440.Congress andthe President ,1865-66
Unhappily many of the old slave states had passed laWs to compel the negroes to work . They had introduced a system of forced labor which was about the same thing as slavery . In December ,1865, the new Con - gresS met . The Republicans were in the ma - jority . They refused to admit the Senators and Representatives from the reorganized Southern states and at once set to work to pass laWs for the protection of the negroes . In March ,1865, while the war was stil going on , and while Lin - coln was alive , Congress had established the Freedmen ＇ s Bureau to look after the interests of the negroes . Congress now ( February ,1866) passed a bill to continue the Bureau and to give it much more power . Johnson promptly vetoed the bil . In the following July Congress passed another bill to continue the Freedmen ＇ s Bureau . In this bill the officers of the Bureau were given greatly enlarged powers , the education of the blacks was provided for , and the army might be used to compel obedience to the law . Johnson vetoed this bil also .
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