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0891

the amount, in the second case to [[strikethrough]] secure [[/strikethrough]] pay it.  If it be objected to this plan that it partakes too much of the old system of slavery, my reply is that it is more practical than any plan that has yet been suggested, and I sincerely believe will prove more merciful to the negro, and as the hiring is only for a limited time it is easy to correct any abuses that may occur under it.  The ordinary course of providing for paupers cannot be adopted for no country has the requisite accommodations at its poor house.  The system of apprenticeship although carried out to some extent in this District has so many objections that it will not absorb all the children who are unable to support themselves, and it has the very objectionable disadvantage of separating children from their parents and that for a number of years, a state of affairs which would not exist in the plan I propose.  It might be provided that when in the opinion of the Freedmen's Bureau any person or family so hired were in a condition to be self-supporting they should be released from the contract by