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. ANDREW JOHNSON, _President United States_. [From McPherson's History of Reconstruction, p. 12.] CIRCULAR No. 15. WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU REFUGEES, FREEDMEN, AND ABANDONED LANDS, _Washington, D.C., September 12, 1865_. I. Circular No. 13, of July 28, 1865, from this Bureau, and all portions of circulars from this Bureau conflicting with the provisions of this circular are hereby rescinded. II. This Bureau has charge of such "tracts of land within the insurrectionary States as shall have been abandoned or to which the United States shall have acquired title by confiscation or sale or otherwise," and no such lands now in its possession shall be surrendered to any claimant except as hereinafter provided. III. Abandoned lands are defined in section 2 of the act of Congress approved July 2, 1864, as lands "the lawful owner whereof shall be voluntarily absent therefrom and engaged, either in arms or otherwise, in aiding or encouraging the rebellion."