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 depredations of the Convicts from Blue Ridge. In squads prowling about the County, no attempt 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 $ pr 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 feel we do not, & will not appeal in vain for some [redress].