I am requested by a portion of the citizens of this county to appeal to you in behalf of themselves & family for protection against the burglarys, robbings, & other aspirations of the convicts from Blue Ridge. In squads prowling about the county, no oversight or effort made by the proper authority to capture them, tis reported & believed that that those in authority prevents its being known when they escape; so that the citizens could be prepared for this coming. In nearly all cases if any honest effort was made, they could be overtaken & captured. This was not the case so much under the former administration of the Penitentiary & their appointees on the mountain.

Four family were robbed in this place last Saturday night. The complaint is the guard dont do this duty because a Western man can only get 12 or 13 $ per month & a Central man in Raleigh gets $25.00 How this is I have not inquired, but tis true that no man from the Piedmont region or West of Blue Ridge can get a responsible position.

You are the governor of the whole state, & we but we do not & will not appeal in vain for some [help].