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Office Superintendent, Dist of Selma Bureau of Refugees Freedmen and Abandoned Lands
Selma Ala. Nov. 23rd. 1866

Respectfully returned. The statement of circumstances called for is given as follows. The preacher referred to, had in his addresses, used language so objectionable as to prompt several of his hearers to report the facts to this office. They asked another preacher to be their spokesman, although some of the aggrieved hearers came with him, and themselves stated what they had heard. No hint of church rivalry was given, nor is it believed that such motive prompted the information. It was the natural expression of indignant protest against sentiments which outraged their sympathies and insulted their common sense. The unusual circumstances of a colored man uttering such sentiments, as well as the familiar forms of expression used, made it seem probable that he was an emissary of that portion of the southern people who represent the extreme of hostile feeling towards the presence of the representatives of the General Government, and their influence upon the freedmen. No authority in the matter was assumed on the part of the Bureau. The Superintendent acted only as the mouthpiece of protesting church members, to the church officers exercising authority over the licensed preacher against whom they protested

Geo. Shorkley
1st Lieut 15th U.S. Infty.
Superintendent.