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Then after the changes we were assured that immediate redress would be given us by the newly appointed military authorities. What have they done? For us nothing, in what particular do we engage any rights or priviledges now that we did not then? Who can tell? In what respect is the civil rights bill any thing more than a dead letter? It seems to us a mere mocking. Our hopes have been awakened and almost insured by the passage of a law & then the sending of men clothed with the proper authority to execute such law to our good & to the good of the entire people. But as yet we have realized nothing but delay, annoyance & disappointment.

From the military powers to whom we apply and whois duty we believe it to be to aid us, we are referred back to the court of law under the control of men who have always refused to give us justice & who constitute a part of the State organization which congress declared to be illegal & ineficient in given protections to al citizens, before the law.

It seems to us, that in this, the very object of the acts of congress are defeated. The ground object of the restoration of military rule was to insure the enforcement of the laws to the equal benefit of all & give adequate protection to the rights of every class, during the reconstruction of the State government.

Transcription Notes:
2-24-2021: Transcribed per guidelines (spelling errors transcribed as is) and marking for review