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many instances, in my district, a source of cruel oppression to the freedmen. The rule laid down by ethical writers that the sure consequence of obedience to law is a security to the quick enjoyment of [[strikethrough]] what [[/strikethrough]] civil rights and liberties, does not prove good in the ease of our freedmen. The most ordinary enjoyment of what should be the rewards of common subordination to existing laws and to honest industry is denied them by the agents of the law and the keepers of what were once considered social rights. Whom the most frivolous pretexts to and changes, they are arrested, and frequently after a mere mockery of trial are incarcerated in some loathsome prison there to drag out days of miserable wretchedness until the matter comes to the attention of some one who is able and willing to avail himself of sufficient social and military influence to get them released. Numerous instances of this charac[[ter]] are coming under my observation daily. In some cases I exercise sufficient influence to get them re[[leased]] but the policy of interfering with the civil authorities is so dubious that I am seriously embarrassed in doing, or attempting to do, what I feel that the most common justice requires, in behalf of many such persons. I feel that, for the better security of the colored people, more authority should be vested in the Bureau - giving the Commissioners of States, and the Superintendents of Districts the power and right to interfere in cases where they may be satisfied of the injustice of sentences of courts against colored men. It seems to me a lamentable fact that,       

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