XV

the Regiments raised in this State, except those composed
principally of former slaves Of these latter, incomplete
parts of the 19th, 30th and 39th Regiments were received
early in May last. Since then no additional returns have
been made by the United States officers, and this Department
has been effectually deprived of the power to accomplish more
than it has done in the payment of the former master and the
slave Volunteer. However much this is to be regretted, no fault
is imputable to any of the State Departments, as the parties
whose names are borne on these rolls could not be paid until
they were certified to by the proper officer of the United States,
as being credited as a part of the quota of Maryland, and then
sent to the Executive and transmitted by him to us for payment,
I am not aware who is to blame, but the fact is undeniable that
none of the rolls of the remaining slave regiments have been
received for the past six months. Both the masters and the
Volunteers have thus been deprived of the bounty, which the
Treasury has always been prepared to pay.

The rolls returned of the free colored volunteers, being
found to contain so many errors, I refused payment of the
drafts of the City Register and County Commissioners, unless
certified, as containing the names of those ascertained to be
free. Notwithstanding this precaution, I have in some in-
stances, upon the faith of their certificates, paid to County
Commissioners in some of the Counties, and the Register of
Baltimore city, bounties for those represented as free who
were afterwards proven to be slaves. This Department was
thus compelled to pay twice the cash bounties for the same
volunteers. These errors in the representation of the City
Register and County Commissioners, I have sought without
success to have corrected, demanding that a re-payment be
made into the Treasury, as the 7th section of said Act, de-
volves upon them the responsibility of a proper disbursement
of the funds entrusted to them. A statement thereof is pre-
pared and embraced in the appendix to this Report. I would
ask that some effectual legislation be had to enforce the correc-
tion of these errors, and to compel the authorities of the City
of Baltimore and the Commissioners of the several Counties
to make report generally under oath of their proceedings in
disbursement of these bounties, shewing to whom, when and
in what manner they have been paid. The labors connected