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To Maj. Gen Howard Commissioner of Bureau Refugees &c Washington D.C.

The undersigned, now loyal Citizens of the United States and residents of the Military District of Fort Monroe Va. most respectfully represent as follows:

They accept cheerfully the position accorded them by the amnesty proclamation of May 1865, and have no other desire than to observe the laws and promote the prosperity of the whole country under the Constitution of the United States.

They regard the institution of slavery among themselves as forever at an end.

They have no wish to treat the negroes unjustly under the laws proclaiming their freedom, but pledge themselves to grant the full measure of right and liberty, to which the law now entitles those who were formerly slaves.

They are willing to do all that loyal citizens can do by active or passive obedience to testify their sincerity and their acceptance of the terms of pardon accorded them.

They believe that the President of the United States is sincerely their friend, and the friend of the whole Country, and they earnestly hope that the policy of pacification so wisely commenced, may be continued, until our common Country is freed from every vestige of our recent deplorable strife, and until the different sections are bound together in imperishable bonds of amity and friendship.