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CONDUCT OF THE AGENCY
We have investigated some of the charges made against agents of the Bureau, and in pursuing our inquiries on this point commenced with the assistant commissioner of the State Colonel E. Whittlesey, to whom we addressed the interrogatory: "Do you know of any person in the military service now on duty with the Freedmen's Bureau in this department who is or has been since entering upon the duty of his office engaged or interested, either directly or indirectly, in the cultivation of any lands with the Department". He answered "No." Subsequently he addressed us [[?]] to appended, in which he stated that, in order for assisting planters in hiring freedmen and trying fairly the experiment of free labor, he and some other officers of the Bureau had loaned money, and thus indirectly had an interest in cultivating farms. On receiving this note we addressed to Colonel Whittlesey further interrogations, a copy of which is hereto annexed, to which he replied in a communication hereto appended, disclosing the fact that he is interested in an equal partner with the Rev. Horace James of Massachusetts, former Captain and acting quartermaster Freedmen's Bureau, and with Mr. Winthrop Tappan, of Maine, in the cultivation of a large farm in Pitt County, N.C. He also stated there was a Captain F. A. Seeley, superintendent of the Bureau for [[?]] District, N.C., is interested in the cultivation of [[?]] in Wayne county, N.C., with a Mr Potter, and [[?]] Mr. Isaac Rosekranz, commissary subsistence, is [[?]] a Mr. Brooks in the cultivation of a plantation [[?]] North Carolina. 

In the above paragraph all the conversation between Gen. Steedman and myself upon the subject presented is omitted.

The question quoted as addressed to me was not uttered in my office. That question with a slight change of language was addressed to me in writing three days afterwards and answered in writing. As nearly as I can recollect, the conversation in my office on this subject was as follows. Genl. Steedman asked "Are any officers cultivating farms?" I answered "No Sir (or none) so far as I know except indirectly by furnishing money". After some remarks about charges that had been made, (though it was not stated by whom) he said "we want to know if any officers or agents are concerned in anyway directly or indirectly" I replied "If you wish it General I will put my answer in writing" To this he assented, and the conversation turned to other matters. There were present