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Heathsville Northumberland Co. Va
May 25th 1866

Asst. Commr.
Bur of R.F & A L.
Richmond Va

Sir

In obedience to instructions from the Office Sept. 10th Va Dist. I have the honor to report that the "condition of Bureau Affairs & State of feeling existing between Whites & Blacks" is not as promising as it was a month or more ago. The turning over of the trial of criminal cases and the acquittal of McClenahan who was tried for the killing of a Freedman who was working for him (a full report of which with the evidence in the case I will forward as soon as I get the evidence copied) alarmed the Freedmen very much. Many of them came to me and declared that if the protection of the United States was withdrawn they would be compelled to abandon the lands that they had rented and leave the country. The distrust of their former owners has increased to a great degree and I think justly so, as many of them are disposed to take every advantage of

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