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your Asst. Sub. Asst. Comr. knows of no way whereby these verbal contracts can be inforced for a longer time, though in many instances good evidence can be produced of the existance of such contract.

Owing to the fact that the rioters, who without cause as provication assaulted the freedmen at Drummondtown, have not been punished and are not likely to be, the freedmen in that County are very timid, and it is to be feared that they will be controlled hereafter to a greater extent than heretofore, by lawless whites who are opposed to the best interest of the freedmen, and to the best interests of the Union.

Thought this race has the right of suffrage which is of incalculable advantage to them, yet your Agent is convinsed that there is one thing lacking that can substantially promote their happiness, and aid materially in perminantly recuring their rights, & that is education.  He is therefore using every effort to awaken in them a desire to rear their children under the influence of schools, and to give them such an educational training as shall efface every relic of their former degradation, command for them the respect of mankind and give them the ability to know, and