The Commission further propose that to the general officer detailed as superintendent-general of freedmen be committed, until Congress shall otherwise provide, the general supervision throughout the United States of the colored population emancipated by the President's proclamation and by acts of Congress, and the duty of seeing faithfully carried out the plan of organization which may be adopted.

That to this officer, as head of the organization, all reports of department superintendents, and all requisitions by them for money or other supplies, be addressed, and that it be his duty to lay these, with such remarks thereon as he may deem proper, before the Secretary of War.

That if, as the freedmen's superintendencies shall increase in numbers and importance, the officer aforesaid shall be of opinion that it will be useful to call together from time to time the department superintendents to sit for a few days as a board for consultation and for comparison of mutual experiences, it shall be at his option so to do, and of such a board he shall be chairman.

That each resident superintendent shall report at least once a month to the proper department superintendent, who shall communicate said reports, with such remarks thereon and such recommendations in regard to any requisitions they may contain as to him may seem proper, to the superintendent-general.

That each assistant superintendent report to the proper resident superintendent, who shall communicate such report, with his remarks thereon, if any he deem necessary, to the proper department superintendent.

A competent surgeon and hospital steward should be appointed for each residency, and an assistant surgeon added when the number of refugees attached to the residency requires it. It may be necessary at first to give these officers the pay and allowances of officers of the same rank in the Army; but it is very desirable that as soon as possible the proper relation between physician and patient be in a measure at least established by causing these medical men to depend in part for support on those whom they attend.

The importance of enlightened instruction, educational and religious, to these uneducated people, cannot be overestimated. It is pleasant to the Commission to be able to state their convictions, that the freedmen, in every district of country they have visited, eager to obtain for themselves, but especially for their children, those privileges of education which have hitherto been jealously withheld from them, may already be depended upon to support, in part, both teachers and pastors. The benevolent and religious societies of the North are aiding liberally in this good work, and the opinion of some of those who have taken a leading part in these philanthropic efforts (as expressed to the Commission) is that, with the aid of the freedmen themselves, they will be able for the present and until the number of refugee freedmen shall materially increase, to supply in most cases the necessary literary and religious instruction. If in the organization of the various superintendencies this opinion should prove to be correct, it is well. But organized efforts of private benevolence are usually uncertain in their duration, and a greatly increased immigration of refugees may so augment the number of freedmen needing instruction that the demand for school teaching and pastoral care wupply. In that case it may be necessary in certain locations that Government for the time being detail a chaplain to take the religious