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about Eighteen months in consequence of our "Stay Law" and in such cases it takes half the wages to pay a Lawyers fee, so whether he sues it or not he is in a bad fix. He has done the labor and now cant get his pay He is discouraged and dont know what to do, and in some cases will not work at all. An immense number of such cases come before me, I do the best I can, and try to get them good places. When the end of this year comes and the contracts now in force are to be settled and some employers refuse to pay their hands as I believe they intend to do. There will be a fearful state of affairs. If employers act so badly now, what will they do when the crop is gathered and they need their hands no more. Such Employers think that there will be plenty of freedmen in the same condition as they have left their own and that in the general confusion that will then exist they can find some more willing to try the experiment again and again defraud their freedmen of their just wages and if these Freedmen can not get their pay, or at least [[strikethrough]] get [[/strikethrough]] not get it until a year and a half after it is due, they will not work at all. And if the Freedmen wont work the country is ruined

The Freedmen can find no protection for his person in the Civil Law. It is almost impossible to convict a white man for an offense committed against a Freedman. No jury  is impaneled that will weigh out to such an