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have the honor to represent, in the State of Virginia. If I had no other evidence for this assertion, as regards my Senatorial District, the following circumstance or statement, would justify this opinion, namely, that during the canvass, though the question was not discussed, nor even alluded to, the fact of my giving support to those laws, passed at the recent session of the Legislature, according rights and privileges as citizens, to the Freedmen of the State, has not so far as I have been able to learn, that with any censure or expression of disapprobation by any of my constituency, but on the contrary approved by them.

In your communication, you allude to the reason's, influencing your opinion, in reference to the execution of the law by the civil authorities, and assign for the expression of this opinion the following difficulties, namely the Previous teachings of the Freedman, and their feelings towards the civil authorities, the disparity and sparseness of the population of the County of York, the absence in case of immediate necessity of a Magistrate the nearest of whom is about 6 miles from your H'd Qrs. The destruction of every Jail, with the exception of one (which is very insecure) on this whole Peninsula, in which to confine Prisoners or Criminals. The large floating population of Freedmen who have no visible means of support, and I will add the peculiar circumstances as regards the location of the County during the 'War', namely Fortress Monroe on one side, Fort Magnuson on the other side, James River on one side, and York River on the other side, and being occupied by the Federal Army from April 1862 to the close of the War, a large number of Freedmen representatives from this State and from