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12

out of it by proper example and encouragement

The want of an assured future operates most depressingly on all classes; it has worried the whites into perfect abjectness; it keeps the colored population in a ferment of anxiety and wild, unreasonable expectancy, demoralizes labor, keeps out Northern Capital and enterprise, and prevents an adjustment of vast outstanding obligations, the settlement of which would throw quantities of cheap and excellent land into the market, breaking up the present large estates, that, owing to the poverty of their owners, are ruinous to the country.

I would call attention to one of the attendant evils and worst features of the prevailing poverty; — the untidiness of houses and gardens and personal uncleanliness. The latter I am informed by medical officers in my Sub. Dist. is appalling. They usually find the most ailing patients in bed and clothed. I believe a very large proportion of colored people do not divest themselves of their clothing at night, but keep their clothes on, Sunday's excepted, till they are worn out. Making due allowance for cold weather &c. I believe the difficulty is mainly one of ideas and habits. There is a popular  

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-10-07 14:48:21 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-10-07 21:58:51