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Yorktown, March 19th, 1867. 

Genl. S.C. Armstrong, 
Supt. 5th District, Va, of 
Bureau R. F. and AL,
General; 
Capt. F.I. Massey, Bureau Agent at Yorktown, showed me on the 9th inst, the terms which you had instructed him and myself to be governed, in the renting of my lands in York County, to the Freedmen, who should pay all of their last year's rent, and one dollar and a quarter, as the first quarterage of the present year, by the 7th March 1867, the latter which I respectfully object to, and protest against, for the following reasons. 1st. Because, the amount of $5.00, without firewood, is not more than one half of the actual cost of their remaining on the land, when remembered, that they have used firewood since the 1st of January last, and the most of which time, has been extreme cold weather. 2nd. That I believe it will have an unsalutary influence, on such freedmen, as remain on these terms prescribed by the Bureau, by causing the belief in their minds, that they occupy lands more by compulsion on the part of the Bureau, than by the permission of the land holder.