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business on their own hook. That if you release the Government claim & allow them to resume their business the Government will receive by way of a Revenue tax, a much larger sum than the $3.000. inside of twelve months. That it will afford employment for a large number of Freedmen, as soon as the manufacturing business has been resumed. By so doing you will be the means of aiding them, more than the payment to them of the $3,000. That the Government could well afford to pay the $3,000, to have the business resumed. That if opened & set in motion it will be a self sustaining institution & not only a benefit to the Freedmen but to the whole surrounding Country.

Pardon me for earnestly urging you to reconsider this matter, by carefully examining the whole subject again, and in so doing, in my opinion you can come to no other conclusion, but to instruct Genl. Reynolds to release the Government Claim, by having John B. Earl, in behalf of the President directors & stockholders sign a stipulation of agreement not to sue the Government for damages for being closed up so long.