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Office Bureau Refugees, &c
Jasper, Tenn, March 16, 1866.

General;
We are in a sad condition here. Refugees, Freedmen, and discharged Federal soldiers are arraigned for crimes said to have been committed against rebels and their property since the commencement of the war, and the Circuit Court now in session here claims and exercises jurisdiction over the cases without regard to the act of Congress creating the Bureau, as I think.

I gave the Judge presiding, Hon. Wm L Adams, the notice required in your instructions of January 3rd, last, the date of my appointment as Agent of the Bureau here. I delivered it in person on Monday last. He has given me no answer yet, in writing; but the evening before last, at his room, where he had invided [[invited]] me about noon of that day, he intimated that the laws of the State must be carried out; and that the Agent of the Bureau had no right to interfere with cases which the civil law of the State had taken under its jurisdiction. These are not his exact words, but the substance of them. He spoke in a cool, firm, dignified manner; and the communication sprang from a particular case in his Court, W R Rankin in Spencer Price. I understand that a scheme is now on foot to have me removed by petition. Do me the justice to grant me a hearing, if such he the fact.

If such a petition shall reach you, I am confident the names Roulston, Kelly, Hyde, Pryor, Alexander, Lassater, Dame, Cappinger, and Rogers, and others of the kind,