"Hd.-Qrs., Battalion U.S. Infantry,
"Camp near Lynchburg, Va.,
"Feb. 7, 1866."C. W. Button, Esq., Editor Lynchburg Virginian.
" Sir,—I have received a communication from the War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, relative to a newspaper slip, containing a copy of General Lee's letter to General Early, on removing him from command. The letter is dated Headquarters C. S. Armies, March 30, addressed to Lieut.-Gen. Early, Franklin C. H., Virginia, and is said to be in your possession, it having appeared in your paper. The Secretary of War considers that the original letter properly belongs to the Archive office.
"I am directed by Major-General Terry, commanding this Department, to procure said letter, and I therefore call your attention to the matter, and request that you deliver to me the original letter in your possession, in compliance with my instructions.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. E. LATIMER,
Brevet Major and Captain 11th U. S. Infantry,
This demand for General Lee's private letter to me, and the attempt to enforce it by military power, show how wide has been the departure from the original principles of the United States Government, and to what petty and contemptible measures that Government, as at present administered, resorts in domineering over a disarmed and helpless people. I have the pleasure of informing the Hon. Secretary of War, and the keeper of the "Archive Office," that the original letter is in my possession, beyond the reach of provost marshals and agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, or even Holt with his Bureau of Military Justice and his suborners of perjury.
B.
STATISTICS SHOWING THE RELATIVE STRENGTH OF THE
TWO SECTIONS DURING THE WAR.
The census of the United States for 1860 showed an aggregate free population of 27,185,109; of this, 488,285 were free blacks, of which the larger proportion were in the Southern States; but it is not necessary to consider that element in this estimate, though to do so would make it more favorable for the Confederate States. Of the above 27,185,109 of free population, there were in the States forming the Southern Confederacy, as follows:
| Alabama | 529,164 |
| Arkansas | 324,323 |
| Florida | 78,686 |
| Georgia | 595,097 |
| Kentucky | 930,223 |
| Louisiana | 376,913 |
| Mississippi | 354,690 |
