"O.O. HOWARD, _Major General_, _Commissioner Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, &c._ "Approved June 2, 1865. "ANDREW JOHNSON, "President of the United States." ["General Orders No. 10.] "HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI, "_Vicksburg, Mississippi, August_ 3, 1865. "VII. This order, (Circular No. 5, paragraph VII, Bureau Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands,) however, must not be so construed as to give the colored man immunities not accorded to other persons. If he is charged with the violation of any law of the State, or an ordinance of any city, for which offence the same penalty is imposed upon white persons as upon black, and if courts grant to him the same privileges as are accorded to white men, no interference on the part of the military authorities will be permitted. Several instances have recently been reported in which military officers, claiming to act under the authority of the order above mentioned, have taken from the custody of the civil authorities negroes arrested for theft and other misdemeanors, even in cases where the courts were willing to concede to them the same privileges as are granted to white persons. These officers have not been governed by the spirit of the order. The object of the government is not to screen this class from just punishment--not to encourage in them the idea that they can be guilty of crime and escape its penalties, but simply to secure to them the rights of freemen, holding them, at the same time, subject to the same laws by which other classes are governed. "By order of Major General Slocum: "J. WARREN MILLER, "_Assistant Adjutant General_." In accordance with this order, where the judicial officers and magistrates of the provisional government of this State will take for their mode of procedure the laws now in force in this State, except so far as those laws make a distinction on account of color, and allow the negroes the same rights and privileges as are accorded to white men before their courts, officers of this bureau will not interfere with such tribunals, but give them every assistance possible in the discharge of their duties. In cities or counties where mayors, judicial officers, and magistrates will assume the duties of the administration of justice to the freedmen, in accordance with paragraph VII, Circular No. 5, issued from the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, and approved by the President, and will signify their willingness to comply with this request by a written acceptance addressed to the assistant commissioner for the State, no freedmen courts will be established, and those that may now be in existence in such localities will be closed. It is expected that the officers of this bureau will heartily co-operate with the State officials in establishing law and order, end that all conflict of authority and jurisdiction will be avoided. By order of Colonel Samuel Thomas, assistant commissioner Freedmen's Bureau for State of Mississippi.