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HEADQUARTERS,
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
STATE OF LOUISIANA.
New Orleans, December 20th 1865.

Major General O. O. Howard
U.S. Army
Commissioner, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.

General,
I have the honor to enclose herewith for your information a copy of the form of contract which I have prepared to regulate the labor of the State during the coming year, and my circular explanatory of it.

It will be perceived that I leave the laborer as free as possible to contract in almost any way that he chooses to do, and to make such terms as he can - I only attempt to keep such supervision over him as will as much as possible protect him from wrong.

What I regard as the most important feature in the contract is the provision made for schools on a permanent, self-supporting basis, after other sources of revenue have failed.

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