I found a provost marshal of freedmen at Yazoo City--Lieutenant Fortu, who seemed to understand his duties well, and to have performed them satisfactorily. There was no officer of the bureau in either of the other counties. The whole country is in a state of social and political anarchy, and especially upon the subject of the freedom of the negroes, but very few who understand their rights and duties. It is of the utmost importance that officers of the bureau should be sent to all the counties of the State to supervise the question of labor, and to insure the gathering of the growing crop, which, if lost, will produce the greatest suffering. In no case ought a citizen of the locality be appointed to manage the affairs of the freedmen: first, because these men will wish to stand well with their neighbors and cannot do justice to the negro; and secondly, because the negroes only know these men as oppressors of their race, and will have no confidence in their acts. The officers of the bureau should be especially charged to impress upon the freedmen the sacredness of the family relation and the duty of parents to take care of their children, and of the aged and infirm of their race. Where a man and woman have lived together as husband and wife, the relation should be declared legitimate, and all parties, after contracting such relations, should be compelled to legal marriage by severe laws against concubinage. Where parents have deserted their children, they should be compelled to return and care for them; otherwise there will be great suffering among the women and children, for many of the planters who have lost the male hands from their places threaten to turn off the women and children, who will become a burden to the community. The two evils against which the officers will have to contend are cruelty on the part of the employer, and shirking on the part of the negroes. Every planter with whom I have talked premised his statements with the assertion that "a nigger won't work without whipping." I know that this is not true of the negroes as a body heretofore. A fair trial should be made of free labor by preventing a resort to the lash. It is true that there will be a large number of negroes who will shirk labor; and where they persistently refuse compliance with their contracts, I would respectfully suggest that such turbulent negroes be placed upon public works, such as rebuilding the levees and railroads of the State, where they can be compelled to labor, and where their labor will be of benefit to the community at large.