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the general charge made against our people, of hostility to the negro, and of the same implied charge in Inspector Sinclair's statement, that in quite a number of cases memorials have been addressed to me signed by the Judges, officers of the law, members of the bar, and citizens asking pardons for freedmen who have been convicted for various offences, including homocides and other offences down to misdemeanors.  Quite a number of pardons have been granted by me, including some of the list sent up from the Penitentiary, and others who had not reached there after conviction - others still, who had been convicted of offences not punishable by confinement in the Penitentiary, and in every instance but one the white persons making the application for the pardon have paid the fees of officers and costs of Court amounting usually to from thirty to fifty dollars and sometimes more in felony cases.  Some petitions have been sent to me signed by most respectable citizens asking pardon for freedmen that I have not granted, because I did not think the cases presented come within the rule where Executive Leniency should be exercised.  

I would most respectfully remind the authorities that the class of freedmen now confined in the Penitentiary, as a general rule is the most vicious and dishonest of the entire freed population of the State, and instead  of astonishment being expressed at the number, I think it speaks well for the freed people themselves, and is a contradiction of the charge of white oppression that the number should be no greater than it is.  At the time of the surrender