Viewing page 12 of 239

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

would not I am sure if they dared to do otherwise. All their sentiments and actions show this plainly. Nevertheless, there is hope for improvement in these people. Demonstration of the usefulness of the black man in a state of freedom is forcing them to acknowledge his manhood, and to do him justice. "John Brown's Soul is marching on" and the cause of free labor and the union is gaining ground. In the mean time the supervision of the Bureau is necessary until whites and blacks are educated into their new condition, and until the whites catch a little of that spirit of the times which demands equal justice for all men. 
These remarks apply to the majority, but there is an intelligent, spirited, and growing minority composed of union men and a few who have been known as "good southern men," whose watchword is freedom and equal rights for all mankind, and who are as true as steel.

I am - 
Very Respectfully
Your Obt. Servant
Marcus S. Hopkins
1st Lt. V.R.C. A.Supt. Prince Wm. Co. Va