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Colonel,

A duty, which I owe to the community and to myself, induces me to lay before you the following facts. Soon after occupation of the Post at Mount Vernon, vast quantities of arms of all kinds were deposited at the landing, the Arsenal wharf, guarded by the volunteers there in service of the U. States.
It is a notorious fact, that many of these arms were stolen, and also, that parties supposed to have in safe keeping this property of the government sold the same to negroes at small rates, and in many instances gave them to the former slaves of the county.
The result, that every negro has a musket, rifle or revolver is thus accounted for.
The white population are now experiencing the logical consequences of this state of things without the slightest means of correcting the evil, for, the negro true to his habits while a slave takes the cover of night to prowl over the land, shoot and kill whatever his fancy or appetite may crave, and there are none to make him afraid. And again, horses and mules 

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