a colored person or Indian, or in which it alleged in the presentment, information, or i dictments, or in which the court is of opini from the other evidence that there is probab cause to believe that the offence was committby a white person in conjunction or co-operatics with a colored person or Indian. cured, his wages to be applied to the support of | colored person or an Indian is a party, or whi himself and his family. The said statute further arise out of an injury done, attempted, provides, that in case any vagrant so hired threatened to the person, property, or rights 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. 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 usual wages throughout the State. The ultimate effect of the statute will be to reduce the freedmen to a condition of servitude worse than that from which they have been emancipated 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: 1. In all civil cases and proceedings at law or in equity, in which a colored person or an Indian is a party, or may be directly benefited or injured by the result. 2. In all criminal proceedings in which a 3. The testimony of colored persons shall, all cases and proceedings, both at law and equity, be given ore tenus, and not by deposition and in suits in equity, and in all other cases which the deposition of the witness would re ularly be part of the record, the court sha. if desired by any party, or if deemed proper b itself, certify the facts proved by such witnesses or the evidence given by him as far as credite by the court, as the one or the other may b proper under the rules of law applicable to th case, and such certificate shall be made par of the record. March 4-The Legislature adjourned. TENNESSEE. 1866, January 25-This bill became a law: That persons of African and Indian descen are hereby declared to be competent witnesse in all the courts of this State, in as full a manne as such persons are by an act of Congress com petent 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, Tha 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 provis ion is inserted by virtue of the provision of the 9th section of the amended constitution, ratified February 22, 1865. May 26-This bill became a law: An act to define the term "persons of color," and to declare the rights of such persons. SEC. 1. That all negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes and their descendants, having any African blood in their veins, shall be known in this State as 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 appren tices, 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. SEC. 4. That all acts or parts of acts or laws, inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to admit persons of color to serve on a jury: And provided further, That the provis ons of this act shall not be so construed as to or negligent work. Bad work shall not be alequire the education of colored and white chil-lowed. Failing to obey reasonable orders, neg. dren in the same school. SEC. 5. That all free persons of color who were living together as husband and wife in this State while in a state of slavery are hereby declared to be man and wife, and their children legitimately entitled to an inheritance in any property heretofore acquired, or that may hereafter be acquired, by said parents, to as full an extent as the children of white citizens are now entitled by the existing laws of this State. May 26-All the freedmen's courts in Tennessee 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. lect of duty, and leaving home without permission, will be deemed disobedience; impudence, swearing, or indecent language to or in the presence of the employer, his family or agent, or quarrelling and fighting with one another, shall be deemed disobedience. For any disobedience a fine of one dollar shall be imposed on the offender. For all lost time from work hours, unless in case of sickness, the laborer shall be fined twenty-five cents per hour. For all absence from home without leave the laborer will be fined at 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 em- ers, 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 shalll be reported to a justice of the peace, and shall be forced to labor on roads, levees, and other public works, without pay, until the of fender consents to return to his labor. SEC. 9. That, when in health, the laborer shall work ten hours during the day in suminer, 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, road and levees, under such regulations as shall made by the municipal authorities: Provide That if the accused be a person who has aba doned his employer before his contract expire the preference shall be given to such employe of hiring the accused: And provided furthe That in the city of New Orleans the accuse may be committed to the work-house for a ti not exceeding six months, there to be kept hard labor on the public works, roads, or leve The proceeds of hire in the cases herein provide for to be paid into the parish treasury for the benefit of paupers: And provided further, The the persons hiring such vagrant shall be com pelled to furnish such clothing, food, and med cal attention as they may furnish their othe 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 straight the past, and from that determine what fuforward and unswerving course, and I see no reason now why I should depart from it. my 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 for 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 traiter. Do not, however, understand me to mean by that any man should be exonerated from penalties and punishments of the crime of son. The time has arrived when the Ameripeople should understand what crime is, that it should punished, and its penalties rced and inflicted. We say in our statutes courts that burglary is a crime, that murder crime, that arson is a crime, and that treais a crime; and the Constitution of United es, and the laws of the United States, say treason shall consist in levying war against n, and giving their enemies aid and comfort. | ave just remarked that burglary is a crime has its penalties, that murder is a crime and its penalties, and so on through the long logue of crime. o illustrate by a sad event, which is before minds of all, and which has draped this land nourning. Who is there here who would if the assassin who has stricken from our st one beloved and revered by all, and passed from time to eternity, to that bourne ence no traveler returns, who, I repeat, who, e would say that the assassin, if taken, uld not suffer the penalties of his crime? n, if you take the life of one individual for murder of another, and believe that his perty should be confiscated, what should be le with one who is trying to assassinate this ion? What should be done with him or m who have attempted the life of a nation iposed of thirty millions of people? We were living at a time when the public id had almost become oblivious of what treais. The time has arrived, my countrymen, en the American people should be educated I taught what is crime, and that treason is a ne, and the highest crime known to the law the Constitution. Yes, treason against a te, treason against all the States, treason inst the Government of the United States, is highest crime that can be committed, and se engaged in it should suffer all its penalties. know it is very easy to get up sympathy 1 sentiment where human blood is about to shed, easy to acquire a reputation for leniy and kindness, but sometimes its effects and ctical operations produce misery and woe to mass of mankind. Sometimes an individual om the law has overtaken, and on whom its alties are about to be imposed, will appeal 1 plead with the Executive for the exercise of mency. But before its exercise he ought to ertain what is mercy and what is not mercy. is a very important question, and one which serves the consideration of those who moralize on crime and the morals of a nation, whether some cases action should not be suspended e and transferred to Him who controls all. ere, if innocence has been invaded, if wrong 3 been done, the Controller and Giver of all od, one of whose attributes is mercy, will set right. It is not promulging anything that I have not retofore said to say that traitors must be made ious, that treason must be made odious, that itors must be punished and impoverished. They must not only be punished, but their cial power must be destroyed. If not, they ll still maintain an ascendency, and may again become numerous and powerful; for, in the words of a former Senator of the United States, When traitors become numerous enough, treason becomes respectable." And I say that, after making treason odious, every Union man and the Government should be remunerated out of the pockets of those who have inflicted this great suffering upon the country. But do not understand me as saying this in a spirit of anger, for, if I understand my own heart, the reverse is the case; and, while I say that the penalties of the law, in a stern and inflexible manner, should be executed upon conscious, intelligent, and influential traitors-the leaders, who have deceived thousands upon thousands of laboring men who have been drawn into this rebellion-and while I say, as to the leaders, punishment, I also say leniency, conciliation, and amnesty to the thousands whom they have misled and deceived; and in reference to this, as I remarked, I might have adopted your speech as my own. As my honorable friend knows, I long since took the ground that this Government was sent upon a great mission among the nations of the earth; that it had a great work to perform, and that in starting it was started in perpetuity. Look back for one single moment to the Articles of Confederation, and then come down to 1787, when the Constitution was formed-what do you find? That we, "the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect government," &c. Provision is made for the admission of new States, to be added to old ones embraced within the Union. Now, turn to the Constitution: we find that amendments may be made, by a recommendation of two thirds of the members of Congress, if ratified by three fourths of the States. Provision is made for the admission of new States; no provision is made for the secession of old ones. The instrument was made to be good in perpetuity, and you can take hold of it, not to break up the Government, but to go on perfecting it more and more as it runs down the stream of time. We find the Government composed of integral parts. An individual is an integer, and a number of individuals form a State; and a State itself is an integer, and the various States form the Union, which is itself an integer-they all making up the Government of the United States. Now we come to the point of my argument, so far as concerns the perpetuity of the Government. We have seen that the Government is composed of parts, each essential to the whole, and the whole essential to each part. Now, if an individual (part of a State) declare war against the whole, in violation of the Constitution, he, as a citizen, has violated the law, and is responsible for the act as an individual. There may be more than one individual, it may go on till they become parts of States. Sometime the rebellion may go on increasing in numbers till the State machinery is overturned, and the country becomes like a man that is paralyzed on one side. But we find in the Constitution a great panacea provided. It provides that the United States (that is, the great integer) shall guarantee to each State (the integers composing the whole) in this Union a republican form of 1 government. Yes, if rebellion had been rampant, and set aside the machinery of a State for a time, there stands the great law to remove the paralysis and revitalize it, and put it on its feet again. When we come to understand our system of government, though it be complex, we see how beautifully one part moves in harmony with another; then we see our Government is to be a perpetuity, there being no provision for pulling it down, the Union being its vitalizing power, imparting life to the whole of the States that move around it like planets round the sun, receiving thence light and heat and motion. Upon this idea of destroying States, my position has been heretofore well known, and I see no cause to change it now, and I am glad to hear its reiteration on the present occasion. Some are satisfied with the idea that States are to be lost in territorial and other divisions; are to lose their character as States. But their life breath has been only suspended, and it is a high constitutional obligation we have to secure each of these States in the possession and enjoyment of a republican form of government. A State be in the Government with a peculiar instimay tution, and by the operation of rebellion lose that feature; but it was a State when it went into rebellion, and when it comes out without the institution it is still a state. I hold it as a solemn obligation in any one of these States where the rebel armies have been beaten back or expelled-I care not how small the number of Union men, if enough to man the ship of State, I hold it, I say, a high duty to protect and secure to them a republican form of government. This is no new opinion. It is expressed in conformity with my understanding of the genius and theory of our Government. Then in adjusting and putting the Government upon its legs again, I think the progress of this work must pass into the hands of its friends. If a State is to be nursed until it again gets strength, it must be nursed by its friends, not smothered by its enemies.* *On this and other points, President Johnson declared himself in his Nashville speech of June 9, 1864, from which these extracts are taken: The question is, whether man is capable of self-government? I hold with Jefferson that government was made for the convenience of man, and not man for government. The laws and constitutions were designed as instruments to promote his welfare. And hence, from this principle, I conclude that governments can and ought to be changed and amended to conform to the wants, to the requirements and progress of the people, and the enlightened spirit of the age. Now, if any of your secessionists have lost faith in men's capability for self-government, and feel unfit for the exercise of this great right, go straight to rebeldom, take Jeff. Davis, Beauregard, and Bragg for your masters, and put their collars on your necks. And let me say that now is the time to secure these fundamental principles, while the land is rent with anarchy and upheaves with the throes of a mighty revolution. While society is in this disordered state, and we are seeking security, let us fix the foundation of the Government on principles of eternal justice which will endure Now, permit me to remark, that while I ha opposed dissolution and disintegration on the o for all time. There is an element in our mil who are for perpetuating the institution slavery. Let me say to you, Tennesseeans an men from the Northern States, that slavery dead. It was not murdered by me. I told y long ago what the result would be if you e deavored to go out of the Union to save slavery and that the result would be bloodshed, rapins devastated fields, plundered villages and citie and, therefore, I urged you to remain in t Union. In trying to save slavery, you killed and lost your own freedom. Your slavery dead, but I did not murder it. As Macbeth sak to Banquo's bloody ghost: "Never shake thy gory locks at me; Thou canst not say I did it."" I do not mourn over its dead body; you ca Slavery is dead, and you must pardon me bury it out of sight. In restoring the State leave out that disturbing and dangerous element and use only those parts of the machiner which will move in harmony. State, who shall restore and re-establish it But in calling a convention to restore the Shall the man who gave his influence and his means to destroy the Government? Is he to participate in the great work of reorganization Shall he who brought this misery upon the State be permitted to control its destinies? this be so, then all this precious blood of ou brave soldiers and officers so freely poured ou will have been wantonly spilled. All the glor ous victories won by our noble armies will go for nought, and all the battle-fields which have been sown with dead heroes during the rebel lion will have been made memorable in vain. Why all this carnage and devastation? I was that treason might be put down and traitors punished. Therefore I say that traitors shoul take a back seat in the work of restoration. If there be but five thousand men in Tennessee loyal to the Constitution, loyal to freedom, loyal to justice, these true and faithful men should control the work of reorganization and reforma tion absolutely. I say that the traitor has ceased to be a citizen, and in joining the rebel lion has become a public enemy. He forfeited his right to vote with loyal men when he re nounced his citizenship and sought to destroy our Government. We say to the most honest and industrious foreigner who comes from Eng; land or Germany to dwell among us, and to add to the wealth of the country, "Before you can be a citizen you must stay here for five years." If we are so cautious about foreigners, who vol untarily renounce their homes to live with us, what should we say to the traitor, who, although born and reared among us, has raised a parrici dal hand against the Government which always protected him? My judgment is that he should be subjected to a severe ordeal before he is restored to citizenship. A fellow who takes the oath merely to save his property, and denies the validity of the oath, is a perjured man, and not to be trusted. Before these repenting rebels can be trusted, let them bring forth the fruits of repentance. He who helped to make all these |