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an Officer of that law to whom this particular subject is referred, I would have no right to apprentice such minors. Upon the contrary, however, the regulations of the Freedmans Bureau decline any special enactment upon the subject and refer the whole matter, with power limited only by the Statute itself, to the several Judges of Probate of the State. This done then, all further jurisdiction of the Freedman's Bureau ceases, and if the Primary Comr. acting upon the matter, violate of misinterprets the Supreme Court of the State, where the law has placed the supervisory power. It was not, then, as an Agent of the Freedman's Bureau that I addressed you my protest against the interference of Lieut Smith, but as the Judge of Probate of this County, administering, not the laws of the Freedmans Bureau, but the Statute law of Alabama, sanctioned by the plain and unmistakeable order of that Bureau. I interposed that protest with the utmost confidence founded upon the high character you have established throughout the State for the integrity and capacity with which you have administered the arduous and responsible duties of your position; and I may add also a confidence increased by my firm conviction