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0652

The Men's Clothing recently sent me by the Bureau will prove a great comfort and blessing among the aged and infirm, and those who through a hard winter, with large families have been unable to do more, than furnish the necessaries of life. The cold weather in these mountains, has been unusually severe, and those not well provided for, through their inability to lay up supplies for the winter, have in a number of instances, suffered severely – but received relief as far as we were enabled to supply their necessities.

There seems to be a disposition on the part of the whites not to enter into written contract with these people, until after the Election, hoping thereby to influence their vote, in favor of parties whom they may select, and against the adoption of the constitution, framed by the convention now in session. They also in many instances hire them by the day, while others employ them by the month, without any special arrangements being made to continue them in service. They are fearful however of turning them off altogether, as they certainly need their labor – notwithstanding many of them are advocating the introduction of white labor, to the entire exclusion of the colored man. This however will not succeed and I have assured the freed people of its impracticability.

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