Viewing page 227 of 274

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Office Sub-Asst. Com. Bu. of R.F.&A.L.
Sub-District of Mobile
Mobile, Ala., Aug 21st 1867.

O.D. Kinsman
Sub-Asst. Com. Bu. of R.F.& A.L.
Montgomery Ala,

Sir:-
In answer to so much of your letter of July 26th, as relates to the necessity of continuing destitute supplies to this District, I would respectfully state that, in my opinion, the special causes of distress and indigence which called forth the aid of the General Government no longer exist. The corn crop in this region is specially promising, and the industrious and capable can easily make arrangements with the liberal supplies already furnished them to ward off starvation. A numerous class of paupers has, it is true, sprung up, a class of rank growth, encouraged, I believe in no slight degree, by the comparative ease with which they have been enabled to obtain the means of living. This class may be called permanent paupers, and it is a class that will continue to exist and thrive, if at all encouraged, no matter whether the community is generally prosperous or otherwise. They are too indolent to labor or make attempt to find work without the sharp spur of necessity is ruthlessly applied to them. This permanent pauperism, it does not appear to me to be the object of the General Government to attempt to relieve or in fact deal with in any respect. In my