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he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon | exceeding thirty-nine stripes. An assault upon conviction shall be fined in a sum not exceeding a white female, with intent to commit a rape, or one thousand dollars, or shall stand in the pillo- being accessory thereto, is punishable with death. ry not more than three hours, or be whipped An Act Prescribing additional Penalties for the not more than thirty-nine stripes on the bare Commission of Offenses against the State, Janback, at the discretion of the jury. uary 15, 1866.

SEC. 6 applies the provisions of this act to all contracts between employers and employés relating to the lumber, rafting, or milling business, and to all other contracts with persons of color to do labor and to perform service.

An Act prescribing additional Penalties for the Commission of Offences against the State, and for other purposes, January 15, 1866.

SEC. 1 provides that whenever in the criminal laws of this State, heretofore enacted, the punishment of the offence is limited to fine and imprisonment, or to fine or imprisonment, there shall be superadded, as an alternative, the punishment of standing in the pillory for an hour, or whipping not exceeding thirty-nine stripes on the bare back, or both, at the discretion of the jury.

SEC. 3 makes a felony, punishable with death, the exciting, or attempting to excite, by writing, speaking, or by other means, an insurrection or sedition amongst any portion or class of the population.

SEC. 12 makes it unlawful for any negro, mulatto, or person of color to own, use, or keep in possession or under control any bowie-knife, dirk, sword, fire-arms, or ammunition of any kind, unless by license of the county judge of probate, under a penalty of forfeiting them to the informer, and of standing in the pillory one hour, or be whipped not exceeding thirty-nine stripes, or both, at the discretion of the jury.

SEC. 14 forbids colored and white persons respectively from intruding upon each other's public assemblies, religious or other, or public vehicle set apart for their exclusive use, under punishment of pillory or stripes, or both.

SEC. 15 provides that persons forming a military organization not authorized by law, or aiding or abetting it, shall be fined not exceed ing $1,000 and imprisonment not exceeding six months, or be pilloried for one hour, and be whipped not exceeding thirty-nine stripes, at the discretion of the jury-the penalties to be threefold upon persons who accepted offices in such organizations.

SEC. 19 prohibits any person from hunting

within the enclosure of another without his consent, under penalty of a fine of $1,000, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or the pillory for one hour, and being whipped not exceeding thirty-nine stripes. So, if a person takes, rides, or uses any horse, mule, ass, or ox, without the consent of the owner, whether the person so using is in the employ of the owner or not: so, by SEC. 17, if a person shall move into any tenant house or other building without leave of the person in charge, or illegally take possession of any church or school-house, educational or charitable building, or cut down trees exceeding $1 in value, with a view to convert the same to his own use. Burglary is punishable with death, or fine of $1,000 and imprisonment not exceeding six months, or standing in the pillory one hour, and being whipped not

SEC. 12 provides that it shall not be lawful for any negro, mulatto, or other person of color, to own, use, or keep in his possession or under his control any bowie-knife, dirk, sword, fire-arms, or ammunition of any kind, unless he first obtain a license to do so from the judge of probate of the county in which he be a resimay dent for the time being; and the said judge of probate is hereby authorized to issue license, upon the recommendation of two respectable citizens of the county, certifying to the peaceful and orderly character of the applicant; and any negro, mulatto, or other person of color, so offending, shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall forfeit to the use of the informer all such fire-arms and ammunition, and in addition thereto, shall be sentenced to stand in the pillory for one hour, or be whipped, not exceeding thirty-nine stripes, or both, at the discretion of the jury.

SEC. 14 provides that if any negro, mulatto, or other person of color, shall intrude himself into any religious or other public assembly of white persons, or into any railroad car or other public vehicle set apart for the exclusive accommodation of white people, he shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be sentenced to stand in the pillory for one hour, or be whipped, not exceeding thirty-nine stripes, or both, at the discretion of the jury; nor shall it be lawful for any white person to intrude himself into any religious or other public assembly of colored persons, or into any railroad car or other public vehicle, set apart for the exclusive accommodation of persons of color, under the same penalties. An Act to Raise a Revenue for the State of

Florida, January 16, 1866.

three dollars upon every male inhabitant beSECTION 1 imposes a yearly capitation tax of tween twenty-one and ifty-five, except paupers and insane or idiotic persons. In default of payment the tax collector is hereby authorized and required to seize the body of the said delinnotice, before the door of the public court-house, and hire him out, after five days' public quent to any person who will pay the said tax and the costs incident to the proceedings growing out of said arrest, and take him into his service for the shortest period of time: Provided, That if said delinquent be in the employment of another the said employer may pay the tax and costs, and the said payment shall be good as a credit against the amount that may be due by the employer as wages to the said delinquent. An Act Concerning Schools for Freedmen, January 16, 1866.

Provision is made for schools for freedmensupported by a tax of one dollar upon all male persons of color between twenty-one and fiftyfive, and a tuition fee to be collected from each pupil-the schools to be in charge of a superintendent and assistants; no person to teach with

out a certificate; and the fee, five dollars, to go to the school fund for freedmen, and the certificate good for one year, subject to be cancelled by the superintendent for incompetency, immorality or other sufficient cause. The superintendent "to establish schools for freedmen when the number of children of persons of color in any county or counties will warrant the same: Provided, The funds provided for shall be sufficient to meet the expenses thereof."

By another act, the interest from the school fund of the State is applied to the education of indigent white children.

An Act concerning Testimony, January 16, 1866. SECTION 3 provides that this act shall not be construed to authorize the testimony of colored persons to be taken by depositions in writing or upon written interrogatories, otherwise than in such manner as will enable the court or jury to judge of the credibility of the witness.

VIRGINIA.

These are some of the provisions in the recently-enacted laws of Virginia respecting colored persons:

That no contract between a white person and a colored person, for the labor or service of the latter for a longer period than two months, shall be binding on such colored person, unless the contract be in writing, signed by such white person or his agent and by such colored person, and duly acknowledged before a justice or notary public, or clerk of the county or corporation court, or overseer of the poor, or two or more credible witnesses, in the county or corporation court in which the white person may reside, or in which the labor or service it to be performed. And it shall be the duty of the justice, notary, clerk or overseer of the poor, or the witnesses, to read and explain the contract to the colored person, before taking his acknowledgment thereof, and to state that this has been done in the certificate of acknowledgment of the contract.

"25. The writing by which any minor is bound an apprentice, shall specify his age, and what art, trade, or business he is to be taught. The master, whether it is expressly provided therein or not, shall be bound to teach him the same, and shall also be bound to teach him reading, writing, and common arithmetic, including the rule of three."

The marital relation between colored persons is regulated by law. The colored person must procure a license the same as the whites, and persons celebrating a marriage are obliged to report it to the county clerks, and whether white or colored.

age of this act. And when the parties have ceased to cohabit before the passage of this act, in consequence of the death of the woman, or from any other cause, all the children of the woman, recognized by the man to te his, shall be deemed legitimate.

Bigamy, too, is punished in the case of the negro as of the white person, and also intermarriage within the prohibited degrees. And all persons officiating in the rites of marriage without due authority of law are punished by fine and imprisonment.

Under the old code these provisions applied only to white persons.

Be it enacted, That every 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.

2. All laws in respect to crimes and punishments, 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.

3. The following acts and parts of acts are hereby repealed, namely: All acts and parts of acts relating to slaves and slavery; chapter one hundred and seven of the code of eighteen hundred and sixty, relating to free negroes; chapter two hundred of said code relating to offences by negroes; chapter two hundred and twelve of said code, relating to proceedings against negroes; chapter ninety-eight of said code, relating to patrols; sections twenty-five to fortyseven, both inclusive, of chapter one hundred ninety-two of said code; sections twenty-six to thirty, both inclusive, and sections thirty-three to thirty-seven, both inclusive, of chapter one hundred and ninety-eight of said code; the fifth paragraph, as enumerated in section two of chapter two hundred and three, of said code; all acts and parts of acts imposing on negroes the penalty of stripes, where the same penalty is not imposed on white persons; and all other acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.

January 24-General Terry issued this order: The Virginia Vagrant Act-General Terry orders

its Non-Enforcement.

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GENERAL ORDERS-NO 4. HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF VA., RICHMOND, January 24, 1866. By a statute passed at the present session of the Legislature of Virginia, entitled A bill providing for the punishment of vagrants," it is enacted, among other things, that any justice of the peace, upon the complaint of any one Where colored persons, before the passage of of certain officers therein named, may issue his this act, shall have undertaken and agreed to warrant for the apprehension of any person aloccupy the relation to each other of husband leged to be a vagrant and cause such person to and wife, and shall be cohabiting together as be apprehended and brought before him; and such at the time of its passage, whether the rites of that if upon due examination said justice of the marriage shall have been celebrated between them peace shall find that such person is a vagrant or not, they shall be deemed husband and wife, within the definition of vagrancy contained in and be entitled to the rights and privileges, and said statute, he shall issue his warrant, directing subject to the duties and obligations, of that re- such person to be employed for a term not exlation in like manner as if they had been duly ceeding three months, and by any constable of married, and all their children shall be deemed the county wherein the proceedings are had be legitimate, whether born before or after the pass-hired out for the best wages which can be pro

cured, his wages to be applied to the support of himself and his family. The said statute further provides, that in case any vagrant so hired shall, during his term of service, run away from his employer without sufficient cause, he shall be apprehended on the warrant of a justice of the peace and returned to the custody of his employer, who shall then have, free from any other hire, the services of such vagrant for one month in addition to the original terms of hiring, and that the employer shall then have power, if authorized by a justice of the peace, to work such vagrant with ball and chain. The said statute specifies the persons who shall be considered vagrants and liable to the penalties imposed by it. Among those declared to be vagrants are all persons who, not having the wherewith to support their families, live idly and without employment, and refuse to work for the usual and common wages given to other laborers in the like work in the place where they are.

colored person or an Indian is a party, or which arise out of an 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 presentment, information, or indictments, 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 co-operation with a colored person or Indian.

3. 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 regularly be part of the record, the court shall, if desired by any party, or if deemed prover by itself, certify the facts proved by such witnesses, 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 mile part of the record.

March 4-The Legislature adjourned.

TENNESSEE.

1866, January 25-This bill became a law: That persons of African and Indian descent are hereby declared to be competent witnesses in all the courts of this State, in as full a manner as such persons are by an act of Congress competent witnesses in all the courts of the United States, and all laws and parts of laws of the State excluding such persons from competency are hereby repealed: Provided, however, That this act shall not be so construed as to give colored persons the right to vote, hold office, or sit on juries in this State; and that this provision is inserted by virtue of the provision of the 9th section of the amended constitution, ratified February 22, 1865.

In many counties of this State meetings of employers have been held, and unjust and wrongful combinations have been entered into for the purpose of depressing the wages of the freedmen below the real value of their labor, far below the prices formerly paid to masters for labor performed by their slaves. By reason of these combinations wages utterly inadequate to the support of themselves and families have, in many places, become the usual and common wages of the freedmen. The effect of the statute in question will be, therefore, to compel the freedmen, under penalty of punishment as criminals, to accept and labor for the wages established by these combinations of employers. It places them wholly in the power of their employers, and it is easy to foresee that, even where no such combination now exists, the temptation to form them offered by the statute will be too strong to be resisted, and that such inadequate wages will become the common and persons of color," usual wages throughout the State. The ulti- and to declare the rights of such persons. mate effect of the statute will be to reduce the SEC. 1. That all negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes, freedmen to a condition of servitude worse than and their descendants, having any African blood that from which they have been emancipated-in their veins, shall be known in this State as a condition which will be slavery in all but its"

name.

It is therefore ordered that no magistrate, civil officer or other person shall in any way or manner apply or attempt to apply the provisions of said statute to any colored person in this department.

By command of Major General A. H. TERRY,

ED. W. SMITH, Assistant Adjutant General. January 26-President Johnson refused to interfere with this order. The Legislature took no further action on the question.

February 28-This bill passed in relation to the testimony of colored persons:

Be it enacted, That colored persons and Indians shall, if otherwise competent, and subject to the rules applicable to other persons, be admitted as witnesses in the following cases:

May 26-This bill became a law:
An act to define the term “

'persons of color."

SEC. 2. That persons of color shall have the right to make and enforce contracts, to sue and be sued, to be parties and give evidence, to inherit, and to have full and equal benefits of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and estate, and shall not be subject to any other or different punishment, pains, or penalty, for the commission of any act or offence than such as are prescribed for white persons committing like acts or offences.

SEC. 3. That all persons of color, being blind, deaf and dumb, lunatics, paupers, or apprentices, shall have the full and perfect benefit and application of all laws regulating and providing for white persons, being blind, or deaf and dumb, or lunatics or paupers, or either (in asylums for their benefit) and apprentices.

1. In all civil cases and proceedings at law or SEC. 4. That all acts or parts of acts or laws, in equity, in which a colored person or an Indian inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed: Prois a party, or may be directly benefited or in-vided, That nothing in this act shall be so conjured by the result. strued as to admit persons of color to serve on

2. In all criminal proceedings in which al a jury: And provided further, That the provis

ions of this act shall not be so construed as to or negligent work. Bad work shall not be al require the education of colored and white chil-lowed. Failing to obey reasonable orders, nog. dren in the same school.

lect of duty, and leaving home without persis8SEC. 5. That all free persons of color who sion, will be deemed disobedience; impudice, were living together as husband and wife in this swearing, or indecent language to or in the pres State while in a state of slavery are hereby de- ence of the employer, his family or agert, or clared to be man and wife, and their children quarrelling and fighting with one another, shall legitimately entitled to an inheritance in any be deemed disobedience. For any disobedience property heretofore acquired, or that may here- a fine of one dollar shall be imposed on the ofafter be acquired, by said parents, to as full an fender. For all lost time from work hours, unextent as the children of white citizens are now less in case of sickness, the laborer shall be fined entitled by the existing laws of this State. twenty-five cents per hour. For all absence from May 26-All the freedmen's courts in Tennes-home without leave the laborer will be fined at see were abolished by the assistant commander, the law of the State making colored persons competent witnesses in all civil courts.

TEXAS.

A colored man is permitted by the new constitution to testify orally where any one of his race is a party, allows him to hold property, and to sue and be sued.

LOUISIANA.

the rate of two dollars per day. Laborers will not be required to labor on the Sabbath except to take the necessary care of stock and other property on plantations and do the necessary cooking and household duties, unless by special contract. For all thefts of the laborer from the employer of agricultural products, hogs, sheep, poultry or any other property of the employer, or wilful destruction of property or injury, the laborer shall pay the employer double the amount of the value of the property stolen, des1865, December "An act to provide for troyed or injured, one half to be paid to the emand regulate labor contracts for agricultural pur- ployer and the other half to be placed in the suits" requires all such laborers to make labor general fund provided for in this section. No contracts for the next year within the first ten live stock shall be allowed to laborers without days of January-the contracts to be in writing, the permission of the employer. Laborers shall to be with heads of families, to embrace the labor not receive visitors during work hours. All diffiof all the members, and be binding on all minors culties arising between the employers and laborthereof. Each laborer, after choosing his emers, under this section, shall be settled, and all ployer, "shall not be allowed to leave his place fines be imposed, by the former; if not satisfacof employment until the fulfillment of his con- tory to the laborers, an appeal may be had to tract, unless by consent of his employer, or on the nearest justice of the peace and two freeaccount of harsh treatment, or breach of con- holders, citizens, one of said citizens to be setract on the part of employer; and if they do so lected by the employer and the other by the leave, without cause or permission, they shall laborer; and all fines imposed and collected unforfeit all wages earned to the time of abandon-der this section shall be deducted from the wages ment." Wages due shall be a lien upon the crops; and one half shall be paid at periods agreed by the parties, "but it shall be lawful for the employer to retain the other moiety until the completion of the contract." Employers failing to comply, are to be fined double the amount due to laborer. These are the eighth

and ninth sections in full:

SEC. 8. That in case of sickness of the laborer, wages for the time lost shall be deducted, and where the sickness is feigned for purposes of idleness, and also on refusal to work according to contract, double the amount of wages shall be deducted for the time lost, and also where rations have been furnished; and should the refusal to work be continued beyond three days, the offender shall be reported to a justice of the peace, and shall be forced to labor on roads, levees, and other public works, without pa, until the offender consents to return to his labor.

SEC. 9. That, when in health, the laborer shall work ten hours during the day in summer, and nine hours during the day in winter, unless otherwise stipulated in the labor contract; he shall obey all proper orders of his employer or his agent; take proper care of his work mules, horses, oxen, stock; also of all agricultural inplements; and employers shall have the right to make a reasonable deduction from the laborer's wages for injuries done to animals or agricultural implements committed to his care, or for bad

due, and shall be placed in a common fund, to be divided among the other laborers employed on the plantation at the time when their full wages fall due, except as provided for above. December 21-This bill became a law:

SEC. 1. That any one who shall persuade or entice away, feed, harbor, or secrete any person who leaves his or her employer, with whom she or he has contracted, or is assigned to live, or any apprentice who is bound as an apprentice, without the permission of his or her employer, said person or persons so offending shall be liable for damages to the employer, and also, upon conviction thereof, shall be subject to pay a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, nor less than ten dollars, or imprisonment in the parish jail for not more than twelve months nor less than ten days, or both, at the discretion of the court.

SEC. 2. That it shall be duty of the judges of this State to give this act especially in charge of the grand juries at each jury term of their respective courts.

A new vagrant act is thus condensed in the New Orleans Picayune:

It adopts the same definition of vagrancy as in the act of 1855, and provides that any person charged with vagrancy shall be arrested on the warrant of any judge or justice of the peace; and if said judge or justice of the peace shall be satisfied by the confession of the offender, or by

competent testimony, that he is a vagrant within this said description, he shall make a certificate of the same, which shall be filed with the clerk of the court of the parish and in the city of New Orleans. The certificate shall be filed in the offices of the recorders, and the said justice or other officer shall require the party accused to enter into bond, payable to the Governor of Louisiana, or his successors in office, in such sums as said justice of the peace or other officer shall prescribe, with security, to be approved by said officer, for his good behavior and future industry for the period of one year; and upon his failing or refusing to give such bond and security, the justice or other officer shall issue his warrant to the sheriff or other officer, directing him to detain and to hire out such vagrant for a period not exceeding twelve months, or to

cause him to labor on the public works, roads, and levees, under such regulations as shall be made by the municipal authorities: Provided, That if the accused be a person who has abandoned his employer before his contract expired, the preference shall be given to such employer of hiring the accused: And provided further, That in the city of New Orleans the accused may be committed to the work-house for a time not exceeding six months, there to be kept at hard labor on the public works, roads, or levees. The proceeds of hire in the cases herein provided for to be paid into the parish treasury for the benefit of paupers: And provided further, That the persons hiring such vagrant shall be compelled to furnish such clothing, food, and medical attention as they may furnish their other laborers.

V.

PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S INTERVIEWS AND SPEECHES.

1865, April 15-Andrew Johnson qualified as President, Chief Justice Chase administering the oath of office.

Remarks at an Interview with Citizens of Indi

ana.

1865, April 21-A delegation was introduced by Governor O. P. Morton, to whose address President Johnson responded, stating that he did not desire to make any expression of his future policy more than he had already made, and adding:

But in entering upon the discharge of the duties devolving upon me by the sad occurrence of the assassination of the Chief Magistrate of the nation, and as you are aware, in surrounding circumstances which are peculiarly embarrassing and responsible, I doubt whether you are aware how much I appreciate encouragement and countenance from my fellow-citizens of Indiana. The most courageous individual, the most determined will, might justly shrink from entering upon the discharge of that which lies before me; but were I a coward, or timid, to receive the countenance and encouragement I have from you, and from various other parts of the country, would make me a courageous and determined man. I mean in the proper sense of the term, for there is as much in moral courage and the firm, calm discharge of duty, as in physical courage. But, in entering upon the duties imposed upon me by this calamity, I require not only courage, but determined will, and I assure you that on this occasion your encouragement is peculiarly acceptable to me. In reference to what my administration will be, while I occupy my present position, I must refer you to the past. You may look back to it as evidence of what my course will be; and, in

reference to this diabolical and fiendish rebellion sprung upon the country, all I have to do is to ask you to also go back and take my course in ture will be. Mine has been but one straightthe past, and from that determine what fu. my forward and unswerving course, and I see no. reason now why I should depart from it.

As to making a declaration, or manifesto, or message, or what you may please to call it, my past is a better foreshadowing of my future course than any statement on paper that might be made. Who, four years ago, looking down the stream of time, could have delineated that which has transpired since then? Had any one done so, and presented it, he would have been looked upon as insane, or it would have been thought a fable-fabulous as the stories of the Arabian Nights, as the wonders of the lamp of Aladdin, and would have been about as readily believed.

If we knew so little four years ago of what has passed since then, we know as little what events will arise in the next four years; but as these events arise I shall be controlled in the disposition of them by those rules and principles by which I have been guided heretofore. Had it not been extraordinary efforts, in part owing to the machinery of the State, you would have had rebellion as rampant in Indiana as we had it in Tennessee. Treason is none the less treason whether it be in a free State or in a slave State; but if there could be any difference in such a crime, he who commits treason in a free State is a greater traitor than he who commits it in a slave State. There might be some little excuse in a man based on his possession of the peculiar property, but the traitor in a free State has no excuse, but simply to be a traitor.

Do not, however, understand me to mean by

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