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Now in establishing this Bureau, Congress gave the Commissioner of the same the supervision & management of Aband & Confiscated lands - why? So that the freedmen might be given homes on the same, that they might have ground to plant and learn to be independent and industrious. Bu why should Congress give to the Commissioner the control of "other abandoned property"? Not in order to furnish funds for freedmen, for had that been an object they (Congress) would have made an appropriation of such from the public Treasury.

One word more about insurrecting states. The Act establishing the Bureau mentions "States declared to be in  insurrection" Now the only states declared to be in insurrection are those states & parts of states mentioned in the Presidents proclamation of Jany 1st, 1863.