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at [[?]] wages, and paying [[?]] rents to those where they had been fighting; they have a hard lot, having no control or influence over the civil power, need being thus all the money of those whose prejudice against them is pertinent. The civil magistrates are usually freer from bias than any class of men in the community, but they fear public opinion, and done not, usually, under decisions which are not satisfactory to their own class. [[?]] are not to be trusted: they are often composed of the lowest class of the white community, and have no respect whatever for the rights of Freedmen.
The result of this is that there is practically no [[?]] for the wrongs of a colored man, especially since the fees of [[?]] are so high that but few can afford to employ a lawyer.
The absence of capital, the scarcity of money, the high rate of rents, the prejudice

Transcription Notes:
Some illegible words.