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G 16
Memorandum of Genl. Gibbons' letter.

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

States that the care and subsistence of the Freedmen of the South is likely to prove an expensive & troublesome matter. The recent order of Col. Brown upon this subject, does not cover the case. 

Thinks it proper to punish whites who turn destitute women & children out of doors, but there is no justice or propriety in punishing them for not giving to their former slaves, what in many cases they have not for their own use - the means of subsistence. 

Suggests that, "In each county whenever old & decrepid people or families of destitute women & children are reported to the Bureau, as unable to support themselves, let there be public notice given that on a certain day these will be hired out at auction - In no case will man & wife be separated, nor families be broken up - the conditions of the hiring to be, that for the period of one year, the person hiring shall furnish food & shelter & so many suits of clothes to the persons hired, who shall be required to do such labor as they are capable of - Bids to be first called for from persons who are willing to pay for the services of those hired, & the highest bid to be taken. If none are offered, there bids to be invited from persons who "are willing to take care of the persons hired on receiving pay - The lowest bid in this case to be "taken. In the first case the Freedmen's Bureau to receive the amount, in the second case to pay it."