in the ninth section of the act approved April sixteen, eighteen hundred and sixth-two, to which this is supplementary, then it shall be lawful for the person or persons, whose services are claimed as aforesaid, to file such statement in writing or schedule setting forth the particular facts mentioned in said ninth section; and the said clerk shall receive and record the same as provided in said section on receiving fifty cents each therefor. Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That whenever the facts set forth in the said statement or schedule shall be found by the commissioners to be true, the said clerk and his successors in office shall prepare, sign, and deliver certificates, as prescribed in the tenth section of the act to which this is supplementary, to such person or persons as shall file their statements in pursuance of the foregoing section, in all respects the same as if such statements were filed by the person having claim to their service or labor. Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That all persons held to service or labor under the laws of any state, and who at any time since the sixteenth day of April, anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-two, by the consent of the person to whom such service or labor is claimed to be owing, have been actually employed within the District of Columbia, or who shall be hereafter thus employed, are hereby declared free, and forever released from such servitude, anything in the laws of the United States or of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That in all judicial proceedings in the District of Columbia there shall be no exclusion of any witness on account of color.
Speaker of the House of Representatives
President of the Senate pro tempore
Approved, July 12, 1862.
Secretary.
