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Office Supt. Bureau Refugees Freedmen and A. Lands
Dist. Nor. Ala. Huntsville Ala. January 31st 1867,

Maj. General Wager Swayne
Asst. Commissioner State of Ala,
Montgomery Ala,

General:

In compliance with orders from your office, in letter of the 23rd inst, I have the honor to submit the following touching the labor in the office; it has been very heavy, requiring the constant employment of myself and three clerks. One of my clerks is kept constantly employed, in making and executing contracts, from which a considerable sum of revanue is obtained, as will be perceived by reference to my account current for January ($134.15) Another makes reports and does the copying, and the third attends to the prosecution of claims, and miscellaneous correspondence.

During the Month the office, has been kept open without regard to hours. My own time has been devoted to the adjustment and settlement of the contracts, which expired December 31st 1866, and supervising contracts for 1867, checking the rapacity of employers, and expunging and prohibiting cruel and unreasonable exactions. The office has generally been filled with Freedmen, visiting it to make inquiries and obtain advice relative to their affairs.

State Laws.

It occurs to me, that the Laws of the State are singularly deficient, in their provisions for the recovery of justice in small suits. The righats of the common daily laborer, seem almost entirely ignored. The landlord has a lein on the crop of his tenants, for the payment of the yearly rental; the Merchant and speculator, are entitled to a lien upon a growing crop for money, stock or supplies furnished to