Viewing page 158 of 230

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

qualification intended, as it would seem, to be introduced by the words "as hereinafter provided" would appear, from the structure of the sentence, to attach only to the subject matter of abandoned lands, and not to the subject matter of freedmen and refugees.  So that while to the Bureau is committed, by this first section, the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen, without any exception, qualification, or reservation, it would seem that it is entrusted with the supervision and management of abandoned lands only to the extent, and in the manner provided in another part of the statute.  Now the 4th section of the act relates to the authority which the Commissioner may exercise, and the duties he is to perform in regard to the abandoned and other lands in the insurrectionary States.  He has authority under the direction of the President to set apart for the use of loyal refugees and freedmen the lands in question; and he is required to assign to every male of that class of persons not more than forty acres of such land.  The first is the only authority, and the second is the only duty, so far as I am able to discover, that he has to exercise and perform, in regard to the lands in question.  So far as it may be necessary for him to exercise supervision and management of those lands, in order to the full execution of the authority and the due performance of the duty set forth in the fourth section of the act, is he required to