I have had under serious consideration the conditions that prevail in the Wake County Local Board, of which you are chairman. The records show that this Board has done good work and is entitled to the gratitude of the Government. I know that you have been the most active man on the Board, and have given yourself to the work with a zeal and patriotic devotion that is worthy of all praise. In behalf of the President, whose representative I am, I desire to express to you my genuine appreciation of the quality and quantity of the work you have done.

It seems that there is an estrangement between you and Dr. Caviness, another member of the Board, largely based upon difference of opinion with respect to the qualifications of the young lady who was until recently Chief Clerk to the Board. The other member of the Board, Mr. Whitley, seems to share the opinion of Dr. Caviness with respect to the qualifications of the clerk in question. As I understand it this difference is the source of nearly all friction that now exists between you and Dr. Caviness. Neither of you makes any charge of incompetency or unfairness against the other, and there is absolutely nothing before me which would justify asking for the resignation of any member of the Board. There is nothing upon which I could predicate a recommendation to the Provost Marshal General for the removal of any member of the Board. I am compelled to look at these matters in a perfectly dispassionate and impartial way. I am your firm and lasting friend. I feel like that I am a member of your own family, and I can never forget the kindness of yourself and Mrs. Timberlake, and Edgar and Ada Lee to me. But these very ties of friendship ought to make me careful not to do another man an injustice on account of my personal friendship for a man with whom he happens to be in disagreement.

It now looks like that the work of the Local Boards will soon be over. My own opinion is that the ar will soon end, and I earnestly entreat you, for the sake of harmony and the good name of the Board, to ignore any personal differences between yourself and Dr. Caviness, and let the work of the Board proceed along regular lines.