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of course is not sufficient to cover the entire field in Georgia. If I had means to pay agents I should have no trouble in this direction. Many officers are so entirely unfitted by sympathy and inclination for duty in this bureau that their services can by no possibility be of advantage to it or this work. In South Carolina the field is tolerably well filled.  When Gen'l Meade's order suspending the seizure of abandoned lands came I had completed arrangements for taking possession of all the remaining abandoned lands contemplated in the act of congress not yet seized by the Treasury Depart!.

The stopping of our operations in this direction coming at the same time with the decision that a former abandonment does not forfeit the lands if the owner returns before such lands are seized by the U. S. Authorities, will effectually prevent this bureau from gaining possession of any more [[strikethrough]] more [[/strikethrough]] lands until the confiscation act shall be enforced. I hope that the great good this bureau is doing for this hapless race for whose protection it was organized will be properly understood by our legislators. It is now the only protection which these emancipated slaves have against their would-be-oppressors.  The freedmen all regard us as their only hope