Seventh.  A board of three persons shall be appointed by the President, to whom the rolls and recruiting lists shall be furnished for public information, and on demand exhibited to any person claiming that his or her slave has been enlisted against his or her will.

Eighth.  If any person shall within ten days after the filing of said rolls make a claim for the service of any person so enlisted, the board shall proceed to examine the proofs of title, and if valid shall award just compensation, not exceeding $300, for each slave enlisted belonging to the claimant, and upon the claimant’s filing a valid deed of manumission and release of service the board shall give the claimant a certificate of the sum awarded, which on presentation shall be paid by the chief of the bureau.

Ninth.  All enlistments of colored troops in the State of Maryland otherwise than in accordance with these regulations are forbidden.

Tenth.  No person who is or has been engaged in rebellion against the Government of the United States, or who in any way has given or shall give aid or comfort to the enemies of the Government, shall be permitted to present any claim or receive any compensation for the labor or service of any slave, and all claimants shall file with their claim an oath of allegiance to the United States.

By order of the President: 

E.D.  TOWNSEND,
  Assistant Adjutant-General.

[From McPherson’s History of Reconstruction, p. 122.]

WASHINGTON, March 3, 1865—­12 p.m.

Lieutenant-General GRANT: 

The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no conference with General Lee unless it be for the capitulation of General Lee’s army or on some minor and purely military matter.  He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political question.  Such questions the President holds in his own hands and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions.  Meantime you are to press to the utmost your military advantages.

EDWIN M. STANTON,
  Secretary of War.

[From McPherson’s History of Reconstruction, p. 13.]

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, August 16, 1865.

O.O.  HOWARD,
  Major-General, Commissioner Freedmen’s Affairs: 

Respectfully returned to the Commissioner of Bureau Refugees, Freedmen, etc.  The records of this office show that B.B.  Leake was specially pardoned by the President on the 27th ultimo, and was thereby restored to all his rights of property except as to slaves.  Notwithstanding this, it is understood that the possession of his property is withheld from him.  I have therefore to direct that General Fisk, assistant commissioner at Nashville, Tenn., be instructed by the Chief Commissioner of Bureau of Freedmen, etc., to relinquish possession of the property of Mr. Leake held by him as assistant commissioner, etc., and that the same be immediately restored to the said Leake.  The same action will be had in all similar cases.