STUART ELDRIDGE, _Lieutenant, Acting Assistant Adjutant General_. I have written to Governor Sharkey, and explained to him how this order can be put in force in this State, and will do all I can to secure its success, and to aid the civil authorities to discharge their duties. I presume the legislature of this State, which is to meet in October, will take up this matter immediately, and arrange some plan by which the State authorities can take complete charge of freedmen affairs, and relieve the officers of this bureau. There is a jealousy of United States officers existing among the State officials that makes it disagreeable to perform any duty which is liable to conflict with their authority. When General Howard's Circular No. 5 was issued, I thought it was the intention that military courts should be established for the purpose of taking the administration of justice among the freedmen out of the hands of their old masters, and placing it under the control of their friends for a short time--until the citizens of the south were reconciled to the change, and until their feeling of hatred for their former slaves had abated; that a complete restoration of rights, privileges, and property was to come after a period of probation, in which they should give some evidence of their changed feelings. I have thought much on this subject, have watched the development of feeling among the southern people, and am satisfied that the time for such a restoration has not yet arrived. The order of General Swayne and the proclamation of General Parsons are unexceptionable in form. If justice to the freedmen can be secured by the means indicated in these documents, and if the process be not too expensive, and if ruinous delays be not allowed, then, it may be, all this movement will be good. But it seems to me that so delicate a matter cannot be smoothly managed in the present temper of Mississippi. I am aware that it is the policy of the government; that we must trust these people some time; that the establishment of the Freedman's Bureau is (as soon as martial law is withdrawn) a violation of the spirit both of the State and federal constitutions; that the officers of the bureau have no interest in common with the white citizens of the State, and that the bureau is an immense expense to the general government, which should be abolished as soon as compatible with the public interest.