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later arrest the ones they are after in which case those who are shooting, stabbing, or barbarously whipping Freedmen and women would soon learn that arrests and punishment would be prompt, and as certain as fate and they would desist from their inhuman acts.
Reports come to me of acts of violence committed upon the Freedmen miles away. Freedmen run away from their employers almost daily, in violation of their contracts and often in their debt, but without a single soldier, I am powerless to arrest any one and they will disregard with impunity all orders sent for them to appear at my office.
It makes my heart ache to see so many of the poor Freedmen come in here from miles away in the country covered with marks of brutal treatment, afraid to remain with their families for fear of being shot dead in cold blood and I am obliged to turn them off with but slight hopes that their cruel wrongs will be rightly redressed. I have believed it to be my duty to lay before you these facts and suggestions, and I earnestly ask if I cannot in some way obtain the means to discharge in an efficient and above all in a prompt manner the duties devolving upon me. Prompt arrest and punishment are the only things that will cause the whites to respect the rights of the Freedmen.
I am very respectfully
Your obedient servant
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