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War Department, 
BUREAU OF REFUGEES, FREEDMEN, AND ABANDONED LANDS,
Washington, December 1st, 1868. 
Brvt. Brig. Genl. O. Brown, 
Asst. Commissioner, 
Richmond, Va. 
General: 
I have carefully examined those parts of your report urging the necessity of continuing the operations of this Bureau in Virginia. The reasons presented are worthy of grave consideration. 
I have no doubt that a continuance of the Bureau in those states not yet reconstructed would in many respects be beneficial to the freedmen, but I do not think its continuance absolutely necessary or adequate without other aid to protect their lives, or to secure to them their political rights. The primitive object of the Bureau, as I understood and interpreted the law, was to give "relief" in