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0735

to produce.  The policy of the "unrepentant rebels" in my Dist is to tax muscle and exempt capital, build up the wealthy and oppress the poor and especially the Freedmen. I learn that the poll tax paid by colored men in some parts of Westmoreland County amts to from $5.75 to $6.10. I shall examine into the Legality of the Collection of such tax and make a more extended report of the same next month.

The Colored people I find, notwithstanding their surroundings, to be orderly well behaved industrious law abiding Citizens well disposed toward the government and their rebel enemies, and have been so far self sustaining, it may be possible that before the next crop is made there might be some destitution, but I trust such will not be the case. Most of the Colored men are already employed for the present year. I find very few idle, so far as I have had intercourse with I urged upon the Freedmen the importance of saving their earnings securing homesteads and educating their children.

The white people here are opposed to the "Bureau" and desire its removal. Thomas Jones, Esq Dist Attorney of this Dist., in a late speech at Westmoreland C.H. said "The Yankee Bureau would soon be removed from Warsaw and then we'll have the reins in our own hands, and bring these ignorant negros to terms" the words uttered by this man Jones are but the 

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-22 14:52:00 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-22 15:03:39 to add NARA ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-22 19:11:18 In the last paragraph, under Thomas Jones' quote, the previous transcriber understood "and THEN we'll have the reins", but I believe it might say "and THEIR we'll have the reins". "then" does make a bit more sense but the way the original writer wrote the word more closely resembles the word "their", especially when you consider the writing as a whole, ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-22 19:37:07 Reviewed previous reviewer's thoughts about "their" vs "then". I come down on the side of it being "then", for 3 reasons. The writer is diligent about dotting his "i"'s, and there is no dotted letter in this word. Second, the word "their" appears a few lines above the word in question, and it clearly looks different. Third, he has a tendency to break the flow of his "n"s--look at how he writes the n's in "Jones", "Westmoreland", etc. So, I edited the word back to "then"