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v. DANGERS OF DEFEAT.

I warn our friends throughout the North of dangers of defeat in many places in the interior of some of the States of the South. I will mention Mississippi especially, then Louisiana and Texas. Of these three States Louisiana is in the best condition, but were it not for the vigilance of General Sheridan in promoting good order in that State it would be nearly as bad as Mississippi. The latter State is in a condition of Egyptian darkness. We have hardly fifty loyal white men in the whole State, and the colored men have had so much to content with, both from State and Federal officials, that thousands of them do not know that they have the right to vote; thousands more do not yet know more of freedom than simply to have heard that they were free. I have met many of them who have not received a cent of wages since the collapse of the rebellion. Unfortunately both the district commander, General Ord, and the commander of the Freedmen's Bureau, General Gillem, appear to have no more interest in the blacks, or even in the cause of loyal reconstruction, than simply to do as little as possible. - Some of the colored people living within a stone's throw of General Ord's headquarters hardly dare say their souls are their own. The military commanders in the State need reconstructing themselves, and it would be well if General Grant would practice the same sagacity in that State which he has done in others. 
I have the honor, to be very respectfully, your obedient servant,
THOMAS W. CONWAY.

War Department
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
General A.C. Gillem
Commissioner Vc
Mississippi:

General,

I enclose you the report of T.W. Conway I have been requested by gentlemen to write to General Ord with regard to the manner in which he is reconstructing Mississippi: with regard to the selectin of Registers, and upon other points. But as it is not my business proper I will only write to you. There seems to be an prevailing impression among some of the leaders that the Union element is not sufficiently fostered in Mississippi: that sufficient care is not taken to develop it. 

I have never thought that such a remark as that made by W. Conway with reference to yourself had the least shadow of truth. From my observation I have