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No. [[strikethrough]] 14 [[/strikethrough]] 15 

[[stamp]]

OFFICE OF ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER
BUREAU OF REFUGEES, FREEDMEN AND ABANDONED LANDS.
Montgomery, Alabama, Sept. 15,1865.
GENERAL ORDERS,}
No. 14.}
INSTRUCTIONS TO SUPERINTENDENTS AND THEIR ASSISTANTS.
I. Promptness in making all required returns and reports is needful for
many important reasons, and will be considered indispensable. In addition to reports rendered in form each officer reporting directly to this office will send a weekly letter if advice. and will require the same from his subordinates.
II. It is intended that each officer shall be supplied with a complete file of all Orders and Circulars relating to the Bureau. If any are unsupplied they will make immediate application to the officer to whom they report.
III. The administration of justice has been committed to the civil authority, to whom it must in every case be ultimately left. Its fairness should be the objects of respectful scrutiny and cases of evident denial of justice should be promptly reported. District Superintendents alone are authorized to address communications to Judicial Officers questioning their conduct.
IV. In each County where there are troops, (and it is hoped there will be troops in each county,) there should be a military agent of this Bureau. And every such agent should, for the more rapid hearing and adjustment of complaints entered before him, try to arrange with a reliable Justice of the Peace to have his office near the agency. and to receive and act on such complaints 
V. Cases will arise where Freedmen who have worked faithfully without a contract, to make a crop, are driven off as soon as the crop is made, They should be unhesitatingly sent back, to remain until they can find another place or it can be found for them, and the employer should be notified that the crop will not be removed until a set lement is made to the satisfaction of the Agent.
VI. To make the business which arises from the supervision of contracts self supporting, a charge will be made at the time, of twenty-five cents for each laborer employed.
VII. Before any expenses are incurred, an estimate should be made stating fully the amount, object, &c., and forwarded to this office for approval.
VIII. In case of a difficulty on a plantation, reasonable efforts should be made to conciliate the parties and promote industry, but cases proper for the congnizance of civil agents of the Bureau should be referred to them. It must be rigidly and invariably maintained that corporeal punishment is not to be thought of in connection with a FREE man. 
IX. The issuing of rations to destitute Refugees and Freedmen is committed to this Bureau. A strict and limited discretion must govern all issues of this kind. Gratuitous issues should be only after a statement under oath, embracing such particulars as to show plainly that the only alternative is actual suffering

Transcription Notes:
[[stamp]]: THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES