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12 meet the frequently missing exigencies of this Bureau. I am, General Very respectfully, Your obt. servt, Brig. Gen. Asst Comsr Office Assistant Commissioner Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands Montgomery, Ala August 11th 1865 Governor Lewis E. Parsons. Prov: Gov: Alabama; Sir: Some days since I had the honor to call your attention to the published instructions of the Mayor of Mobile to his Chief of Police denying to the free colored people of that City the right of peaceable assembly and of choosing a place of habitation and industry. Since that time the course of that officer has been in progressive violation of the policy and orders of the President of the United States. In a formal decision he has announced that the negro cannot sue, though he can be sued, cannot testify, though he can be testified against and that he has no greater civil rights than under the Slave Code. This policy has its natural fruits. The City of Mobile is in a state of quasi riot. A church and a schoolhouse and an entire square of private residences of colored people have been destroyed by incendiaries. Colored men are arrested who are out after ten P.M. Steamboat hands are daily at the end of a shift driven off without pay, and in no instance 13 has the Mayor afforded relief, but left them to steal that they may live. The denial of the right to peaceably assemble is illustrated by nightly descents upon convivial and religious assemblies. The colored people of Mobile petition me that their condition is intolerable. I append such exhibit of proof as I can hastily prepare but I hold myself responsible for these statements. I can stop this and I will. But the alternative of at once replacing the present Mayor by an honest man appears to me so much more conducive to complete order & that harmony that is indispensable to the restoration of the State, that I confidently and respectfully present it to your Excellency, feeling that in your own loyal sense of justice is after all the true refuge of this people. I am Very respectfully, Your obt servt, Brig. Gen & Asst Comsr Office Assistant Commissioner Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands Montgomery, Ala. August 12th 1865 Chaplain S.S. Gardner Asst Supt Freedmen Sir: Your letter of the 7th inst is just received. Gen Swayne is now temporily at Mobile and I have transmitted to him by telegraph an outline of circumstances connected with the Briarfield Iron Works. The General will see in person Mr Dexter & Mr Montague when you will receive more definite in =
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