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Greenville Ala, 
15th February, 1866.

Colonel, 
A sense of justice after a very close examination of forty or fifty cases within the last week, prompts me to suggest the propriety of a regulation, compelling persons to make contracts in the office of the assistant Superintendent, in his presence; and that he examine the freedmen as to any coersion or undue influence exercised over them, apart from the proposed employer. Cases have come to my knowledge where the freedmen are wholly ignorant of what they were signing and sometimes forced by threats to do so. In some instances , two neighbours are competing for the same negro, and come before the assistant Superintendent, claiming each a contract, and exasperated. In others, neighbours collude, become each others witness, and of course, are interested, not only to sustain these engagements