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Office Assistant Commissioner,
State of Alabama.
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands
Montgomery, Ala. May 38th 1866.

[[stamp]]THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES[[/stamp]]

Major General Wager Swayne
Assistant Commissioner, &c:

General,
I have the honor of laying before you a report of my recent tour through the Northern-Central portion of Alabama.
My route not only took me over some of the public thoroughfares of the Sate, but compelled me to travel a hundred and twenty miles across the country by stage, and afforded me new opportunities for effort, and for gathering information, which, I hope, may not be without interest or value to you in your beneficent purpose to relieve the destitute, to educate and elevate the ignorant, and to promote the welfare of our common country.
As I entered upon my tour, I felt that the time has fully come for efforts to direct public attention to the vast importance of educating and elevating the children of freedmen.  During the past few months, one religious denomination after another in the South has passed