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good lands, have provisions, teams and money enough to make a crop, and are thriving so handsomely as to make one feel both proud and glad when I visit them.

I had proposed to make a rigorous examination into the cases of some of these settlers and to break-up the worst of them - those most destitute and most egregiously misled by their improvidence and folly - and insisting on these parties hiring with farmers who will treat and pay them well.  These conditions being carefully supervised by the Officer and Agents of the Bureau - but the Superintendent of the District informs me that this cannot be done, and I would respectfully ask what can be done, or must the evil go on, growing worse and worse every day? -

The few cases of injustice towards the blacks have almost invariably originated with one of the these following classes - namely first - disreputable men who never had any character in the county - second - old men whose ideas have become crystalized, and who cannot accommodate themselves to changed circumstances - third - idle women whose tongues are busier than their hands.

One of the difficulties I encounter is a propensity the Freedmen have to break their contracts.  In some cases they wander about the country either idly or seeking employment - but very often they go directly to a neighbor of the person whom they bad been employed, which neighbor I am very frequently inclined to believe has persuaded them to come to him by promising them higher wages, though the persons who promise unusually high wages I have found are the worst to pay - a fact which few of the Freedmen can yet appreciate.

In conclusion I must state that, so far as my experience has gone, the oft-repeated remark that "the nigger won't work" is false, and that under proper regulations, I believe he will become an honest, good, and useful member of society, but that locating at his pleasure, and that of unprincipled whites, on poor lands - subject to no control but the indolence and gross appetites engendered by slavery - will make

 

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-21 11:20:57