People who will do these things, after such a war, and so much misery, while federal bayonets are yet around them, are not to be intrusted with the education and development of a, race of slaves just liberated. I have made this letter longer than it should have been, and may have taxed your patience, yet I do not see how I could have said less, and expressed my views on the subject. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, SAMUEL THOMAS, Colonel, Assistant Commissioner B.R.F. and A.L. for Mississippi and N.E. Louisiana. General CARL SCHURZ. No. 28. Mobile, Alabama, _September_ 9, 1865. Colonel George D. Robinson, 97th United States colored troops, states as follows: I was sent out to Connecuh, Covington, Coffee, Dale, and Henry counties, to administer the amnesty oath. I was at Covington myself, having officers under my orders stationed in the other four counties. I travelled through Connecuh and Covington; about the other counties I have reports from my officers. A general disposition was found among the planters to set the colored people who had cultivated their crops during the summer adrift as soon as the crops would be secured, and not to permit the negro to remain upon any footing of equality with the white man in that country. In none of the above-named counties I heard of a justice of the peace or other magistrate discharging the duties of an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, nor did I hear of any of them willing to do so. I deem it necessary that some officers be sent out there to attend to the interests of the freedmen, in order to avoid the trouble and confusion which is almost certain to ensue unless the matter is attended to and regulated. I returned from Covington yesterday, September 8. GEO. D. ROBINSON, _Colonel 97th United States Infantry_. No. 29. MEMORANDUM OF A CONVERSATION BETWEEN WILLIAM KING, ESQ., OF SAVANNAH, AND CARL SCHURZ. Savannah, July 31, 1865. Question by Mr. Schurz. What are the ideas of the people in this State as to the future organization of your labor system? Answer. It is generally conceded that slavery is dead, but it is believed that the negro will not work unless compelled to. Money is no inducement that will incite him to work. He works for comfort, that is, he wants to gain something and then enjoy it immediately afterwards. He has no idea of the binding force of a contract, and it is questionable whether he ever will have. Question. So you consider the contract system, as it is now introduced here and there, a failure. Answer. In a number of cases that I know of it is a failure. The negroes are not doing the work they have contracted for. I know other cases in which they have remained with their former masters, work well, and produce fair crops. Question. In what manner, then, can, in your opinion, the free-labor system be made to work here?