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want the work. I would suggest that an order be issued that boats should not carry any negroes from place to place and especially on to Washington & Baltimore without they can show a pass signed by the officer or agent of this Bureau that they are not under contracts. There are cases of this kind continually coming before me. Men who have left their wives before the time specified by law, and have taken up with other women, for the reason simply that the second woman has no children. While the first may have from 1 to 8 or 9 children with no visable means for their support unless the father married under the Slave Code is made to support them. Certainly it would not be just to take the children from the mother and give them to anyone else or even to the father in case he would take them if given him. I would suggest that the fathers be compelled to pay yearly something into the hands of the overseer of the poor, for the support of his children in case he will not take the mother of his children as his wife.

Very Respectfully
Your Obdt Serv't
Henry K. W. Ayres
2nd Lt. V.R.C. & Asst Supt B F. & A. L. 10th Dist Va

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-21 11:46:41 Henry W. Ayres Use "&" instead of "+" unless transcribing math. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-22 15:16:56