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J6

Office United States District Attorney,
Eastern District of Arkansas,
Little Rock, Ark., October 9th, 1865.

Maj. Gen. O.O. Howard
Lieutenant Freedmen's Bureau
Washington D.C.

Dear Howard

It being intimated to me that, in all probability, the local agents of your Bureau, now occupied by Military officers of the U.S., will soon be changed and resident civilians as clerks of the courts of the different counties, placed in charge thereof, induces me to address you upon the subject. And you must accord to me some knowledge of the Southern character, and of the present feeling of the late masters toward the present freedmen, inasmuch as I have lived amongst them for the past 16 years, and been a slave holder myself, and from my position in society and business relations have had opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of this subject which few northerners have even processes.

I desire you to reflect that the Southern mind has, as yet, undergone no change, so far as regards