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will do more to disturb the relation of the Freedmen to the whites of the state than anything which has yet been done. If the Militia is organized as forshadowed by the Governor's proclamation, and endorsed by the President of the United States, in his despatch to the Governor, I have no idea that the Freedmen will remain quiet laborers in the cottonfields. They are excited and partially armed. They have some idea of what war is; they certainly know all about slavery, and have no idea of returning to any such condition. That collisions will occur, that a disturbed state of society will be the result, there is no question. The hope of organizing the labor of the state in such a way that the Freedmen will return to the Fields, and assist in recruiting the agricultural wealth of the state as free laborers seems to vanish with the promulgation of this Militia order. 

When the white people are properly armed, and the federal troops withdrawn, the Freedmen can be forced to work on the Plantations, - but not as free laborers.

The members of the late State Convention have visited me, and are anxious to have me prepare