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Greenville, Ala.
15th September,1866.

My dear Sir,

Though we have never met, yet I am so fully satisfied of your great humanity, that I feel entirely justified in making this appeal to you.

I have held the troublesome, and not only unpaid, but not thanked office of Intendant here, to carry out objects, in which society is deeply concerned.  It is important in the present condition of men that the poor be educated, and taught to labor.  To effect these things, I have been gradually getting up an asylum and Hospital.  It would surprize you, were I to furnish you a list of the number of blacks and whites I have fed, clothed, nursed, and buried in this corporation, since the Federal troops took possession.  Our Senator, Col Crenshaw had a bill passed, to satisfy the voters of the town few of whom can pay taxes, limiting us to fifteen hundred dollars per year.  I have not been able yet to collect one dollar of taxes, and the Institution for the sick and poor, which I hope to keep up, I cannot maintain, unless I can get Rations from the Bureau.

I have crazy people, sick, and destitute, some of whom can work.  Most of them are Blacks, & those whom I have had in the Hospital, nine tenths were negroes.  I have pledged my own