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400

July 26th 

Sir
Your com' of 20th inst requesting to be informed "whether an employer is bound to keep his hands and continue to feed them till the end of the Year or whether he can pay them up and discharge them upon the prospect of his crops proving a failure", has been received. The Asst Com'r directs me to say that all contracts of any nature whatever Approved by this Bureau, are equally binding on both parties, and an employer can no more discharge the freedpeople in his employment as a matter of his own choice, previous to the expiration of the contract, than though the employees were white persons. One is as equally binding as the other, and a party thus violating the Contract whether it be Court or Bureau, beccomes in all cases liable to the other party for damages. A Circular is about being