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Greenville Alabama 
March 8, 1867

Major Genl Howard
Freedmans Bureau
Washington City
DC

Sir
I beg leave to call your attention to the enclosed letter to Mr. Buckly. I have been deeply impressed with the importance of the matter. More important now than before because it is proposed to invest the Freedmen with the right of suffrage. Ignorant as they now are, they will necessarily be mere puppets in the hands of artful & unprincipled demagogues, or be swayed in the votes which they will give, by the Planters who happened to have them in their employment. They must be educated - and to do this effectually, you must interest the sympathies of the more intelligent portion of the white people in their education. Now, how can this be so well done, as through the instrumentality