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such deeds are winked at, & excused by the whole community! To be sure, you will find, here & there, an elderly citizen who privately condemns - or says so - all such outrages. Why do they not speak out in public, or even in private conversation with all men? Even this would tend to bring into disrepute such lawless & shameful acts.

What, then, Colonel, is to be done? Must the colored schools go down? Must the State, & the Nation bow in humble deference to the wickedness of disloyal men, & witness their salutary laws & institutions trodden under foot, & the colored people - the wards of the nation - reduced again to worse than Slavery, & a deeper moral degradation than before the war?

If there be no law now existing to punish such crimes, - no protection against a whole community of accessories to the crime, whose mutual aid, & mutual sympathy save them from conviction, - what shall be done? Cannot the President, under the War power, - as in cases of insurrection - declare a local martial law, in reference to these offenses?

If this cannot be done, then in the name of universal manhood, & mercy, let Congress pass laws that will reach such cases!

Very Respectfully
W H Stilwell