ing: "I have recommended the colored people to make their contracts hereafter on the basis of rations and fixed wages per month, and, if such terms cannot be procured here, to emigrate to Florida, Mississippi, and other cotton regions. A slight emigration has already been established from this district to those localities. The emigrants go on contracts securing to them good rations, twelve dollars per month to first-class men, and six to women."

The report of Major J. E. Cornelius, Veteran Reserve Corps, acting assistant commissioner of bureau, district of Edisto, (which includes most of the "sea islands,") contains the following: "Contracts were made on nearly all the plantations by the first of May; on six or eight plantations only were no contracts made. There are ten plantations in the district worked by labor hired for the year, at the rate of twelve dollars per month; three more are worked by day labor, paying fifty cents per tack. The 'tack' is a measure of land containing one-fourth of an acre; in these cases the regular laborers are allowed land to plant for themselves free of expense. On four or five plantations the laborers get one-third of all the crops raised for performing the labor and finding their own provisions; the planter furnishes everything else required, and advances the provisions to the laborers at cost. One of these plantations will not produce enough to pay the cost of working it, owing, I suppose, to bad management; on the other the freedmen will receive at the end of the year excellent wages. *

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In all the above contracts the planter had the sole control of the labor and management of the crops, and, in all but one instance, the experiment has proved a complete success. The greater number of the plantations are under the control of the freedmen, each family working independent of the others, furnishing everything required to raise the crops, and giving the planter a share of the crop for the use of the land. This class of contracts has not on the whole been successful. * * The free-labor system has only been fairly tested in the district on those plantations where the owner had entire management of the crop and the control of the labor, and it has in all these cases been an entire success.

If the civil laws of this State should be rigorously enforced against the freed people from the outset, it will amount to a persecution, for the reason that bigamy, adultery, fornication, and theft have been entailed upon them by a long course of degrading servitude, and have become almost a second nature to them; they are rising rapidly above this condition, but cannot be raised at once. It is to be hoped that in dealing with them 'justice, may be tempered with mercy, and their faults patiently and kindly corrected."

From a letter recently received from a magistrate residing in Darlington district, a gentleman of high respectability and social standing, I make the following extract :

"I beg leave, respectfully, to call your attention to the fact that since the removal of the military from this post there is no court in this county to which freedmen can apply for redress of grievances, and consequently wrong can be inflicted upon them with absolute impunity. Very many of them have applied to me, but I am powerless in many cases, either as attorney or magistrate. I could furnish you with a list of cases now absolutely demanding intervention, but who is to act? In one case seventeen able-bodied hands have been discharged from a farm without pay, and the employer being only a lessee of the land, and having no real estate here, and being on the eve of closing up and removing his effects, these discharged laborers will probably lose all their wages. An attachment could be issued, but the law requires a bond from the plaintiff's for double the amount sued for, before such process can issue. The joint claim of these freedmen is over $600; who is to go on their bond for double that amount? For lack of this they must lose all. Is this the fate to which freedom invites and leads? Can the bureau do nothing? Assault and battery, and summary dismissals from plantations without pay or share of the crop, are

brought to my notice daily. If civil law could or would remedy these evils, as a native citizen, of course, I would prefer it; but it is glaringly evident that, at present, some other power must interfere. The usual process of the courts, even if available, is entirely too slow to meet many of the cases brought to my notice, and few of the negroes have the means to meet the costs usually attending litigation.

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I claim to be, and am recognized in this country, as a friend of the freedmen, but I am only such in a sense of which I am not ashamed, to wit, as an advocate of equal justice and ample protection against wrong. This, I have reason to know, is all they ask, and this the government should see that they have. It is a stupendous wrong to emancipate and then desert them. The master's interest was once their protection, but that is now gone. Even the provost courts have often wretchedly failed to do them justice, and there are prisoners now in Columbia whose only reward for making and laying by a crop has been banishment under bonds.

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"My interest in their (the freedmen's) behalf has not added to my business or popularity. *

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"I believe that, aside from humanity, the best interests of even the white population of my native State demand that the negroes should be treated kindly and justly, educated and trained for good citizenship."

Lieutenant Colonel A. G. Caraher, Veteran Reserve Corps, acting assistant commissioner of bureau, district of Laurens, makes the following statements in his report of the affairs of his district :

"There is no 'commissioner of the poor' in this district, and as yet nothing has been done by the State officials to relieve the indigent refugees and freedmen. The mass of the able-bodied freedmen have been industrious and anxious to perform their part of the contracts. I have had some trouble arising on account of the disposition of many employers to drive from their plantations the freedmen having large families, as soon as the wheat crop was gathered. In most cases I found the cause trifling, and gotten up for the occasion. Most of the freedmen contracted for a share of the crop, and owing to the almost total failure of the same in this district they have realized but little ; many of them having scarcely anything with which to commence the new year. Several applications have been made by responsible parties for the transportation of freedmen to the west. The transportation was not granted, but several families have found their way to the States of Louisiana and Arkansas, thus affording better opportunity for those who remain to find work. Freedmen complaining of wrongs committed against them are carefully instructed as to the necessary course to pursue in order to obtain redress. As the district courts do not meet until January, I cannot report any action in cases lately complained of. I doubt very much whether the rights of freedmen will be as well looked after by them as by the provost courts. Nothing has been accomplished in this district under the homestead act, few applications having been made by whites or freedmen.

The present manner of contracting and working has resulted in much good to the freedmen notwithstanding the unfairness of some of the contracts.

The form of contract used in this district is that recommended in Circular No. 3, headquarters assistant commissioner South Carolina. The affairs of freedmen in this bureau district, taken as a whole, are in good condition." The above extracts from reports will, with few exceptions, apply to all the districts of this State.

Owing to the evils of slavery, the marriage relations of the freed people have been of a painfully complicatd character; some men having two or three wives, and women as often having several husbands. Much difficulty and trouble has been the result, which required time and delicate management to overcome. The Rev. M. French, chaplain United States volunteers, who had long labored

among these people and possessed their confidence in an eminent degree, was charged with the arranging and harmonizing of these relations in accordance with General Orders No. 8, from these headquarters.

In this, as well as in his successful efforts for the moral elevation of this people, and in the widespread and varied field of his earnest labors, he has rendered much valuable assistance in carrying out the objects of the bureau, for which I tender him my thanks. (Attention invited to report, marked H.) There are serious embarrassments attending the payment of back pay and bounties to the widows and heirs of deceased colored soldiers, which are set forth in a communication from Chaplain French, (marked H.) A large number of claims have been presented for collection and have been duly forwarded, but as yet no returns have been made; the officer in charge of the collection of these claims being absent, I am unable to give full statistics. The freedmen's savings banks are in successful operation, and are very beneficial in inducing the freed people to save their money. Nearly one hundred thousand dollars have been deposited therein during the past year.

No immediate move has as yet been made to locate on homesteads in the western States, provided for in the act of Congress approved June 21, 1866, on account of contracts of the season not yet having closed, though large numbers have expressed a desire to avail themselves of the benefits of this act. The great difficulty is the want of means to support themselves and their families during the first year. In some of the districts the freedmen have selected one of their number to go and locate the lands for them, and are now awaiting the results of his invest gation. In view of the shortness of the time granted them to make their selection, and their ignorance of the necessary forms to go through with, I would respectfully recommend that good, reliable agents, in whose integrity and judgment the Commissioner has confidence, be appointed to superintend this transfer and look after the interests of the freed people; and I would also respectfully recommend that government transportation be furnished to the points where they may locate.

The lands set apart by act of Congress for those freedinen who hold land certificates under General Sherman's Special Feld Order No. 15 are now being surveyed under the directions of the United States direct tax commissioners; but no transfer of the people can be made much before the 1st day of January, 1867, as the harvest season for cotton does not close in this latitude until about that time.

In conclusion I must say that the free labor of the past year in this State, notwithstanding the ignorance of the freedmen, the want of capital, and the impracticable views of land owners, has demonstrated the fact that the same incentive which prompts the white man of the north and other countries to labor will apply to the freedmen of the south. All that is required is practical and honest men, capital and confidence on the part of the land owners, to rapidly develop the resources of a country more varied in its agricultural productions than any State in the Union, with her gold mines as rich as any on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada or Rocky mountains, together with her valuable forests and abundant water-power and harbors equal to any on the coast of the Atlantic. To develop and make valuable all these material advantages, the white propertyholders have only to forget that they were once masters, invite foreign capital, cultivate the good will and encourage the education and moral elevation of that class of their people who alone can bring to them a condition of prosperity, wealth, and happiness heretofore unknown in the south.

In closing, I deem it my duty to express my thanks to the officers of my personal staff; to Brevet Lieutenant Colonel H. W. Smith, assistant adjutant general, for the ability, faithfulness, and discretion with which he has discharged the delicate and important duties of his position; to Brevet Brigadier General B. F. Faust, acting inspector general; Brevet Lieutenant Colonel James G.

Low, chief receiving and disbursing officer; Brevet Majors E. L. Deane and E W. Everson, aide-de-camp, and assistant surgeon; J. C. G. Happersett, surgeo in-chief, for the faithfulness and ability with which they have discharged the duties devolving upon them; and to all the officers on duty in the State, as acting assistant and sub-assistant commissioners, for their cordial co-operation in carrying out the objects of the bureau.

I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your

Maj. Gen. O. O. HOWARD,

obedient servant, R.K SCOTT,

Brevet Major General and Assistant Com'r.

Commissioner, &c., Washington, D. C.

BUREAU OF REFUGEES, FREEDMEN AND ABANDONED LANDS, STATE OF TENNESSEE, OFFICE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, Nashville, Tennessee, November 1, 1866. GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the business of this office for the year ending October 31, 1866 :

The colored population of the State of Tennessee, as reported in census returns of 1860, was as follows: Free colored, black, 3,008; mulatto, 4 292; total, 7,300. Slaves, black, 238,133; mulatto, 37,586; total, 275,719. Total colored population, 283,019, being a little more than one-fourth of the whole population of Tennessee. It is believed that the colored population has not in

creased in equal proportion to the whites since that time, but that the unusual ravages of disease, losses in battle, and emigration have so nearly balanced the natural increase and emigration, that the total colored population at this time is not far from three hundred thousand, (300,000.) The care of these people, with some aid to white refugees, and the management of abandoned property, was the duty devolving upon the bureau officers at the beginning of the year. The district and its business was organized as follows: At the headquarters of the assistant commissary general, C. B. Fisk, in Nashville, Tennessee, were on duty, one assistant adjutant general, one quartermaster, a chief medical officer, and one aide-de-camp, and the necessary number of clerks, &c.

The State of Tennessee was organized into three sub-districts: Middle Tennessee, the agents in which reported direct to the office of the assistant commissioner; West Tennessee, comprising all west of the Tennessee river, under the charge of a chief superintendent, a field officer, with headquarters at Memphis; and east Tennessee, comprising the counties east of the Cumberland mountains, under the charge of a chief superintendent, a field officer, with headquarters at Chattanooga.

At the sub-district headquarters, and in five or six other localities, officers of the army were in charge of bureau affairs. In nearly all the counties of middle and west Tennessee citizen agents, designated as superintendents and appointed by the assistant commissioner, were in charge of bureau affairs.

The bureau authority was introduced into Kentucky in January, 1866, and citizen agents appointed as county superintendents in a majority of the counties, who made reports directly to the office of the assistant commissioner, but the State was not organized fully until March, 1866, when it was also organized into three sub-districts, under the charge of field officers, with headquarters at Louisville, Lexington, and Paducah, the whole under charge of a chief superintendent, Brevet Brigadier General John Ely, with headquarters at Louisville.

All citizen agents were appointed without fixing a definite salary, but were authorized by Circular No. 7, office assistant commissioner Kentucky and Tennessee, of September 18, 1865, to collect a fee of fifty cents for each contract made and registered by them, and also such costs as the civil law allows in cases adjudicated by them. They were also authorized by Circular No.1, current series, to expend so much of fines and forfeitures as might be required to procure the books and stationery for office use. Circular No. 2, current series, authorized them to retain all costs of cases adjudicated by them, and to deduct from fines collected all expenses of their office for stationery and absolute necessaries, the balance to be remitted to this office. By Circular No. 6, current series, county superintendents were authorized to charge on each single contract made and registered one dollar, and twenty-five cents for each additional laborer included in a contract. It will be seen that the county superintendents have not in general been an expense to the bureau. In Kentucky, where the agents had very much trouble, and had their time much employed, but without doing a business which remunerated them, they were paid a salary of from $50 to $100 per month.

In the State of Tennessee the superintendents of this county have been paid a salary since May, 1866, and in August seven superintendents were paid salaries amounting to $575. In September eight were paid salaries amounting to $550, and in October eight were paid $550.

To punish crimes and secure justice to the freedmen, county superintendents, both civilians and officers, held courts, in which were tried all cases arising between freedmen and between freedmen and whites. The warrants, writs, executions, &c., of these courts were served by the civil officers, except in some counties where they would not act, and in these by officers appointed by the superintendents. From these courts either party had the right of appeal to the assistant commissioner; appeals were not very frequent, nor was there very much difficulty experienced in carrying out the judgments of these courts.