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age without regard to color or political rights.  The collection of this tax from the freedmen has been suspended until further orders, by authority received from Dist Hd Qurs.
   No Freedmen's Court has been organized.  The citizens of the County were invited, through the County Court at their last session, to select a man to represent their interests in such a tribunal but declined doing so.  The freedmen also are equally indisposed to select a representaive of their interests to sit on such a court.  Such cases as have arisen, therefore, I have heard and decided myself, examining the witnesses under oath in all cases of importance, and observing, as far as possible, all the formalities of an ordinary court of law.  The trial of criminal cases, in accordance with the instructions contained in the Circular from our Hd Qrs of March 12th 1866, has been committed to the civil authorities, but the change  is of so recent a date, that an opinion can hardly be formed, as yet, upon the working of the new system.  The Fence Law may be regarded as oppressive to the interests of the freedmen was not acted upon at the last session of the County Court, but was postponed until the April session. 
   The freedmen are very generally showing a disposition to labor and cases of vagrant idleness are almost unknown. Many are 


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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-21 14:16:05