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fined the said Freedman Five Dollars with costs Five Dollars, all of which I paid, whereupon, at my request the prisoner was released, and went home to recruit his physical man after his night's enjoyment of filth and mosquitoes.

Although I am averse to the existence of the Bureau under your charge, yet as we have it among us, and may do good when judiciously administered, I deem it my duty to present this case for your consideration, as replete with cool, persistent injustice and oppression.

Allow me to add that this Depy. Marshall stated to the Recorder in open court, that the driver had take earth from a private lot, that of the party who had first warned him and then informed on him and procured his arrest turning to this said informer, named Lutoun, who assented to the correctness of what the Dept. M. had just stated. Now, it so happens, as I have just ascertained by personal inspection, that not a pound of dirt was removed that did not lie in two streets at the same time, but that all the earth thrown up as a breakwork in front of the complainant's house had been removed by him from the street upon his own lot, and that his wife claimed it all as far as the prolongation of the sidewalk. Is it proper for me to request that this pilfering and lying Leuton be made to by the jail as long as did his victim, and also give the abused negro a reasonable pecuniary compensation? 

With high respect,
Yr. obt. servt.
A. M. Lea

P.S. Since writing the foregoing, I learn that this man Herman Martin, is a Constable, having nothing to do with the City Police, and acting without warrant, and that commitment was issued for the imprisonment of the negro, who was allowed no chance to get bail.

A. M. Lea