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[[left margin]] [[stamp The National Archives Of The United States]] [[/left margin]]

a nature profoundly in sympathy with the sufferings of an impoverished people, struggling with might and main to repair their broken fortunes; and when hope had almost brightened into fruition the scourge of the Caterpillar came to blast their prospects, and to leave their smiling fields a fruitless waste

It was this overwhelming calamity, which threatened so many with starvation, that first excited your sympathy, and called forth the relief you so promptly furnished. The grateful recollection of that kindness induces your petitioners at this time to ask your intervention on their behalf - not so much to secure for them future contributions, as to lighten some of the pecuniary burthens which another disastrous season has imposed upon them.

The history of Cotton planting on the Seaboard during the past year is almost a repetition of the preceding one. The timely aid extended by the Bureau enabled the Planters to prepare their lands - plant their crops - and subsist in comfort a large and industrious Class of Freedmen. Blest with propitious weather during the early Summer, the Cotton plant developed into healthy and vigorous proportions, and blossomed and bolled with the promise of a