men in counties not permanently under martial law to
resort to the civil courts for a redress of their grievances.
At the same time the civil authorities were informed, respect-
fully but firmly, that state laws making discriminations
between citizens on account of color and race could not be
enforced, and that all prosecutions or suits growing out of
events connected with the late war were strictly prohibited.
The higher executive and judicial officers of the state, as a
rule, admitted the justice of his order, and as a consequence,
no serious conflicts between the civil and military occurred. ¹

In December, 1866, Governor Humphreys applied to
General Wood for permission to disarm the freedmen of
the state in conformity with the state law prohibiting them
from carrying arms without special licenses. It was cur-
rently believed that there was to be a negro insurrection
about Christmas time. The freedmen had conceived the
notion that the government intended to divide the lands of
their late masters among them as a sort of Christmas present.
Governor Humphreys believed that when the negroes dis-
covered their mistake, they would rise against the whites
and inaugurate a general massacre. General Wood, believ-
ing that there was no ground for this apprehension, and
regarding the state law prohibiting freedmen from bearing
arms as unjust and unconstitutional, declined to give his

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