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The Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Alabama, in General Assembly convened.

An Act passed at the last Session of your Honorable body, authorized the Governor to appoint a Commissioner, whose duty it should be, to aid the Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, in recovering and distributing the food which might be procured and furnished for distribution among the destitute families of the State. It was also made the duty of said Commissioner to report to the next Session of the General Assembly upon the manner in which his duties "had been discharged" The undersigned, having been appointed Commissioner under said Act, has the honor to report, that he entered promptly upon the discharges of his duties, and after consultation with General Swayne, proceeded, early in January to North Alabama for the purpose of facilitating the receipt and distribution of rations which had been ordered to Huntsville for the supply of distribution in the thirteen counties composing that District.

General Swayne has made a requisition upon the Federal Government for 15000 rations daily, to supply the destitute of the State, during the month of January. One third of this quantity has been assigned to the thirteen counties, being in the extreme Northern portion of the State, where the greatest destitution prevailed.

Your Commissioner was: authorized by General Swayne