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better condition for the blackman than freedom.

The progress of the franchise law has resulted so far as I have been able to discover in an increased respect for them, by classes of citizens; and, I have no doubt but that it will in the course of a year or two, so improve and correct the administration of justice as to remove the few political and social evils which have heretofore operated to their disadvantage.

One of the very worst of these evils has been the facility with which a freedman could be imprisoned in county jail or incarcerated in the Penitentiary Magistrates (and their number is legion) on the most flimsey evidence have been in the habit of binding col'd men over in heavy bond to answer charges of larceny; and in numerous cadses, after a long confinement in our wretched county jail, a nolly [[nolle]] prosequi has been entered and they have been turned out, damaged in health and character. In many other