The petitioners, who described themselves as legal voters of Adams County, observe that there are certainly "vicious and evil disposed" free people of color, but there are also those "who have spent a life here free from reproval, or even the suspicions of improper conduct." Furthermore, some free people of color have acquired property "by patient industry and are beyond doubt loyal & true to the Laws." The petitioners offer the legislature their advice that any law that may be passed to expel free black people should take this into account. The city's Board of Police should be given the authority to discriminate between the loyal and disloyal, and remove only the "unworthy."
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Repository: Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi
