Senator Lyman Trumbull's bill to extend the life and authority of the Freedmen's Bureau had passed the Senate by a vote of 37 to 10, along strict party lines, two weeks before. The Bureau had been founded in March 1865 to aid freed slaves in making the transition to freedom. The bill passed the House by a vote of 136-33 but President Johnson unexpectedly vetoed the measure on February 19, 1866. The Senate immediately voted to override but failed to muster the required majority. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
William A. Barnes, History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1868), 157.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
