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Executive Office
Jackson Miss Sept 25th 1865

By an order bearing date the 20th Inst, Col Samuel Thomas Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in this State, proposes to transfer to the civil authorities of the State the right to try all cases, in which the rights of freedmen are involved either for injuries done to their persons or property. This proposition is made however, on condition that "the judicial officers and magistrates of the Provisional Government of the State will take for their mode of procedure the laws now in force in this State, except so far as those laws make a distinction on account of color, and allow negroes the same rights and privileges as are accorded to white men before their courts" by which I understand that negroes shall be allowed to testify in cases where their interest is involved.
And believing that the late Constitutional amendment which abolishes slavery, abolishes also all laws which constituted a part of the policy of the System of Slavery and in declaring that the negro shall be protected in his person and property, establishes principles which of themselves, entitle the negro to sue and be sued, and as a necessary incident to such right, that he is made competent as a witness, according to the laws of evidence of the State.
Now therefore I William L Sharkey Provisional Governor of Mississippi, with the view of securing to our citizens the right of trial, before their own officers, and under their own laws,