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influences and authority for at least two years. Some time must necessarily elapse before the labor system can be so organized as to work successfully & satisfactorily to all concerned Until that time arrives the planters will to a considerable extent depend upon the Bureau to control labor and make it reliable and the freedmen will look to it for protection &c. I am convinced from observation and from repeated conversations with intelligent & influential men with whom I have become acquainted in my official capacity that the removal of the Bureau at an early period would be followed by doubt and uncertainty on the part of one class and distrust and demoralization on the part of the other. The labor system organized and put into operation by the Bureau would be