Page:Annual report of the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, 1864.djvu/62

60 I. The common laws governing the domestic relations, such as those giving parents authority and control over their children, and guardians control over their wards, are in force. The parent's or guardian's authority and obligations take the place of those of the former master. II. The former masters are constituted the guardians of minors and of the aged and infirm, in the absence of parents or other near relatives capable of supporting them. III. Young men and women, under twenty-one years of age, remain under the control of their parents or guardians until they become of age, thus aiding to support their parents, and younger brothers and sisters. IV. The former masters of Freedmen may not turn away the young or the infirm, nor refuse to give them food and shelter; nor may the able-bodied men or women go away from their homes, or live in idleness, and leave their parents, children, or young brothers and sisters to be supported by others. V. Persons of age, who are free from any of the obligations referred to above, are at liberty to find new homes wherever they can obtain proper employment; but they will not be supported by the government, nor by their former masters, unless they work. VI. It will be left to the employer and servant to agree upon the wages to be paid; but Freedmen are advised that for the present season they ought to expect only moderate wages, and where their employers cannot pay them money, they ought to be contented with a fair share in the crops to be raised. They have gained their personal freedom. By industry and good conduct they may rise to independence and even wealth. VII. All officers, soldiers and citizens, are requested to give publicity to these rules, and to instruct the freed people as to their new rights and obligations. VIII. All officers of the Army, and of the county police companies, are authorized and required to correct any violation of the above rules within their jurisdiction.

IX. Each District commander will appoint a Superintendent of Freedmen, (a commissioned officer,) with such number of assistants (officers and non-commissioned officers) as may be necessary, whose duty it will be to take charge of all the freed people in his District, who are without homes or proper employment. The superintendents will send back to their homes all who have left them in violation of the above rules, and will endeavor to find homes and suitable employment for all others. They will provide suitable camps or quarters for such as cannot be otherwise provided for, and attend to their discipline, police, subsistence, &c. X. The superintendents will hear all complaints of guardians or wards, and report the facts to their District commanderi, who are authorized to dissolve the existing relation of guardian and ward in any case which may seem to require it, and to direct the superintendent to otherwise provide for the wards, in accordance with the above rules. J.A. CAMPBELL, Assist. Adj't General. Whether or not these rules were in every respect the best that could have been made, needs not to be here discussed. Almost any system is preferable to confusion. But nearly at the same time with their promulgation, Major-General O. O. Howard was appointed Commissioner of the new "Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands," and the system of management proposed by General Schofield gave way to the rules of the new Bureau. It will be needful, however, that there should be a good understanding between Department commanders and the officers of this Bureau, otherwise little can be accomplished. During the last month, and since the negroes have become well