for the House
bill attaching the Bureau to the Treasury Department. This
bill passed, but too late for action by the House. The debates
wandered over the whole policy of the administration and the
general question of slavery, without touching very closely the
specific merits of the measure in hand. Then the national
election took place; and the administration, with a vote of
renewed confidence from the country, addressed itself to the
matter more seriously. A conference between the two branches
of Congress agreed upon a carefully drawn measure which
contained the chief provisions of Sumner's bill, but made the
proposed organization a department independent of both the
War and the Treasury officials. The bill was conservative,
giving the new department "general superintendence of all
freedmen." Its purpose was to "establish regulations" for
them, protect them, lease them lands, adjust their wages, and
appear in civil and military courts as their "next friend."
There were many limitations attached to the powers thus