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had ever been here on duty in this Bureau. A record, at least so far as pertains to contracts, is contemplated by the first paragraph of General Orders, No. 3, from the Head Quarters of the Asst. Com. of Va., which provides that Asst. Supts. shall "examine and record all contracts made with Freedmen, in their respective sub-districts." But I incline to the opinion that the value of such a record, especially to the freed people, is not fully understood and appreciated by all Asst. Supts. In this sub-district none such has been kept, and I am informed that in others a like indifference has been manifested. It seems to me that this omission will hereafter prove greatly detrimental to the interests of the freed people, in districts where it has been neglected. Contracts, such as leases and indentures, which embrace the time of a year, or a period of years, ought not to be entrusted for safe-keeping to a loose file of papers, from which they may be easily lost or abstracted. And copies in the hands of infants, apprenticed or otherwise bound out, and whose rights we should be most careful to secure and maintain in view of their helplessness, will prove of little or no protection, as they can possess no adequate means of preservation. In my efforts to find suitable homes for orphan minors of Freedmen, I have encountered no obstacle so common and so potent, as the fact that indentures are not recorded in such a manner as to be permanently preserved. Men are not willing to receive infant orphans, unable to contribute even in a small degree to their own support, if they are not secured against desertion when they have reached their adolescence. And they argue, that if there be no record of the indentures, they have no such security, as even 2
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-21 15:42:20