Second. In regard to slavery and the influence of that institution over the laws of the State, there are several important points to be considered. The people express an external submission to its abolition, but there is an evident desire on the part of some to get the matter within their control after the reorganization of the State. Others are anxious to substitute a gradual system of emancipation, or a modified condition of slavery similar to peonage, and still others seem to doubt that the President's proclamation of freedom and the laws of Congress have been final in disposing of the slavery question. There must be no hesitation on any of these points either by military or civil authorities. The whole system of slavery and slave labor must be effectually destroyed and the freedmen protected from the injustice of evil men before the people of Georgia get the State government under their own control. If a single particle of life is left in the institution, or the original guardians of it are allowed any influence in the reorganization of the State, they will resuscitate and perpetuate its iniquities if possible. In this regard the exceptions to the President's amnesty are exceedingly judicious, and should not be removed under any circumstances, except in special cases, until the new order of things has ben established and the affairs of the State are thoroughly under the control of men who have not been inimical to the United States or opposed to the policy of the Executive. From the fact that the State of Georgia has been under the control of three separate commanders, and no territorial limits assigned to my control, I have issued but few formal orders touching these matters, but through subordinates and in person have availed myself of every opportunity to impress upon the people everywhere the fact that slavery no longer exists in the land, and can never hereafter be restored. I have urged original masters to make agreements with freedmen for the continuance of their labor and to remunerate them therefor at stated rates, either in money or the products of the soil, and subject to such alteration hereafter as may be required by the orders of the Freedmen's Bureau. In no case have I countenanced idleness and sloth, holding it to be no kindness to the negro to allow his mistaken notions of freedom to cause a failure of the crops by untimely and injudicious exercise of liberty to cease from labor. It is due to the freedmen to say that they have as a general thing behaved with greater sagacity and subordination than might have been reasonably expected. The prospect for a full crop of grain in Central and Southern Georgia is very fair. But in the matter of enforcing law amongst the negroes there are peculiar difficulties to be overcome. In the words of General Cobb's communication, 'so completely has this institution (slavery) been interwoven with the whole framework of society, that its abolition involves a revision and modification of almost every page of the statute books of the States where it has existed." It is absolutely necessary that this work should not be delayed. I have already referred the case of a free man of color to department headquarters, with an indorsement touching upon some of the difficulties involved. I have specially called attention to the fact that "a free man of color" under the statute is punished for offense against the laws exactly as a slave. The provisions of General Orders, Numbers 21, current series, directing the restoration of civil law, are inadequate to meet the necessities of every case. The prohibitions to the acceptance of the President's amnesty exclude a very important class of officers of the civil law, the judges of the superior courts corresponding in other States to the circuit judges. This fact, coupled with the more important one that there is no justice in the laws existing in