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IL 43 (RF & AL Vol 2) 1866

No. 2.

BUREAU REFUGEES, FREEDMEN, AND ABANDONED LANDS, STATES OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE, 
Assistant Commissioner's Office, Nashville, Tenn., January 23, 1866.

GENERAL: Kentucky— I have the honor to report progress in the State of Kentucky, where for the last two weeks, I have devoted myself to the establishment of agencies and an inspection of the condition of the freedmen. I spent five days at Frankfort, the State capital, where I mingled freely with the members of the legislature. On the 11th instant I was present at a convention of the most prominent agriculturists of the State. I declined taking any part, publicly, in said convention, but met the State agricultural board in private session. I had very satisfactory interviews with them and other leading planters in the State. I convened the freedmen in large numbers at Frankfort, Lexington, and other points, and enlightened them as well as I could in reference to their new relations, their duties, and obligations.

I have made forty-one (41) appointments in the State; all of them are citizens excepting three. I selected the best men I could find for the positions. I consulted the governor of the State, the department commander, senators, representatives, and the freedmen. In many instances our superintendent is the county judge. Hon. William P. Thomasson, our superintendent at Louisville, is an old citizen, of good solid character, age, experience, heart, conscience, faith, and courage. He was formerly in Congress, and is an able lawyer. He will, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, discharge his duty fearlessly. 

On the part of many of the politicians in Kentucky there is a bitter opposition to the bureau. Governor Bramlette is most cordial in his expressed approval of my official action, and, I think, earnest in his desire that the assembly so legislate as to give to the freedmen impartial justice. A majority of the legislators officially denounce the bureau, and pronounce its presence in Kentucky a usurpation of power, and the act of Congress by which it was established