While, however, the act of the assembly is thus beneficial, it makes no provision whatever for the registration or certification of these legislative marriages or legitimatized children, which, under instructions from these headquarters, has been done through many counties of Virginia by the officers of the bureau, and is still in progress. The freedmen have manifested a praiseworthy desire to live in the family relation, and members of families long separated have taken great pains to become reunited. LANDS. The number of acres of land held by the bureau at the time of last year's report was fifty-six thousand and one, (56,001.) The number held at the present time is ten thousand one hundred and eighty-six and one-half, (10,1861⁄2,) of which by far the larger part is wood-land, or land unfit for cultivation. All lands for which application has been made under the provisions of Circular 15, series 1863, War Department, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, have been restored, except about two hundred (200) acres, reserved from necessity for hospital purposes in various districts. Some of the above lands when applied for had been leased to freedmen for this present year, and were restored to the owners, subject to such leases; the rent after restoration to be paid to the owners. BOUNTIES AND PENSIONS. The number of claims presented since the last annual report is two hundred and sixty-five, (265,) and the number collected one hundred and thirty-six (136.) FINANCIAL AND QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT. The total amount of funds expended during the year is one hundred and forty thousand three hundred and forty-seven dollars and fifty-four cents ($140,347 54.) Of this amount ninety-one thousand and thirty-two dollars and forty-three cents ($91,032 43) has been received from the cultivation and rent of lands, and from other sources within the department; the balance has been drawn from the chief financial agent of the bureau at Washington. It is impossible to ascertain the value of quartermaster's property expended, it being mostly unserviceable, and not having been appraised when turned over to the bureau. The amount has, however, been small, as shown by the accompanying report of Brevet Major George Q. White, captain and assistant quartermaster of volunteers, chief quartermaster and financial agent of the bureau for the department, to which, as well as to his financial report, your attention is respectfully invited. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. This department has continued under the able and energetic charge of Surgeon J. J. De Lamater, assisted by thirteen paid and two unpaid contract physicians. At the date of the last annual report there were eleven hospitals, of which three have been discontinued. Two have been established at new points. Ten (10) are now in operation, containing six hundred and fifty-nine (659) patients, and with a capacity for accommodating ten hundred and ten (1,010.) One physician is in charge of each of these hospitals. In addition five (5) are on duty at other stations among freedmen in quarters. The amount paid during the year for physicians and hospital attendants is twenty-three thousand three hundred and eighty dollars ($23,380.) Two dispensaries have been established, at which over eighteen thousand (18,000) prescriptions have been made up. A ward for insane colored persons has been fitted up at the Howard Grove hospital near Richmond, and now contains thirty-one (31) patients. A home for the aged and infirm is also established at the last named hospital, where eighty-nine persons are receiving care. The orphan asylum near Richmond has during the year received two hun dred and five (205) orphans; of these one hundred and thirty-eight (138) have been provided homes in and sent to the northern States. The hospitals are in good condition, comparing favorably with government hospitals in general. The mortality has been considerably less among freedmen, both in hospital and in quarters, than during the last year, notwithstanding the prevalence o small-pox and cholera. The number of sick freedmen treated by regular medical officers of the bureau in hospitals and quarters throughout the department during the year has been as follows: Adult males. Adult females Children, males.. Children, females.. Total The deaths among these patients have been as follows: Adult males... 4,911 6, 182 2,725 2, 741 16, 559 Adult females Children, males... Children, females.. 320 273 146 148 887 Total..... The mortality being about five and one-third per cent. A large number of freedmen living near the bureau hospitals and stations of medical officers have been furnished with temporary medical aid and medicines without being placed on the sick list. Including all, it is probable that not less than thirty thousand freedmen have received aid during the present year from the bureau in this department. Much praise is due the local physicians throughout the State for the gratuitous service rendered freedmen when sick. In many instances, besides giving their professional services, they have furnished medicines to the freedmen at their own cost. For a more detailed statement, I respectfully refer to the accompanying report of Surgeon J. J. De Lamater. SCHOOLS. Reverend R. M. Manly has been continued in the office of superintendent of schools for the department. The year opened with one hundred and thirty-six (136) teachers and eightyfive hundred (8,500) scholars. Six months later there were two hundred and twenty-five teachers and nearly eighteen thousand scholars. The average number of teachers during the school season was one hundred and ninety-six, (196;) the average "whole attendance" of pupils fourteen thou sand, (14,000 ;) and the average "daily attendance" ten thousand three hundred and thirty, (10,330.) The largest number of schools open at any one time was one hundred and forty-five (145.) The location of these schools, it is believed, has been judicious. Their success has been most satisfactory, and has established the fact beyond question that the freedmen are as capable of acquiring at least the rudiments of an education as whites. The public sentiment against the education of the colored race is being gradually overcome. The freedmen themselves are unanimous and enthusiastic on the subject, demanding tuition, and being ready to give out of their poverty for educational purposes. The late appropriation made by Congress for this object has enabled the schools to organize at the commencement of the present season under better conditions than heretofore. The superintendence of Mr. Manly deserves high praise, and his report herewith submitted is recommended for special examination. ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. The bureau courts, constituted as described in the last general report, were continued during the first mouth of the present year. The legislature of Virginia, however, amended the laws in respect to criminal matters in the manner set forth in the following circular from these headquarters, issued March 12, 1864: [Circular No. 10.] BUREAU OF Refugees, Freedmen and ABANDONED LANDS, I. The following portion of an act entitled "An act relative to the testimony of colored persons," passed February 28, 1866, by the legislature of Virginia, is published for the information of the officers and agents of this bureau: "Be it enacted by the general assembly, That colored persons and Indians shall, if otherwise competent, and subject to the rules applicable to other persons, be admitted witnesses in the following cases: "2. In all criminal cases and proceedings at law or in equity, in which a colored person or Indian is a party, or which arise out of injury done, attempted, or threatened to the person, property, or rights of a colored person or Indian, or in which it is alleged in the presentinent, information, or indictment, or in which the court is of opinion from the other evidence, that there is probable cause to believe that the offence was committed by a white person in conjunction or cooperation with a colored person or Indian." Also the following portion of "An act to amend and re-enact the ninth section of chapter 103 of the Code of Virginia of 1860," &c.: "Be it enacted by the general assembly, That any person having one-fourth or more of negro blood shall be deemed a colored person, and every person not a colored person having one-fourth or more of Indian blood shall be deemed an Indian. "All laws in respect to crimes and punishment, and in respect to criminal proceedings, applicable to white persons, shall apply in like manner to colored persons and to Indians, unless when it is otherwise specially provided." II. From and after the reception of this order, until further orders, no criminal cases will be tried by any officer or agent of the bureau in this State, except such as may at that time have been commenced. III. It will henceforth be the duty of the assistant superintendents to attend in person the trials of all criminal cases within their jurisdiction, including criminal trials or preliminary hearings before justices of the peace or other magistrates, to which a colored person may be a party, or in which, according to the law above quoted, the testimony of a colored person may be taken. IV. When present at such trials or hearings, the assistant superintendents will not interfere at the time with the action of the court or magistrate, but will confine themselves to such friendly suggestions, made to a colored party concerned, or the counsel for the same, as may be necessary. They will not act as attorneys in such cases, or argue with the court or magistrate. They will, however, make immediate report of any instance of oppression or injustice against a colored party, whether prosecutor or defendant, and also in case the evidence of colored persons should be improperly rejected or neglected. In such cases all details possible will be forwarded. V. They will also carefully examine and report if in any instance a justice of the peace, attorney for the commonwealth, grand jury, or other authority vested with the power of allowing or regulating the institution of criminal proceedings, has refused justice to a colored person by improperly neglecting a complaint, or declining to receive on oath or sworn information tendered by such person, whereby a trial or prosecution might be prevented through par- • tiality or prejudice. VI. All superintendents and assistant superintendents will, on the last day of each month, make a detailed report of the manner in which this order, by restoring to the State authorities jurisdiction in criminal cases over colored persons, has resulted, with reference to the interests of the latter, within their respective districts and sub-districts; whether they have been treated with impartiality and fairness, and the law respecting their testimony carried out in good faith or otherwise. O. BROWN, Colonel and Assistant Commissioner. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, Richmond, Va., March 12, 1866. The foregoing order is approved, but no person of color will be examined or brought to trial on a criminal charge until he shall have had sufficient time and opportunity to notify the assistant superintendent of the Freedmen's Bureau for the sub-district of the time when, and place where, such examination or trial is to take place. By command of Major General A. H. Ferry : ED. W SMITH, Assistant Adjutant General. Upon examination of the whole code as amended it was considered that the letter of the criminal law was not unfavorable to colored persons, and the above order was issued to determine whether its execution would be equally fair. The amended provisions for colored testimony in civil cases is applicable only when "a colored person is a party, or may be directly benefited or injured by the result," and is bound by the following restriction: "The testimony of colored persons shall, in all cases and proceedings, both at law and in equity, be given ore tenus, and not by deposition, and in suits in equity, and in all other cases in which the deposition of the witness would be regularly a part of the record, the court shall, if desired by any party, or if deemed proper by itself, certify the facts proved by such witness, or the evidence given by him, as far as credited by the court, as the one or the other may be proper under the rules of law applicable to the case; and such certificate shall be made part of the record." In order that the operations of the State tribunals, in civil as well as criminal justice, should become tested while there was an opportunity for the observa-. tions and report of local officers, all the bureau courts in the State of Virginia were, on the 10th of May, closed, and the whole jurisdiction resigned to the civil authorities. The latter therefore have, through the department in general, had charge over criminal matters for eight, and over civil cases for six, months, during which time a large number of stated and special reports have been furnished to these headquarters, and, in turn, forwarded to the headquarters of the bureau. In various instances these have been accompanied with transcripts from the records, or authenticated by signatures of magistrates and other civil officials. The result, as shown by these reports, is that, in civil cases, the higher courts and the juries in the more populous centres have generally given justice to the freedmen. In rural districts, where the justices of the peace have jurisdiction in disputes about wages, there has been, in some cases, an undue partiality toward the whites. Many freedmen, unjustly turned away, whose contracts have been broken by the white party hiring them, are thus left without remedy, and in numerous instances are unable to collect wages due which are not disputed. In regard to criminal jurisdiction the result is, that while, in probably the majority of instances, the freedmen have not suffered injustice in consequence of the above transfer to the State authorities, it is unfortunately true that in many cases injustice has been done them. Justices of the peace have frequently refused to entertain complaints made by the freedmen, and also have in some cases given decisions manifestly partial. In general, for an outrage upon a freedman by a white person, if there is conviction, the maximum of evidence is required and the minimum of punishment awarded, and it is believed that many verdicts and sentences have been given which would have been different if the status of the complainant and defendant with regard to color had been reversed. This is more obvious outside of the large cities and towns, where there is less publicity and less military influence. It is exhibited in trials and sentences for all grades of crimes, from murder to petty larceny. One mode of punishing the latter offence is by whipping, which can, by the letter of the law, be inflicted upon white persons as well as colored; but from the unfrequency of its infliction upon white criminals, as well as the unequal style of application, it is evident that the show of impartiality in the law is evaded, and that practically the negroes are the only sufferers from this barbarous and demoralizing mode of punishment. The magistrates of the counties of Elizabeth City, York, and Nansemond refused to administer justice, and those districts being left wholly without law or order, it was necessary to re-establish bureau courts within these localities. This was done in last July, upon the following plan: that the assistant superintendents should invite the senior magistrate of the county to sit upon the court, (in case of his refusal, the invitation to be extended to each magistrate of order of seniority,) who, with the assistant superintendent, should choose a third party, the three constituting the court. The courts thus established have been successful in their working, and command the respect of the communities. DIFFICULTIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS. By your circular calling for this report, it is required that "difficulties in the way of success " and " recommendations for the future" should be submitted in addition to the statement of facts. The bureau organization, including the division of the State into districts and sub-districts, with the plan of inspections and system of reports, has worked well, and no change can be suggested. It is, however, strongly recommended |
