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They say that when Gen. Voris told them in a speech to make contracts & get lands for next year. he meant that they must get houses to live to themselves & many of them are now building huts to live in, on worn out lands which the owners have little use for, & promising to pay from 60 to 120$ a year rent for such huts. Many are strolling over the country from place to place, sometimes work a few days 7 then go to whiskey shops & spend the money. There is a great deal of hog stealing & corn stealing going on & I think many intend to live by stealing & many expect to be fed  on Government rations. The farmers have no money to pay taxes with, or procure necessary supplies; the labor system is destroyed & unless some plan be early devised to obtain labor from some source depression & want will increase.

The negro lacks foresight care & voluntary industry - He needs a patron to guide & direct & control him. The whites are willing to pay him fair wages for his services & they will treat him fairly & will, if he conducts himself with propriety, encourage him & give him fair & good advice - but he is suspicious & afraid he will be put back in slavery. It is his interest as well as his employers & of the country generally that his labor shall be efficient & productive - but on the present plan of his views he will consume & not produce. No farmer cannot carry on his business profitably without constant and reliable labor - want of labor for three days at some seasons in the tobacco crop (the only one promising money) will lose the whole crop. All the negros as a general rule wish & intend to have

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-01-29 07:32:51