[General Orders No. 8.]
BUREAU REFUGEES, FREEDMEN, AND ABANDONED LANDS, Office Ass't.
Commissioner for State of Miss., Vicksburg, Miss., September 20, 1865.
The following extracts from Circular No. 5, current series, Bureau Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, and General Orders No. 10, current series, headquarters department of Mississippi, in reference to the same, are hereby republished for the guidance of officers of this bureau:
["Circular No. 5.]
"WAR DEPARTMENT,
"Bureau Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Washington, May 30, 1865.
"RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR ASSISTANT COMMISSIONERS.
"VII. In all places where there is an interruption of civil law, 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 negro's 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 officers of their appointment, all difficulties arising between negroes and whites or 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.