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Where rent is payable in a specific amount of rice there is no temptation to thoughts which increases the good will and confidence between the contracting parties- and [[??]] the labourer.

Some of my leasing Freedmen applied to me to rent my plantation to all of them until they could make money enough to purchase the property. I told them that I would do so upon condition that they would be true to themselves and just to me. I drew up a contract conditioned for 15 bushels of rice rental per acre and renewable at the end of the year if they behaved well which was signed by my freedmen and I promised to make provisions in my will for the fulfilment of my part of the contract.

I believed that in this measure I was making the best possible provision for my Freedmen most of whom had been born on my place, and that I was sustaining the benevolent purposes avowed in creating the Freedmans Bureau and easing them at once above the condition of hirelings.

My feeble frame does not permit me to pay personal attention to my property. I have not seen in any part of this growth [[?]] of the two last crops of rice grown there.
I have the honor to be General
W C Daniels