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Jeferson County Ga.

Brig. Genl Davis Tillson
Decr 6th, 1865.

General:
On receipt of the information from you, that you had not received an official copy of the Resolution passed by the Convention &c I a ddressed a note to Mr. Baretta, the Secretary of State, requesting him to forward you such copy. Whether he has done so or not, I have not learned. I also received a copy of your address to the members of the convention in Milledgeville; for which please accept my thanks.

Believing it expedient & necessary that you should be fully advised of the true condition of matters relative to the duties of your office & being willing to render any service within my reach, to the accomplishment of what I consider to be the laudable & humane objects of the "freedmen's Bureau", is my apology for addressing you.

I regret to find that there is reason to believe that your instructions have not been fully carried out'& that the idea of a distribution of private property at Christmas, has not been corrected among the freedmen. And the consequence is that where propositions are made to them, relative to contracts for next year; the reply of four fifths of them, (so far as my observation goes,) is "I don't know, till I see what will be done at Christmas". An old freedman of irreproachable character, though possessed of a liberal share of that ignorant credulity which characterizes race, states that he went a few days since to the port at Thomastore, (in this County,) basked, "What provision will be made for the black folks at Christmas? Will we get land & supplies, or not?" He says the reply to him was "You will be provided for. We don't yet know exactly how, but it will all be right." So that he, like thousands of others, is resting perfectly easy' & when the Christmas holydays are over, will find