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ernment of Virginia, and to protect and defend | have left judicial stations under the United the Constitution of the United States. He also States or the State of Tennessee to aid, in any becomes eligible to office, unless he has "held way, the existing or recent rebellion against the office under the so-called Confederate govern-authority of the United States, or who are or ment, or under any rebellious State government, or has been a member of the so-called Confederate Congress, or a member of any State Legislature in rebellion against the authority of the United States," excepting therefrom county officers.

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1. Every white man twenty-one years of age, a citizen of the United States and a citizen of the county wherein he may offer his vote six months next preceding the day of election, and publicly sentiments from the outbreak of the rebellion until the present time; and

known to have entertained unconditional Union

2. Every white man, a citizen of the United States and a citizen of the county wherein he may offer his vote six months next preceding the day of election, having arrived at the age of twenty-one years since March 4, 1865: Provided, That he has not been engaged in armed rebellion against the authority of the United States voluntarily; and

3. Every white man of lawful age coming from another State, and being a citizen of the United States, on proof of loyalty to the United States, and being a citizen of the county wherein he may offer his vote six months next preceding the day of election; and

4. Every white man, a citizen of the United States and a citizen of this State, who has served as a soldier in the army of the United States, and has been or may be hereafter honorably discharged therefrom; and

5. Every white man of lawful age, a citizen of the United States and a citizen of the county wherein he may offer his vote six months next preceding the day of election, who was conscripted by force into the so-called confederate army, and was known to be a Union man, on proof of loyalty to the United States, established by the testimony of two voters under the previous clauses of this section; and

6. Every white man who voted in this State at the presidential election in November, 1864, or voted on the 22d of February, 1865, or voted on the 4th of March, 1865, in this State, and all others who had taken the "oath of allegiance" to the United States, and may be known by the judges of election to have been true friends to the Government of the United States, and would have voted in said previously mentioned elections if the same had been holden within their reach, shall be entitled to the privileges of the elective franchise.

SEC. 2. That all persons who are or shall have been civil or diplomatic officers or agents of the so-called Confederate States of America, or who

shall have been military or naval officers of the so-called Confederate States, above the rank of captain in the army or lieutenant in the navy; or who have left seats in the United States Congress or seats in the Legislature of the State of Tennessee, to aid in said rebellion, or have resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States, and afterward have voluntarily given aid to said rebellion; or persons who have been engaged in treating otherwise than lawfully, as prisoners of war, persons found in the United States service as officers, soldiers, seamen, been or are absentees from the United States for or in any other capacities; or persons who have who held pretended offices under the governthe purpose of aiding the rebellion; or persons ment of States in insurrection against the United States; or persons who left their homes within the jurisdiction and protection of the United tional forces and passed beyond the Federal milStates, or fled before the approach of the naitary lines into the so-called Confederate States, for the purpose of aiding the rebellion, shall be denied and refused the privilege of the elective franchise in this State for the term of fifteen years from and after the passage of this act.

SEC. 3. That all other persons, except those mentioned in section one of this act, are hereby and henceforth excluded and denied the exercise of the privilege of the elective franchise in this State for the term of five years from and after the of this act. passage

SEC. 4. That all persons embraced in section three of this act, after the expiration of said of the elective franchise by petition to the cirfive years, may be readmitted to the privilege cuit or chancery court, on proof of loyalty to the United States, in open court, upon the testimony of two or more loyal citizens of the United

States.

July 15-President Johnson sent this telegram:
WASHINGTON, D. C.-3.50 P. M.,
July 16, 1865.

To Governor W. G. Brownlow:

I hope, as I have no doubt you will see, that the laws passed by the last Legislature are faithfully executed, and that all illegal voters in the approaching election be kept from the polls, and that the election of members of Congress be conducted fairly. Whenever it becomes necessary for the execution of the law and the protection of the ballot-box, you will call upon General Thomas for sufficient military force to sustain the civil authority of the State. I have just read your address, which I most heartily endorse. ANDREW JOHNSON, President U. S. A. 1866, April 12-An amendment to the franchise act passed the House, 41 to 15. May 3 The Senate passed it, 13 to 6. Its principal provisions are:

SEC. 1. That every white male inhabitant, of this State of the age of twenty-one years, a citizen of the United States and a resident of the county wherein he may offer his vote six months next preceding the day of election, shall be enti

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 Government, nor aided, countenanced, or encouraged acts of hostility thereto.

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 ap

1866, March -Convention met.

April 2-Convention adjourned. The Constitution to be voted on, June 5. It abolishes slavery, and annuls the Secession Ordinance. The war debt has been repudiated. Five years residence required for eligibility to the Legislature. White population is the basis of representation for State purposes. An ordinancé passed exempting all persons who, under authority of civil or military power, had inflicted injury upon persons during the war, from ac

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. Third. That said voter shall have never volun-pointed Provisional Governor. tarily supported any pretended government, power, or authority hostile or inimical to the au.thority of the United States, by contributions in money or property, by persuasion or influence, or in any other way whatever: Provided, That the foregoing restrictions and disqualifications shall not apply to any white citizen who may have served in and been honorably discharged from the army or navy of the United States since the 1st day of January, 1862, nor to those who voted in the Presidential election in November, 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 1865, October 30-President Johnson sent Legislature, nor to those who have been appointed this telegram to Governor Isaac Murphy, 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.

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 Confederate States, or who left judicial stations under the United States, or the State of Tennessee, to aid the rebellion, or who were military

ARKANSAS.

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

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.

1865, November J. M. Wells was elected Governor, and Albert Voorhis, Lieut. Governor. November 23-Legislature met in extra session again, under proclamation of the Governor. December 22-Legislature adjourned.

1866, March -J. T. Monroe elected mayor of New Orleans, and James O. Nixon an alderman. March 19-General Canby issued an order

or naval officers of the so-called Confederate States, above the rank of captain in the army, or lieutenant in the navy, or who left seats in the United States Congress, or seats in the Legislature 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 be made known-as they come within the excepted class of the President's proolamation. They were subsequently pardoned, on application, and took the offices.

IV.

LEGISLATION RESPECTING FREEDMEN.

NORTH CAROLINA.

persons

and

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. Marriage between white gives them all the privileges of white persons persons before the courts in the mode of prosecuting, de- of color shall be void; and every person aufending, continuing, removing, and transferring thorized to solemnize the rites of matrimony, their suits at law and in equity, and makes them who shall knowingly solemnize the same between eligible as witnesses, when not otherwise incom-such persons, and every clerk of a court who petent, 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 eivil 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 further, That no person shall be deemed incompetent to bear testimony in such cases, because of being a party to the record or in interest."

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 after the Freedmen's Bureau is removed. Where men and women, lately slaves, now cohabit together in the relation of husband and wife, they shall be deemed to have been lawfully married at the time of the commencement of such cohabitation; 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

MISSISSIPPI.

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

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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 report to the probate courts of their respective 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.

SEC. 2 provides that the said court shall be fully satisfied that the person or persons to whom said minor shall be apprenticed shall be a suitable person to have the charge and care of said minor, and fully to protect the interest of said minor: Provided, That said apprentice shall 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 mistress 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

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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 provis ions of this act, and it is made the duty of the county courts to inquire if any officer has neg. lected 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 or mistress may pursue and recapture said free negro not exceeding ten days, and the white apprentice, and bring him or her before any man not exceeding six months. 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 provis discharge 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 pref any 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 dollars, 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.

ages

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 ne groes 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 freed man, free negro or mulatto, between the 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 estab lished 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 of 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.

An Act to confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, 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.

village, from the member of the board of police of his beat, authorizing him or her to do irregular 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.

SEC. 6 provides that all contracts for labor made with freedmen, free negroes, and inulattoes, 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 expiration 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.

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, defendant or defendants, and a white person or white persons is or are the opposing party or parties, plaintiff or plaintiffs, defendant or defendants. They shall also be competent witnesses in all criminal prosecutions where the crime charged is alleged to have been committed by a white person upon or against the person or property of a freedman, free negro or mulatto: Provided, That in all cases said witnesses shall be examined in open court on the stand, except, however, they may be examined before the grand jury, and shall in all cases be subject to the rules and tests of the common law as to competency and credibility. SEC. 5 provides that every freedman, free negro, and mulatto shall on the second Monday of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and annually thereafter, have a lawful home or employment, and shall have written evidence thereof, as follows, to wit: If living in any incorporated city, town, or village, a license from the mayor thereof, and if living outside of any incorporated city, town, or

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, That 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.

SEO. 8 provides that upon affidavit made by the employer of any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, or other credible person, before any justice of the peace or member of the board of police, that any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, legally employed by said employer, has illegally deserted said employment, such justice of the peace or member of the board of police shall issue his warrant or warrants, returnable before himself or other such officer, directed to any sheriff, constable, or special deputy, commanding him to arrest said deserter and return him or her to said employer, and the like proceedings shall be had as provided in the preceding section; and it shall be lawful for any officer to whom such warrant shall be directed to execute said warrant in any county of this State, and that said warrant may be transmitted without indorsement to any like officer of another county to be executed and returned as aforesaid, and the said employer shall pay the cost of said warrants and arrest and return, which shall be set off for so much against the wages of said deserter.

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