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ART 5th. It shall be the duty of the Secretary and Treasurer, to keep a record of the proceedings of this Association, to carry on its correspondence and to receive and keep and to pay out the funds of the Association, according to the orders and directions as hereinafter provided.
ART. 6th. It shall be the duty of the committee aforesaid, generally to look after the welfare of the freedmen, in their respective beats, to inspect and sanction each and every contract made between the freedmen and their employers, in said beat, not by making contracts for the said freedmen, except when requested so to do, by one or both of the parties thereto, but to see that said freedmen are not deceived or overreached in any contract made with the employer. To see that he fully understands the force and effect of said contract, and when any contract, as aforesaid shall be fairly and understandingly made, it shall be the law between the parties thereto, and when any difficulty arises between any freedmen and his white employer, relative to the construction or performance of any contract, said committeeman may act as arbitrator between the parties, and his decision shall be final, unless one or both of the parties desire an appeal. In the latter event, either party may appeal to the President of this Association, who may review the case on the testimony, taken down in writing and submitted to him, or he may call the witnesses before him, and try the case de novo, and the decision of the President so rendered, on cases coming before him shall be final between the parties. The said committee shall hold meetings, at least once per month, at such times and places as they shall determine, at which shall be present, if possible, the President of the Association, and he shall preside in such meetings. The general object of these meetings, shall be to devise ways and means of benefiting this association, so as to promote its general object and welfare, to revise the action of the several committee men, in their respective beats, in case they may ask for such revisions and to instruct the said committee men respectively, how to act in difficult cases, where neither the committee men nor the President may be clear, as to what their actions ought to be; and the general instructions of said committee, when so assembled, shall be the rule of action in such particular cases, and in case the President may be absent from any such meeting of said committee, or at any meeting of said Association where it is his duty to preside, then any member of said committee, or any member of said Association may be appointed pro tempore, to preside at said meeting.
ART. 7th. All contracts between the employer and the freedmen, for a term exceeding one month, shall be in writing, and attested by at least one witness who can write, and each, any every clause, in or to said contract shall be inserted therein, and no parole testimony shall be received to contradict or vary what is thus writtern.
ART. 8th. It shall be the duty of all the officers of this Association, to see that the freedman shall receive from his employer, his wages or earnings, and in case such employer refuses to pay promptly, such wages and earnings to aid the freedmen by their full power in the collection of the same.
ART. 9th. It shall also be the duty of this Association, and particularly the officers thereof, to see that the freedman shall comply with his contracts with his employer unless he can show some good or reasonable excuse for the non-performance.