tled to the privilege of the elective franchise, | insurrection against the United States with intent subject to the following exceptions and disqualifications, to wit:

First. Said voter shall have never borne arms against the Government of the United States for the purpose of aiding the late rebellion, nor have voluntarily given aid, comfort, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to any rebellion against the authority of the United States Governiment, nor aided, countenanced, or encouraged acts of hostility thereto.

Second. That said voter shall have never sought, or voluntarily accepted, any office, civil or military, or attempted to exercise the functions of any office, civil or military, under the authority or pretended authority of the so-called Confederate States of America, or of any insurrectionary State whatever, hostile or opposed to the authority of the United States Government, with the intent and desire to aid said rebellion or insurrectionary authority.

to aid the rebellion, or who ever held office in the State of Tennessee of legislative, judicial, or executive character, under an oath to support the constitution of the State of Tennessee, and who violated said oath, and gave voluntary aid or countenance to the rebellion, that each and all be excluded from all offices, State, county, or municipal.

It also provides that any qualified voter shall not be excluded from office by the provisions of this bill, as amended.

May —The Senate rejected a suffrage bill, 16 to 5, which proposed to allow all blacks and whites of legal age to vote, and exclude all, after 1875, who cannot read.

May 28-The Legislature adjourned until November 28.

TEXAS. 1865, June 17-Andrew J. Hamilton appointed Provisional Governor.

Third. That said voter shall have never voluntarily supported any pretended government, 1866, March -Convention met. power, or authority hostile or inimical to the au- April 2-Convention adjourned. The Conthority of the United States, by contributions in stitution to be voted on, June 5. It abolishes money or property, by persuasion or influence, slavery, and annuls the Secession Ordinance. or in any other way whatever: Provided, That The war debt has been repudiated. Five years the foregoing restrictions and disqualifications residence required for eligibility to the Legislashall not apply to any white citizen who may ture. White population is the basis of reprehave served in and been honorably discharged sentation for State purposes. An ordinance from the army or navy of the United States passed exempting all persons who, under ausince the 1st day of January, 1862, nor to those thority of civil or military power, had inflicted who voted in the Presidential election in No-injury upon persons during the war, from acvember, 1864, or voted in the election for "rati-countability therefor.

fication or rejection" in February, 1865, or voted
in the election held on the 4th day of March of
the same year for Governor and members of the
Legislature, nor to those who have been appointed this telegram to

ARKANSAS.

1865, October 30-President Johnson sent Governor Isaac Murphy,

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
October 30, 1865.

to any civil or military office by Andrew John-elected Governor under the free State organison, Military Governor, or William G. Brown-zation formerly made. low, Governor of Tennessee, all of whom are hereby declared to be qualified voters upon their complying with the requirements of this act: Provided, That this latter clause shall not apply to any commission issued upon any election which may have been held.

SEC. 2. That the Governor of the State shall, within sixty days after the passage of this act, appoint a commissioner of registration for each and every county in the State, who shall, without delay, enter upon the discharge of his duties, and who shall have full power to administer the necessary oaths provided by this act.

To Gov. MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas:
There will be no interference with your pres
ent organization of State government. I have
learned from E. W. Gantt, Esq., and other
sources, that all is working well, and you will
proceed and resume the former relations with
the Federal Government, and all the aid in the
power of the Government will be given in re-
storing the State to its former relations.

ANDREW JOHNSON, Pres't of the U. S.

LOUISIANA.

There was no interference with the State organization formerly made.

May 19-A bill was passed to disqualify certain persons from holding office, civil or military. It excludes those persons who held civil or diplomatic offices, or were agents of the so called 1865, November J. M. Wells was elected Confederate States, or who left judicial stations Governor, and Albert Voorhis, Lieut. Governor under the United States, or the State of Tennes- November 23-Legislature met in extra sessee, to aid the rebellion, or who were military sion again, under proclamation of the Governor. or naval officers of the so-called Confederate December 22-Legislature adjourned. States, above the rank of captain in the army, 1866, March -J. T. Monroe elected mayor of or lieutenant in the navy, or who left seats in New Orleans, and James O. Nixon an alderman. the United States Congress, or seats in the Legis- March 19-General Canby issued an order lature of the State of Tennessee, to aid the rebel-suspending them from the exercise of any of the lion, or who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States and afterward gave voluntary aid to the rebellion, or who absented themselves from the State of Tennessee to give such aid, or who held offices under the States in

functions of these offices until the pleasure of the President he made known-as they come within the excepted class of the President's proclamation. They were subsequently pardonel, on application, and took the offices.

IV.

LEGISLATION RESPECTING FREEDMEN.

NORTH CAROLINA.

Marriage between white persons and persons of color shall be void: and every person authorized to solemnize the rites of matrimony, who shall knowingly solemnize the same between such persons, and every clerk of a court who shall knowingly issue license for their marriage, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, moreover, shall pay a penalty of five hundred dollars to any person suing for the same.

the value of ten dollars or more, and all contracts 1866, March 10-The act" concerning negroes, executed or executory between such persons for and persons of color, or of mixed blood," passed the payment of money of the value of ten dolby the Legislature, declares that "negroes and lars or more, shall be void as to all persons whattheir issue, even where one ancestor in each suc-ever, unless the same be put in writing and ceeding generation to the fourth inclusive, is signed by the vendors or debtors, and witnessed white, shall be deemed persons of color." It by a white person who can read and write. gives them all the privileges of white persons before the courts in the mode of prosecuting, defending, continuing, removing, and transferring their suits at law and in equity, and makes them eligible as witnesses, when not otherwise incompetent, in "all controversies at law and in equity where the rights of persons or property of persons of color shall be put in issue, and would be concluded by the judgment or decree of court; and also in pleas of the State, where the violence, fraud, or injury alleged shall be charged to have been done by or to persons of color. In all other civil and criminal cases such evidence shall be deemed inadmissible, unless by consent of the parties of record: Provided, That this section shall not go into effect until jurisdiction in matters relating to freedmen shall be fully committed to the courts of this State: Provided fur-report to the probate courts of their respective ther, That no person shall be deemed incompetent to bear testimony in such cases, because of being a party to the record or in interest."

MISSISSIPPI.

An Act to regulate the Relation of Master and Apprentice relative to Freedmen, Free Negroes, and Mulattoes, November 22, 1865.

SEC. 1 provides that it shall be the duty of all sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other civil officers of the several counties in this State to

counties semi-annually, at the January and July terms of said courts, all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, under the age of eighteen, within their respective counties, beats, or districts, who are orphans, or whose parent or parents have not the means, or who refuse to provide for and support said minors, and thereupon it shall be the duty of said probate court to order the clerk of said court to apprentice said minors to some competent and suitable person, on such terms as the court may direct, having a particular care to the interest of said minors: Provided, That the former owner of said minors shall have the preference when, in the opinion of the court, he or she shall be a suitable person for that purpose.

The criminal laws of the State are extended in their operation to embrace persons of color, and the same punishment is inflicted on them as on the whites, except for rape, which, if a white female is the victim, is a capital crime for a black. The law regarding apprentices is so amended as to make its provisions applicable to blacks, but it gives the former masters the preference, and declares that they should be regarded as the most suitable persons. Provision is also made for legalizing the marriages of the blacks contracted during slavery, and for punishment of illicit cohabitation. All which is modified by a proviso that the act shall not take effect until SEC. 2 provides that the said court shall be after the Freedmen's Bureau is removed. Where fully satisfied that the person or persons to whom men and women, lately slaves, now cohabit to- said minor shall be apprenticed shall be a suitagether in the relation of husband and wife, they ble person to have the charge and care of said shall be deemed to have been lawfully married minor, and fully to protect the interest of said at the time of the commencement of such cohabi-minor: Provided, That said apprentice shall tation; and they are required to go before the clerk of the county court, acknowledge the cohabitation, of which record shall be made, and shall be prima facie evidence of the statements made.

All contracts between any persons whatever, whereof one or more of them shall be a person of color, for the sale or purchase of any horse, mule, ass, jennet, neat cattle, hog, sheep, or goat, whatever may be the value of such articles, and all contracts between such persons for any other article or articles of property whatever of

be bound by indenture, in case of males until they are twenty-one years old, and in case of females until they are eighteen years old.

SEC. 3 provides that in the management and control of said apprentices said master or mis tress shall have power to inflict such moderate corporeal chastisement as a father or guardian is allowed to inflict on his or her child or ward at common law: Provided, That in no case shall cruel or inhuman punishment be inflicted.

SEC. 4 provides that if any apprentice shall leave the employment of his or her master or

free negro not exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding six months.

SEC. 3 gives all justices of the peace, mayors, and aldermen jurisdiction to try all questions of vagrancy, and it is made their duty to arrest parties violating any provisions of this act, investigate the charges, and, on conviction, punish as provided. It is made the duty of all sheriffs, constables, town constables, city marshals, and all like officers, to report to some officer having jurisdiction all violations of any of the provisions of this act, and it is made the duty of the county courts to inquire if any officer has neglected any of these duties, and if guilty to fine him not exceeding $100, to be paid into the county treasury.

mistress, without his or her consent, said mas- | prisoned, at the discretion of the court, the ter of mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice, and bring him or her before any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to remand said apprentice to the service of his or her master or mistress; and in the event of a refusal on the part of said apprentice so to return, then said justice shall commit said apprentice to the jail of said county, on failure to give bond, until the next term of the county court; and it shall be the duty of said court, at he first term thereafter, to investigate said case, and if the court shall be of opinion that said apprentice left the employment of his or her master or mistress without good cause, to order him or her to be punished, as provided for the punishment of hired freedmen, as may be from time to time provided for by law for desertion, SEC. 5 provides that all fines and forfeitures until he or she shall agree to return to his or collected under the provisions of this act shall her master or mistress: Provided, That the be paid into the county treasury for general court may grant continuances, as in other cases: county purposes, and in case any freedman, free And provided further, That if the court shall negro or mulatto, shall fail for five days after believe that said apprentice had good cause to the imposition of any fine or forfeiture upon quit his said master or mistress, the court shall him or her, for violation of any of the provisdischarge said apprentice from said indenture, ions of this act to pay the same, that it shall be, and also enter a judgment against the master or and is hereby made, the duty of the sheriff of mistress, for not more than one hundred dol- the proper county to hire out said freedman, lars, for the use and benefit of said apprentice, free negro or mulatto, to any person who will, to be collected on execution, as in other cases. for the shortest period of service, pay said SEC. 5 provides that if any person entice away fine or forfeiture and all costs: Provided, A prefany apprentice from his or her master or mis-erence shall be given to the employer, if there tress, or shall knowingly employ an apprentice, or furnish him or her food or clothing, without the written consent of his or her master or mistress, or shall sell or give said apprentice ardent spirits without such consent, said person so of fending shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall on conviction thereof before the county court, be punished as provided for the punishment of persons enticing from their employer hired freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes. SEC. 6 makes it the duty of all civil officers to report any minors within their respective counties to said probate court for apprenticeship.

SEC. 9 provides that it shall be lawful for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, having a minor child or children, to apprentice the said minor child or children as provided for by this act.

SEC. 10 provides that in all cases where the age of the freedman, free negro, or mulatto cannot be ascertained by record testimony, the judge of the county court shall fix the age.

The Vagrant Act, November 24, 1865. SEC. 1 defines who are vagrants. SEC. 2 provides that all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes in this State, over the age of eighteen years, found on the second Monday in January, 1866, or thereafter, with no lawful employment or business, or found unlawfully assembling themselves together, either in the day or night time, and all white persons so assembling with freedmen, free negroes, or mu lattoes, or usually associating with freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes on terms of equality, or living in adultery or fornication with a freedwoman, free negro, or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in the sum of not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free negro or mulatto, fifty doilars, and a white man two hundred dollars and im-'

be one, in which case the employer shall be entitled to deduct and retain the amount so paid from the wages of such freedman, free negro or mulatto, then due or to become due; and in case such freedman, free negro or mulatto cannot be hired out, he or she may be dealt with as a pauper.

SEC. 6 provides that the same duties and liabilities existing among white persons of this State shall attach to freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes, to support their indigent families and all colored paupers; and that in order to secure a support for such indigent freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes, it shall be lawful, and it is hereby made the duty of the boards of county police of each county in this State, to levy a poll or capitation tax on each and every freedman, free negro or mulatto, between the ages of eighteen and sixty years, not to exceed the sum of one dollar annually to each person so taxed, which tax when collected shall be paid into the county treasurer's hands, and constitute a fund to be called the freedmen's pauper fund, which shall be applied by the commissioners of the poor for the maintenance of the poor of the freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes, of this State, under such regulations as may be established by the boards of the county police in the respective counties of this State.

SEC. 7 provides that if any freedman, free negro or mulatto shall fail or refuse to pay any tax levied according to the provisions of the sixth section of this act, it shall be prima facie evidence of vagrancy, and it shall be the duty of the sheriff to arrest such freedman, free negro or mulatto, or such persons refusing or neglecting to pay such tax, and proceed at once to hire, for the shortest time, such delinquent tax-payer to any one who will pay the said tax, with the accruing costs, giving preference to the employer, if there be one.

of his beat, authorizing him or her to do irregu lar and job work, or a written contract, as provided in section six of this act; which licenses may be revoked for cause at any time by the authority granting the same.

An Act to confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, | village, from the member of the board of police and for other Purposes, November 25, 1865. SECTION 1 provides that all freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes may sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded in all the courts of law and equity of this State, and may acquire personal property and choses in action by descent or purchase, and may dispose of the same in the same manner and to the same extent that white persons may: Provided, That the provisions of this section shall not be so construed as to allow any freedman, free negro or mulatto to rent or lease any lands or tenements, except in incorporated towns or cities, in which places the corporate authorities shall control the same.

SEC. 2 provides that all freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes may intermarry with each other in the same manner and under the same regulations that are provided by law for white persons: Provided, That the clerk of probate shall keep separate records of the same.

SEC. 6 provides that all contracts for labor made with freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, for a longer period than one month, shall be in writing and in duplicate, attested and read to said freedman, free negro, or mulatto by a beat, city, or county officer or two disinterested white persons of the county in which the labor is to be performed, of which each party shall have one; and said contracts shall be taken and held as entire contracts, and if the laborer shall quit the service of the employer before the expi ration of his term of service without good cause, he shall forfeit his wages for that year up to the time of quitting.

SEC. 7. provides that every civil officer shall, SEC. 3 further provides that all freedmen, free and every person may arrest and carry back to negroes and mulattoes, who do now and have his or her legal employer any freedman, free neheretofore lived and cohabited together as hus-gro, or mulatto who shall have quit the service band and wife shall be taken and held in law as legally married, and the issue shall be taken and held as legitimate for all purposes. That it shall not be lawful for any freedman, free negro or mulatto to intermarry with any white person; nor for any white person to intermarry with any freedman, free negro or mulatto; and any person who shall so intermarry shall be deemed guilty of felony, and on conviction thereof, shall be confined in the State penitentiary for life; and those shall be deemed freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes who are of pure negro blood, and those descended from a negro to the third generation, inclusive, though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person.

of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause; and said officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting employé aforesaid the sum of five dollars, and ten cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place of delivery, and the same shall be paid by the employer and held as a set-off for so much against the wages of said deserting employé: Provided, T t said arrested party after being so returned may appeal to a justice of the peace or member of the board of the police of the county, who, on notice to the alleged employer, shall try, summarily, whether said appellant is legally employed by the alleged employer and has good cause to quit said employer; either party shall have the right of appeal to the county court, pending which the alleged deserter shall be remanded to the alleged employer, or otherwise disposed of as shall be right and just; and the decision of the county court shall be final.

SEC. 4 provides that in addition to cases in which freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes are now by law competent witnesses, freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes shall be competent in civil cases, when a party or parties to the suit, either plaintiff or plaintiffs, defendant or defendants; also in cases where freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes are either plaintiff or plaintiffs, SEC. 8 provides that upon affidavit made by defendant or defendants, and a white person or the employer of any freedman, free negro, or white persons is or are the opposing party or mulatto, or other credible person, before any parties, plaintiff or plaintiffs, defendant or de- justice of the peace or member of the board fendants. They shall also be competent wit-of police, that any freedman, free negro, or nesses in all criminal prosecutions where the mulatto legally employed by said employer, crime charged is alleged to have been com- has illegally deserted said employment, such mitted by a white person upon or against justice of the peace or member of the board the person or property of a freedman, free of police shall issue his warrant or warrants, negro or mulatto: Provided, That in all cases returnable before himself or other such officer, said witnesses shall be examined in open court directed to any sheriff, constable, or special on the stand, except, however, they may be deputy, commanding him to arrest said deexamined before the grand jury, and shall in serter and return him or her to said employer, all cases be subject to the rules and tests of the and the like proceedings shall be had as provided common law as to competency and credibility. in the preceding section; and it shall be lawful SEC. 5 provides that every freedman, free for any officer to whom such warrant shall be negro, and mulatto shall on the second Mon-irected to execute said warrant in any county day of January, one thousand eight hundred and f this State, and that said warrant may be sixty-six, and annually thereafter, have a law-transmitted without indorsement to any like ful home or employment, and shall have writ-officer of another county to be executed and reten evidence thereof, as follows, to wit: If liv- turned as aforesaid, and the said employer shall ing in any incorporated city, town, or village, pay the cost of said warrants and arrest and rea license from the mayor thereof, and if living turn, which shall be set off for so much against outside of any incorporated city, town, or the wages of said deserter.

SEC. 9 provides that if any person shall persuade, or attempt to persuade, entice, or cause any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to desert from the legal employment of any person before the expiration of his or her term of service, or shall knowingly employ any such deserting freedman, free negro, or mulatto, or shall knowingly give or sell to any such deserting freedman, free negro, or mulatto any food, raiment, or other thing, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars and not more than two hundred dollars and the costs; and if said fine and costs shall not be immediately paid, the court shall sentence said convict to not exceeding two months' imprisonment in the county jail, and he or she shall, moreover, be liable to the party injured in damages: Provided, If any person shall, or shall attempt to, persuade, entice, or cause any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to desert from any legal employment of any person with the view to employ said freedman, free negro, or mulatto without the limits of this State, such person, on conviction, shall be fined not less than fifty dollars and not more than five hundred dollars and costs; and if said fine and costs shall not be immediately paid the court shall sentence said convict to not exceeding six months' imprisonment in the county jail.

SEC. 10 provides that it shall be lawful for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to charge any white person, freedman, free negro, or mulatto, by affidavit, with any criminal offence against his or her person or property, and upon such affidavit the proper process shall be issued and executed as if said affidavit was made by a white person, and it shall be lawful for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, in any action, suit, or controversy pending or about to be instituted in any court of law or equity in this State, to make

all needful and lawful affidavits as shall be ne

cessary for the institution, prosecution, or de

fence of such suit or controversy.

free negro or mulatto, for the shortest time to raise the amount necessary to discharge said freedman, free negro or mulatto from all costs, fines, and jail fees aforesaid.

An Act to punish certain Offences therein named,
and for other purposes, November 29, 1865.
free negro, or mulatto, not in the military ser
SEC. 1. Be it enacted, &c., That no freedman,
vice of the United States Government, and not
licensed to do so by the board of police of his or
her county, shall keep or carry fire-arms of any
and on conviction thereof, in the county court,
kind, or any ammunition, dirk, or bowie-knife;
shall be punished by fine, not exceeding ten dol-
lars, and pay the costs of such proceedings, and
all such arms or ammunition shall be forfeited to
the informer; and it shall be the duty of every
civil and military officer to arrest any freedman,
free negro, or mulatto found with any such arms

for trial in default of bail.
or ammunition, and cause him to be committed

SEC. 2. That any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, committing riots, routes, affrays, trespasses, malicious mischief and cruel treatment to animals, seditious speeches, insulting gestures, language, or acts, or assaults on any person, disturbance of of the gospel without a license from some reguthe peace, exercising the functions of a minister intoxicating liquors, or committing any other larly organized church, vending spirituous or misdemeanor, the punishment of which is not specifically provided for by law, shall, upon conviction thereof, in the county court, be fined not less than ten dollars, and not more than one hundred dollars, and may be imprisoned, at the dis cretion of the court, not exceeding thirty days.

SEC. 3. That if any white person shall sell, lend, or give to any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, any fire-arms, dirk, or bowie-knife, or ammunition, or any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, such person or persons so offending, upon conviction thereof, in the county court of his or her. county, shall be fined not exceeding fifty dollars, and may be imprisoned, at the discretion of the

SEC. 11 provides that the penal laws of this State, in all cases not otherwise specially provided for, shall apply and extend to all freed-court, not exceeding thirty days. men, free negroes, and mulattoes.

An Act Supplementary to "An Act to confer Civil Rights upon Freedmen," and for other purposes, December 2, 1865.

SEC. 1 provides that in every case where any white person has been arrested and brought to trial, by virtue of the provisions of the tenth section of the above recited act, in any court in this State, upon sufficient proof being made to the court or jury, upon the trial before said court, that any freedman, free negro or mulatto has falsely and maliciously caused the arrest and trial of said white person or persons, the court shall render up a judgment against said freedman, free negro or mulatto for all costs of the case, and impose a fine not to exceed fifty dollars, and imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed twenty days; and for a failure of said freedmen, free negro or mulatto to pay, or cause to be paid, all costs, fines and jail fees, the sheriff of the county is hereby authorized and required, aiter giving ten days' public notice, to proceed to hire out at public outcry, at the court-house of the county, said freedman,

SEC. 4. That all the penal and criminal laws now in force in this State, defining offences, and prescribing the mode of punishment for crimes and misdemeanors committed by slaves, free negroes or mulattoes, be and the same are hereby re-enacted, and declared to be in full force and effect, against freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, except so far as the mode and manner of trial and punishment have been changed or altered by law.

SEC. 5. That if any freedman, free negro or mulatto, convicted of any of the misdemeanors provided against in this act, shall fail or refuse, for the space of five days after conviction, to pay the fine and costs imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheriff or other officer, at prblic outcry, to any white person who will pay aid fine and all costs, and take such convict for the shortest time.

GEORGIA.

1865, December 15-Free persons of color aro made competent witnesses in all courts in cases where a free person of color is a party, or the offence charged is against the person or property