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to receive a complaint as sworn information, coming from a colored person, on the part of any authority vested with the powers of instituting, or regulating the proceedings, either in criminal or civil cases, yet I am convinced that if those cases in which freedmen appear as parties were turned over indiscriminately to the magistrates for trial or adjudication, that much oppression and injustice to the freedmen would result therefrom. - This opinion is the result of close observation of the manner in which the testimony of colored persons is received by a large proportion of the above named County officials, in this sub-district. 
Being cognizant of the fact that to a great extent the testimony of a colored person is not received as evidence and being personally acquainted with