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Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen & Abandoned Lands,
HEAD QUARTERS ASST. COMMISSIONER, STATE OF VIRGINIA,
Richmond, Va, July 20 1865.

Maj. Gen. O O Howard
Commissioner Bureau R.F.&A.L.

General:
I desire to call your attention to the subject of the church property of the colored membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
You are, doubtless, aware that the church edifices and parsonages are held by trustees appointed by the Quarterly Conferences. All the churches of the Freedmen in this denomination, (although almost exclusively built by the contributions of the colored population,) are held by these white trustees — the membership having no voice, under their form of church government, in the ministers that are appointed over them; the appointment

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