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17

and surroundings the conflict of opinion is active, preponderating to the side of justice. The general treatment of the freedmen seems to correspond to this view of the administration of justice among them.

It is unfortunate for the people that they must suffer from the discouragement of no ways but bare subsistence this year  The despondency it endangers, tends to provoke illness.

I found no abuses of authority among the officers of the Bureau, and in frequent and extended conversations, as to the present aspect of affairs, with both Planters and Freedmen, found no definite views or plans for the future.

The scarcity of labor, and of means, and