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local attachments; but unfortunately, I have heard it said that instead of settling themselves as laborers on their old homes, in many instances they are disposed to settle near by, so as to have facilities for committing depredations on their former masters.- 

22. Entirely so  23. None that I know of.-

24. The two races seem to be getting along very harmoniously at present. The blacks understand their altered condition of freedmen and the necessities and responsibilities imposed by it, much better than they did last year.- I am satisfied that there is no hostility between the two races. The whites now find great difficulty in procuring sufficient labor to work their farms. Hence of necessity they must cultivate the good-will of the blacks.- I find it universally the case that the greatest quiet and harmony, as well as orderly industry and progress in cultivating the crops, prevails with those planters who have satisfied their laborers that they will always be treated with kindness and justice, and who at the same time show the greatest fairness and decision in discharging them instantly on their failure to comply with their contract for service. The negro is naturally a kind-hearted, inoffensive (Excepting always his propensity to theft, and the temptation to theft is in a great measure removed where he has steady employment at fair wages) and well-behaved being, where he is well-treated, but great firmness is required to hold him steadily to his work according to his contract.-

25. I know of none, except the case of a young man who was fined by the Freedmen's court for beating a colored boy with some cruelty.-

26. Not many.-

27. They are generally a thriftless and improvident race, satisfied to provide for present wants, with little care for the future.- 

28. In the general, nothing like so good. But those who have steady employment at fair wages ought to be better off, if they would take care of their money and not dissipate it in whiskey and the like.-

29. I think that such a system at present would be ruinous to both white and black.- 
I have thus endeavored [[strikethrough]] thus endeavored [[/strikethrough]] to answer all your questions, Lieutenant, with the utmost candor and thoughtfulness.- If the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau would generally circulate printed copies of your questions and procure answers to them, they would [[strikethrough]] procure [[/strikethrough]] obtain a vast fund of useful information for the Agricultural Commissioner. Let me ask you to make this suggestion to Col. Brown or Gen. Howard

Very respectfully yours
I.R. Watkins. 

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-28 11:56:26 added punctuation - corrected a word? ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-28 12:29:40 confirmed other word as steady, but unsure of word in first paragraph with the smudge still.