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further irregularity may be occasioned by the vacancy of said office. I would be pleased to co-operate with the Hon Court in the appointment of some suitable person to fill said vacancy. The Clerk of the Court had already been furnished by this office, with an order from Dist Head Quarters regulating such appointments. 
In my opinion, had the indigent paupers been obliged to wholly rely on the assistance afforded by the Civil Authorities Series Octo 1866 some suffering would have occured. I do not make this statement to accuse or complain of the manner in which your authorities have carried out the provisions of your order of Octo 8th 1866, but simply to call your attention to the fact that, under the present state of things, occasioned by G. O No. 51, above refered to, it will be necessary to take such steps as will meet the exigencies which I have recited, to prevent suffering on the part of the colored people, in as much as no assistance can be afforded them in future by this Bureau. 
Had the provisions of your order of Octo. 8th, 1866, been carried out with the same good feelings and alacrity in which it was issued, this communication, in my opinion, would have been entirely superfluous. 
I am, Very Respectfully
Your Obt Servt
Sidney B. Smith
Bvt Capt & Military Comr
Loudoun Co Va