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War Department,
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.
Washington, January 31st 1865.

Col. O. Brown
Asst. Commissioner
Richmond. Va.

Colonel,
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Communication of Mr. Geo. Mayo of Mattox Co. Va dated Jany 16th, bearing your endorsement of the 28th inst. relating to the settlement of freedmen on lands, and living there against their will, and in reply are instructed by Major General Howard to inform you that the Bureau cannot recognize the principle of compulsory labor, nor that which allows the Freedmen a certain time in which to contract for the coming year, and should he fail to make contracts, to reenslave him virtually for that period, by offering his services for sale at public auction.

The Bureau is opposed to feeding idle or indolent mendicants, but discriminates between those who can't and those who won't work, assisting the one, and teaching the other that  although free, and partially so by the action of the