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12.

this year, than at any time since the breaking out of the rebellion; that the prejudice against the negro—notwithstanding the whites all admit that he is working well—is stronger now than at any time since the war. In one moment the rebel planters praise, and the next declare that the negro and the white man can never get along together, that there must be a war of races, etc.; that there are hundreds of cases in Fayette County, in which the freedmen were cheated out of their crops last year, and when they go to the lawyers at Somerville for Counsel, they are told, that for the sake of peace they had better let it go, that if they go to law with these men to recover their rights they will arouse the anger of the planters, who will put upon their tracks, the diabolical scoundrels who compose the Ku Klux Klan, who would drive them from their crops and if they did not murder them, they would at least compel them to leave the country. The negroes of course accept this advice and putting up with their lofe go back to work, not satisfied, but of the opinion that "half a loaf is better than no bread."

Gibson Co.— Mr. Isaac Porter, Agent in charge, reports as follows:

I regret being obliged to report lawlessness of all kinds and outrages by whites against blacks, much on the increase during the past