After stating the nubmer of Bureau officers and employees in this State, with their salaries, and that nine thousand negroes were supplied with rations last December, ten thousand two hundred and sixty in January, and nine thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight in February, the report says:

"A majority of the freedmen ro whom this subsistence has been furnished are undoubtedly able to earn a living if they were removed to localities where labor could be procured. The necessity for issuing rations to this class of persons results from their accumulations in large numbers in certain places where the land is unproductive and the demand for labor is limited. As long as these people remain in the present localities, the civil authorities refuse to provide for the able-bodied, and are unable to care for the helpless and destitute among them, owing to their great number and the fact that very few are residents of the counties in which they have congregated during the war. The necessity for the relief extended to these people, both able-bodied and helpless, by the Goverment will continue as long as they remain in their present condition, and while rations are issued to the able-bodied they will not voluntarily change their localities to seek places where they can procure labor."

It then goes on to state that when the affairs of the Bureau have been properly administered there has been no conflict between it and the citizens, and adds:

"But in many places where the agents are not men of capacity and integrity a very unsatisfactory condition of many things exists. This offensive interference of the agents of the Bureau with the relations between the planters and their hired freedmen, causing vexatious delays in the prosecution of labor, and imposing expense and costs in suits before the authorities[?] about trivial matters that could readily be adjusted by the friendly advice of a sensible[?] man. The effect produced by the action of this class of agents is bitterness and antagonism between the whites and freedmen, a growing prejudice against the government among the planters and expectations on the part of the freedmen that can never be realized. Where there has been no such interference or bad advice given to the freedmen by the agents of the Bureau there is a growing feeling of kindness between the races and good order and harmony prevail.

"As an evidence of the manner in which this arbitrary power is exercised, we would state that an agent of the Bureau, presiding in Accomac county, decided a question of title to land as follows: A colored man, who was freed twenty years ago by his master, and who was permitted through the kindness of his master to make his home on the plantation wherever he chose, set up a claim to ten acres thereof around a cabin in which he had lived for ten years. The agent decided that the colored man had acquired title to the ten acres by adverse possession, and forbade the owners of the plantation from bringing the question again before his court, or any other court on pain of imprisonment.

"These agents exert the widest latitude in the exercise of their judicial functions, trying questions involving title to real estate contracts, crimes and even actions affecting the marital relations. We witnessed the trial of a divorce case before the sub-agent at Charlottesville. The trial occupied about ten minutes, and resulted in a decree of divorce."

The report recommends that the services of the officers of the Bureau in Virginia be dispensed with, and that the duties be performed by the officers commanding the troops in the department, and state that the recognition of the civil rights of the freedmen, as evidenced by the changes made in the laws of Virginia, render the freedmen perfectly secure if left to the care of the law and the protections of the troops.

On the subject of the influence of the Bureau, the report says:

"In our judgement the affect produced has depended wholly on the character of the officers. Prudent and industrious freedmen rarely call upon the Bureau for advice or assistance. It is the idle and worthless who look to it for support. Among these, however, we do not mean to include the infirm and helpless. The mass of the freedmen have an idea that the Bureau possesses some mysterious power to serve them, and that if they fail to secure such a livelihood as they desire they can fall back upon it with a certainty of support. These ideas, it will be readily seen, lessen their efforts to procure employment and to support themselves and their families. They also regard the existence of the Bureau as evidence that the Government looks upon the white people of the South as their enemies, which is calculated to excite suspicion and bad feeling on their part."

The Commissioners commend Gen. Brown for "laboring faithfully and zealously to harmonize and protect the interests of both races" and conclude by stating that they made an investigation into the conduct of the officers of the Bureau in Virginia, outside of their official duties.