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[[?]]       Nelson Co. near Willow Bank P.G. April 25th 1866 
  I retained a copy of the letter addressed to you sometime since, concerning the future employment & ultimate destiny of The Freedmen. Having shewed [[shown]] it to a member of the most intelligent gentlemen of my acquaintance who were much interested in the subject & all of whom gave it their approval, & several of them having urged its publication, on the ground that it contained matter which was [[?]] worthy of consideration, & especially calculated to allay certain uneasy sensations at this time pervading a large [[chap]] of minds at the South, I felt disposed to yield to their wishes.
I did not feel, however, as if I had a right to do so, without having first obtained the consent of the party to whom it was originally sent, or learning whether a communication on such a subject, + addressed to a government officer, should be regarded as confidential. If this be the case, I of course withdraw the request. But if not, you will oblige me by signifying your assent. ____The mere publication of the paper, it seems to me, does not commit the Government, or any branch of it, or the Freedman's Bureau, __ nor any man, indeed, except the writer, to the views of Policy, there set forth. The gentlemen who denied to see it in print, suggested its publication in some Southern Periodical -- say DeBow's Review at Nashville from whence it might be transferred to certain newspapers of wider circulation.  

Col. O. Brown
Freedman's Bureau, Richmond 

Respectfully your 

N. Francis Cabell

P.S. If you have a spare pamphlet copy of the report of your operations made to Congress & that of [[?]] Howard, I should be obliged by the reciept [[receipt]] of them by mail to this office.