WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE To provide for the transportation required by the Bureau of Refugees. Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands-- It is ordered. That upon the requisition of the Commissioner or the assistant commissioners of the Bureau transportation be furnished such destitute refugees and freedmen as are dependent upon the Government for support to points where they can procure employment and subsistence and support themselves, and thus relieve the Government, provided such transportation be confined by assistant commissioners within the limits of their jurisdiction. Second. Free transportation on Government transports and United States military railroads will be furnished to such teachers only of refugees and freedmen, and persons laboring voluntarily in behalf of refugees and freedmen, as may be duly accredited by the Commissioner or assistant commissioners of the Bureau. All stores and schoolbooks necessary to the subsistence, comfort, and instruction of dependent refugees and freedmen may be transported at Government expense, when such stores and books shall be turned over to the officers of the Quartermaster's Department, with the approval of the assistant commissioners, Commissioner, or department commander, the same to be transported as public stores, consigned to the quartermaster of the post to which they are destined, who, after inspection, will turn them over to the assistant commissioners or Bureau agent for whom they are intended for distribution. All army officers traveling on public duty, under the orders of the commissioners, within the limits of their respective jurisdictions, will be entitled to mileage or actual cost of transportation, according to the revised Army Regulations, when transportation has not been furnished them by the Quartermaster's Department. By order of the President of the United States: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General.
Executive Order—General Orders: 138
Executive Brief • At a Glance
All stores and schoolbooks necessary to the subsistence, comfort, and instruction of dependent refugees and freedmen may be transported at Government expense, when such stores and books shall be turned over to the officers of the Quartermaster's Department, with the approval of the assistant commissioners, Commissioner, or department commander, the same to be transported as public stores, consigned to the quartermaster of the post to which they are destined, who, after inspection, will turn them over to the assistant commissioners or Bureau agent for whom they are intended for distribution.
Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis
Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.
Signed by President Andrew Johnson on September 16, 1865, this order concerns General Orders: 138. . That upon the requisition of the Commissioner or the assistant commissioners of the Bureau transportation be furnished such destitute refugees and freedmen as are dependent upon the Government for support to points where they can procure employment and subsistence and support themselves, and thus relieve the Government, provided such transportation be confined by assistant commissioners within the limits of their…
Key Directives & Operative Actions
All stores and schoolbooks necessary to the subsistence, comfort, and instruction of dependent refugees and freedmen may be transported at Government expense, when such stores and books shall be turned over to the officers of the Quartermaster's Department, with the approval of the assistant commissioners, Commissioner, or department commander, the same to be transported as public stores, consigned to the quartermaster of the post to which they are destined, who, after inspection, will turn them over to the assistant commissioners or Bureau agent for whom they are intended for distribution.
Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted
Policy Areas & Topics
The Framers' Constitutional Council
1787 PrismEvaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.
"When the President acts in absence of either a congressional grant or denial of authority, he can only rely upon his own independent powers, but there is a zone of twilight in which he and Congress may have concurrent authority."
James Madison
Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy
"Power is of an encroaching nature, and it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." — Federalist No. 48 (1788)
Madison would view this order with watchful scrutiny. Operating in the 'Zone of Twilight' where Congress is silent, each such directive establishes an administrative precedent that steadily expands the executive perimeter at the expense of legislative primacy.
Alexander Hamilton
The Energetic Executive & Unified Command
"The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength must be under the direction of the single hand of the Executive." — Federalist No. 74 (1788)
Hamilton would forcefully champion executive discretion here. For foreign entanglements, commerce defense, and national security, deliberative assemblies are too slow and faction-ridden. A unified, energetic Executive exercising swift command is precisely what the Philadelphia Convention intended for national preservation.
George Mason
Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment
"The president will be surrounded by flatterers and sycophants... and the great powers of the executive will gradually absorb the liberties of the people." — Cato IV (Anti-Federalist, 1787)
The Anti-Federalist prism advises continuous democratic vigilance. Even routine administrative directives aggregate centralized federal power away from town halls and state assemblies toward a distant executive apparatus.
Five Measurable "Constitutional Friction" Dimensions
An objective audit measuring potential separation-of-powers tension against the United States Constitution and established Supreme Court doctrine.
Legislative Encroachment & Purse
Administers commerce or fiscal programs requiring ongoing statutory delegation and legislative oversight.
Executive Scope & Faithfulness
Exercises standard supervisory executive authority to faithfully execute existing statutes.
Federalism & State Sovereignty
Creates friction with the Tenth Amendment by conditioning state grants, mandating local compliance, or preempting state police powers.
Due Process & Individual Rights
Focuses on internal governmental operations with no direct impairment of private rights or property.
Youngstown Jacksonian Tier
The order relies on inherent Article II executive discretion, civil service management, or foreign diplomacy where Congress has neither expressly approved nor prohibited action.
This order operates within Justice Jackson’s Zone of Twilight, resting upon concurrent presidential authority or congressional silence.
Scholarly & Legal Citations
Exec. Order, General Orders: 138 (Sept. 16, 1865), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-general-orders-138.