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the entire amount retained. The ignorance, in these matters, of the great mass of the colored soldiers rendered them the especial objects of extortion and fraud, and the transactions against them were so covered up as so render it almost impossible to detect and expose the guilty.

To enable the colored soldiers to avoid such frauds in the future, and to assist those who were destitute in obtaining dues which otherwise might be lost to them, this division was organized.

On March 29th 1867, however, a law was passed, which thoroughly protected claimants from any fraud or extortion on the part of dishonest Claim Agents or Attorneys, by directing that all check and Treasury Certificates should be made payable to the order of the Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, and that the sums due claimants should be paid directly to them in current funds by said Commissioner. This law, it seems to us, throwing around the such protection, rendered unnecessary the further prosecution of claims by the Bureau, except in so far as the government desired to save the claimant the legal Attorney's fees.

[[stamp]] THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES [[/stamp]]

In addition to the work indicated in the above quotation, this Branch, from time to time, has increased its labors and usefulness by obtaining additional Evidence at the request of the Auditors of the Treasury Department in cases prosecuted