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199
Jan 25 6

J. W. Jones
Supt at Trenton Tenn.

Sir - yours of Jan. 15th, forwarded by Major Reeves, has been received. You will find all your inquiries answered, satisfactorily, I hope, in "Hints and Instructions", mailed you a few days since. On one or two points, however, I will add a few words:

1. If the former owners contracted to pay the usual wages, and in addition to that to give the laborers two or three acres of ground, it would not be injust to allow them, as clear profit, all the proceeds of the ground. The contract, whether written or parol, should be enforced.

2. It is not the policy of the Bureau to compel all persons hiring freedmen to make their contracts through the Bureau, but it is better for both parties that the Bureau be made a party. It will give greater

Transcription Notes:
in #2, changed "It is the policy" to "It is not the policy. . . ."