336 



FRANKFORT. 



FREEDMEN. 



tion of Mexico was expected to take place in 

 the first month of the year 186 7. (See MEXICO.) 

 In accordance with the Franco-Italian conven- 

 tion of 1864, the withdrawal of the French 

 troops from Rome took place in December, 

 1866. (See PAPAL STATES, AND ITALY.) The 

 execution of several missionaries in Corea led to 

 a naval expedition against that country. (See 

 COREA.) 



FRANKFORT. Until 1866, Frankfort was 

 one of the four free cities of the German Confed- 

 eration, with an area of forty-three square miles 

 and a population, in 1864, of 91,180. By a de- 

 cree of the King of Prussia, dated September 20, 

 1866, Frankfort (with the exception of the dis- 

 tricts of Dortelweil and Nieder-Erlenbach, to- 

 gether with 1237 inhabitants, which were an- 

 nexed to the grand duchy of Hesse) was annexed 

 to the kingdom of Prussia. On October 8th, 

 the Prussians took formal possession of the city. 



FREEDMEN. As was stated in the ANNUAL 

 CYCLOPAEDIA of last year, Congress in February, 

 1866, passed an act, amendatory to the act to 

 establish a bureau for the relief of Freedmen 

 and refugees, enlarging its powers and the 

 scope of its operations, which was vetoed by 

 the President and failed to become a law. In 

 consequence, the original bureau continued in 

 force, under the administration of General How- 

 ard, as commissioner, with no material change 

 of organization. Business has been facilitated 

 and the many vexed questions that constantly 

 arise, have usually been settled with prompt- 

 ness and equity. The jurisdiction of assistant 

 commissioners coincides generally with depart- 

 ment and district commands, and while a 

 wholesome supervision has been exercised over 

 the freedmen, such protection has likewise 

 been extended to them as their peculiar con- 

 dition imperatively required. The importance 

 of self support, has been urged by proper means 

 upon the laboring classes. Wages have been 

 determined, not arbitrarily by orders of bureau 

 officers, but by circumstances ordinarily affect- 

 ing the price of labor in different localities. 

 There has been but little uniformity of action 

 in different States in respect to the administra- 

 tion of justice, the officers being guided in their 

 decisions by the exigencies of the various cases 

 presented to them. Assistant commissioners 

 have been instructed to transfer military juris- 

 diction as rapidly as possible to State judicial 

 tribunals. This has been done completely in 

 some of the States, while in Virginia, Louisiana, 

 and Texas, bureau courts are stiil in existence. 

 A claim division, instituted in March last, and 

 aided by officers and agents throughout the 

 States, has sought to prevent frauds upon 

 colored soldiers, in their efforts to collect un- 

 paid claims; 195 claims were paid through the 

 office of the commissioner ; 723 rejected at his 

 office ; 1,532 are in process of adjustment. 

 The aggregate amount collected and paid, is 

 $10,539,09. Transportation has been furnished 

 to 6,352 destitute freed people and 387 re- 

 fugees. The number of rations issued between 



June 1, 1865, and September 1, 186C, was 

 13,412,263. The average number per month 

 to refugees and freedmen was 894,569; the 

 average number per day, 29,819. The issue to 

 whites increased until June 30, 1866, when 

 issues to freedmen and refugees were about 

 equal. Since September the number supported 

 of both classes has diminished. Rigid scrutiny 

 has been exercised to prevent issues to any but 

 the absolutely destitute, and parts of the ration 

 not actually needed were cut off. Officers have 

 been directed to hold each plantation, county, 

 parish, and town, responsible for the care of its 

 own poor, but to very little purpose, for with 

 few exceptions the State authorities have failed 

 to contribute to the relief of the class of per- 

 sons supported by the bureau. Upon the 

 application of State officials, special issues have 

 been made to certain States for the support of 

 their pauper population. Rations are sold to 

 teachers, and agents of benevolent societies, 

 under the same rules that apply to such pur.- 

 chases made by commissioned officers. Bureau 

 hospitals receive the usual freedmen's ration. 

 In order, however, that none might be en- 

 couraged in indolence, and to encourage in- 

 dustry and thrift among the freedmen, the issue 

 of rations, except in certain cases, was sus- 

 pended after the 1st October, 1866, in accord- 

 ance with the recommendation of General 

 Howard, embodied in the following order of 

 the Secretary of War : 



WAU DEPARTMENT, BUEEAP OF E. F. AND A. LANJSB, ) 

 WASHINGTON, August 17, 1866. $ 

 Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War : 



SIR : In view of the fact th'at charges are con- 

 stantly made by a large number of prominent cit- 

 izens in the South and elsewhere that persons are fed 

 by the bureau in idleness, and in consideration of 

 the statements made by the Inspectors, Generals 

 Steedman and Fnllerton, implying that the people 

 who labor for support are rendered idle by the 

 promise, or hope, of rations from the Government; 

 and further, considering that the crops are suffi- 

 ciently matured already to prevent actual starvation, 

 I recommend that, on and after the first day of Sep- 

 tember next, the issue of rations be stopped, except 

 to the sick in regularly organized hospitals, and to 

 the orphan asylums for refugees and freedmen al- 

 ready existing, and that the State officials, who may 

 be responsible for the poor, be carefully notified of 

 this order, so that they may assume th'e charge of 

 such indigent refugees and freedmen as may not be 

 embraced in the above exceptions. 



Yery respectfully, your obedient servant, 



0. 0. HOWARD, 

 Major-General, Commissioner. 



Approved, to take effect 1st October, August 23, 

 I860. E. M. STANTON, 



Secretary of War. 



Official: JAMES ELDRIDGE, A. A. A. General. 



Much of the land assigned to the use of the 

 freedmen before the close of the war, has been 

 restored to its original owners. The amount 

 of land still in possession of the bureau is 272,- 

 231 acres. The aggregate number of parcels 

 of town property, not included in the above, 

 which have been in possession of the bureau, 

 is 3,724, of which 2,605 have been restored, 

 leaving a balance of 1,119 parcels of town 



