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1116 Series IV Volume III- Serial 129 - Correspondence, Orders, Reports and Returns of the Confederate Authorities from January 1, 1864, to the End

Page 1116 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.

has but one male slave within said ages shall said slave be impressed, and all impressments under this act shall, as far as practicable, be taken in equal ratio from all owners in the same locality, city, county, or district: Provided, That in each case care being taken to allow each owner a credit for all male slaves between the ages aforesaid heretofore impressed, or impressed under this act, or hired to the Government, who are still in service, or who may have died or been lost while in service: Provided further, That if the Governor of any State shall certify to the Secretary of War or the commanding general of the Trans-Mississippi Department that slaves cannot be impressed in any locality, county, district, parish, or city in such State without great detriment to such locality, county, district, parish, or city, then the quota of said locality, county, district, parish, or city, shall be impressed from other portions of such State: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to exempt any State from furnishing its fair quota of slaves for the purposes herein specified and according to the provisions of this act.

SEC. 5. If any slave is now held for services who is not liable thereto under the provisions of this act such slave shall be forthwith returned to the owner on demand and proof of the fact.

SEC. 6. That duplicate rolls shall be prepared of all the slaves hired or impressed under this act, which shall contain a descripition of the slaves, the names and residences of the owners, and a statement of the value and rate of hire of the slaves at the date they are hired or impressed, one of which rolls shall, in the States east of the Mississippi River, be forwarded to the Secretary of War, and in those west of the Mississippi River to the headquarters of the general commanding that department, and the other roll shall be sent to the general commanding the army where said slaves may be employed, and the officer having charge of said slaves, or of the work upon which they may be engaged, shall have a copy of said roll, and shall regularly enter thereon the nature of the labor or duties in which said slaves are engaged, and any changes which may be made therein, and of the absence, sickness, or death of any of said slaves, and make monthly returns thereof to the general commanding the army where said slaves are employed, who shall transmit the same to the Secretary of War, or to the commanding general in the Trans-Mississippi Department, as the case may be.

SEC. 7. That all laws, or parts of laws providing for the hiring or impressment of slaves be, and the same are hereby, repealed, except so far as they ma provide for regulating and fixing, in case of impressment, the value of said slaves, or the value of their services.

SEC. 8. That no slave shall be hereafter impressed except in pursuance of the provisions of this act, and any officer who may violate the provisions thereof shall be court-martialed and on conviction cashiered.

TH. S. BOCOCK,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

R. M. T. HUNTER,

President pro tempore of the Senate.

Approved 28th February, 1865.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.


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