Viewing page 123 of 248

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

4

apart for the use of loyal refugees and freedmen the lands in question; and he is required to assign to every male of that class of persons no more than forty acres of such land. The first is the only authority, and the second is the only duty, so far as I am able to discover, that he has to exercise and perform, in regard to the lands in question.

So far as it may be necessary for him to exercise supervision and management of those lands in order to the full execution of the authority and the due performance of the duty set forth in the fourth section of the act, is he required to supervise and manage them, and no further, as I apprehend. He has authority, under the act, to reduce into his control all the lands in question, if they are needed for the use of the refugees and freedmen, or any portion of them that may be thus needed; but it is not his duty, under the statute, to assume the control of any such lands that he does not desire to apply to the use mentioned in the statute, or to set apart for the benefit of the persons who are placed under his care.

It seems to me plain that Congress looked primarily in this legislation to the personal and social interests of the loyal refugees and freedmen, and not to the care of the lands

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-01-14 18:56:18