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Freedmen's Courts, Establishment of Civil Authorities, Jurisdiction of 

Bureau Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
GENERAL ORDERS, OFFICE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER
No. 8.                   FOR STATE OF MISS.
            Vicksburg. Miss., Sept. 20th, 1865

The following extracts from Circular No. 5,  current series, Bureau Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, and General Orders No. 10, current series, Head Quarters Department of Mississippi, in reference to the same, are hereby republished for the guidance of officers of this Bureau: 
Circular,
No. 5.
RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR ASSISTANT COMMISSIONERS. 
In all places where there is an interruption of civil war, or in which local Courts, by reason of old codes, in violation of the freedom guaranteed by the Proclamation of the President and laws of Congress, disregard the negroes' right to justice before the laws, in not allowing him to give testimony, the control of all subjects relating to Refugees and Freedmen being committed to this Bureau, the Assistant Commissioners will adjudicate, either themselves or through offers of their appointment, all difficulties arising between negroes and whites of Indians, except those in military service, so far as recognizable by military authority, and not taken cognizance of by the other tribunals, civil or military, of the United States.
               O. O. Howard, Major General,
  Commissioner Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, &c.
Approved, June 2, 1865.
                         ANDREW JOHNSON,
                          President of the United States.
GENERAL ORDERS,  HEADQUARTERS
                  DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSPPI,
No. 10.             Vicksburg, Miss., August 3, 1865.

VII. This order (Circular No. 5, Paragraph VII., Bureau Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands) however must not be so construed as to give the colored man immunities not accorded to other persons. If he is charged with the violation of any law of the State, or an ordinance of any city, for which offence the same penalty is imposed upon white persons as upon black, and if courts grant to him the same privileges as are accorded to white men, no interference on the part of the military authorities will be permitted. Several instances have recently been reported in which military officers claiming to act under authority of the order above mentioned, have taken from the custody of the civil authorities negroes arrested for theft and other misdemeanors, even in cases where the courts were willing to concede to them the same privileges as are granted to white persons. These officers have not been governed by the [?] of the order. The object of the government is not to screen this classification just punishment; not to encourage in them the idea that they can be 

[[stamp]] BUREAU R.F. & A.L. 
          REO'D
          Oct 5 
          1865 
          WASHINGTON