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the Bureau.  It now seems to be conceded by all, that just such a Bureau under the past and existing status of the country was a happy thought and has and will yet further tend (when rightly conducted and understood) to benefit both white and black.

There seems to be from some cause, a great reluctance on the part of Freedmen to enter into contracts for labor for the next year. In this office in December of last year over one thousand contracts were entered into for labor, and for December of this year only seven contracts. 

J.F. Gregory Supt Maury Co. reports Jany 2d 67. 
The Freedmen will soon be looking for new houses, and I shall endeavor to secure good ones for them. There has been many complaints made by Freedmen that they have not been settled with for their last years (1866) labor and in many instances parties have positively refused to pay them. Quite a number have been summoned by me to obtain a settlement, and in some cases I have succeeded in making a settlement satisfactory to the Freedmen