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Office of Jacobs Williams Wood & Co. 
Natchez, Mississippi. January 31. 1868.

Major Gen. O. O. Howard.

My dear General,
I have written a full statement of facts & figures to Senator Sumner, in regard to the Purchas of the A.K. Farrar Farm, And I did think to let the whole matter drop right there, But suffering humanity forbids me.

And, as in others matters, so in this, we cannot have too much light - And yet I did think I had completely exhausted this whole subject, long; long ago. But new facts keep springing up at every turn we take. This property is about the only one in the County, on which a clear and indisputable title can now be raised. And all those we have examined, have other serious objections, therefore, viewing the matter from all these points, we fully, and finally concluded; sometime before we wrote you, that, this, and and only this Farm, was the one the Freedmen needed, and wanted, before trying anywhere else. So that, however good and well meant, your intentions were, in Sending us General F. D. Sewal [[Sewall]], to inspect the concern, Yet, be assured that all those subjects he inquired after, had long since been thoroughly sifted. 

And we were all truly glad to have him among us, that he might see for himself, the nature of our case, and secure us success, if Posible. 

And when I say "us", I mean myself. Because, anybody but an Idiot, can see, that, If I don't succeed nobody else will, and if nobody else does, I shall not. 
 
I have overheard it hinted at that Hitchen is running this machine, almost alone, to much the worse for those in this locality that puff themselves off as the colored man's friend.

Pray tell me, my dear General, who it is that