"I, --------, of the county of -------- and State of --------, do solemnly swear that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel or encouragement to persons engaged in hostility thereto; that I have neither sought nor accepted, nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatsoever under any authority or pretended authority in hostility to the United States; that I have yielded no voluntary support to any authority, pretended authority or constitution within the United States inimical thereto. So help me God!" Fredericksburg had no officer serving at that time who could take such an oath. Some of the officers had, at some time during the war, been active participants on the Confederate side, and those who were too far advanced in age to enter the army had sympathized with the Confederate cause and had otherwise aided it, therefore every officer, from Mayor down to policeman, was removed and their places supplied, in some few instances, by residents who took the required oath, but in most instances the appointees were strangers and citizens of Northern States, who had floated down South in search of some office at the hands of the military commander. The venerable and efficient clerk of the courts, Mr. John James Chew, who had held the office for forty years, was removed and an inexperienced and inefficient stranger was installed in his place and given the keeping and custody of our court papers and records. Many of the appointees of the Common Council were men of that class, and were therefore unable to conduct the affairs of the town, provide a revenue to meet the running expenses and pay the interest on the city bonds. The Military Council was placed in possession of the city government in 1867, and conducted public affairs on the revenues brought in by the tax bill levied by their predecessors by permission of the commanding general. In the latter part of 1867 the creditors of the town were demanding their money, and no money was in the treasury. They threatened suits to enforce payment of their dues, and in order to meet these obligations, on the 23rd of May, 1868, the Military Council passed a tax bill levying a tax of one dollar and a quarter on the one hundred dollars value of all real and personal property, and on all males over twenty-one years of age a capitation tax of three dollars, but the Commissioner of Revenue never made up his tax books and the tax was never collected. This state of things continued through the year 1869; therefore, when the Common Council of the people's own choosing took charge of the city government on the first of July, 1870, under the provisions of the new State constitution, they found municipal affairs in a wretched condition. THE NEW CHARTER FOR THE CITY.