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at this point, will be administered in a manner to render it a source of protection to every right, and of wrong and in justice to none. I am satisfied that these two gentlemen are all that are necessary: with the exception of a platoon of soldiers, under a sober and prudent officer, whose presence will not be essential, except for the moral influence over bad men, which that mere presence will exert.

I recommend if you attend me the liberty of the suggestion, that Rations be kept here, sufficient for the destitute crippled and diseased Freedmen, and occasioned by extraordinary cases, and those connected with the Hospital only; as the State has made ample provision for the supply of the destitute Whites; and if the Bureau continue to issue to these, they will receive in Butler a double quantity. I feel too, as expressed to Capt. Steinburg, that the indiscriminate issuance of these Rations has been the prolific source of the most extreme licentiousness and encouraged indolence and crime.

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