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[[Embossed stamp]] CONGRESS [[/Embossed stamp]]

as threatened, to be protected in their rights as well as punished for their misdeeds, to be instructed in their duties and treated as men with immortal souls rather than as beasts of burden or machines for pulling cotton. They need a guardian rather than a jailor or hangman.

In the immediate presence of United States troops well officered, they are tolerably safe from wrongs or oppression. But 20, 30 or 50 miles back in the country, I fear that the fast young men, and the ignorant "Georgia Crackers," anxious to have sombody lower down than themselves, will have it all their own way, and the negro will find himself in a hornet's nest, despite the wishes of the better classes. 

In such localities, much will depend on the character of the local agent, and his ability to use the U.S. troops to enforce his decisions. A good agent, with twenty effective troops at his command, can set every 
able-bodied negro at work, compel the strong to support the helpless, punish vagabonds and criminals, and make the whole county prosperous by its industry. A penal colony or plantation in every county under charge of a good lieutenant or non-commissioned officer and a dozen soldiers, where all incorrigibly idle, vagrant, and vicious negroes should be set at work with a chain on the leg and a bayonet in the rear, would settle the labor question in a month; especially if wrongs perpetrated against the negroes were promptly punished. The highest talent and the most perfect integrity are