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Excerpt from The Case of Gen. O. O. Howard, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C The preceding statements are matters of history, those which fol low are based upon the evidence before this Court. At this point, it is proper to state one of the peculiarities of this act of March 3, 1865, as upon it was based all subsequent legisla tion which derived from it a certain coloring, common to all of them. This act, among other things, gave to the Commissioner the control of all subjects relating to Refugees and Freedmen from rebel States, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the head of the Bureau, and approved by the President. That which distinguishes this law is a grant of power to a Bureau officer to an extent before unknown in the legislation of the country, making him practically independent of the head of the Department. Thus ordered to take charge of this Bureau, and as a military officer bound to obey orders, General Howard found it necessary to organize an entirely new work, for which there were no formulas or precedents for guidance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.