5

Sergeant Kelly stands high with the community in
which [he] lives as an honest and high minded man and
the convicts under his control speak in high terms of
him[.] [O]nly one or two instances of sustained misconduct
on his part has [sic] been elicited by the testimony which
consits [sic] in overstocking upon several occasions[.]
Outside of this nothing has been developed by this
investigation which reflect [sic] upon Sergeant Kelly
in the slightest degree and because of his previ
ous good conduct and fully believing that this
error on the part of the Sergeant will be corrected the under-
signed would not recommend his removal
unless this irregularity should be persisted
in which we are confident will not be
the case.

In conclusion we believe that much of the late excite-
ment grew out of opposition to convict labor
supinduced [sic] by the gross irregularities in Randall’s
camp with the further fact that merchants believe
that if the camp was not in their midst its
place would be supplied by citizens labor from
whom they would derive a pecuniary benefit
which have only recently been ventilated[.]

All of which is respectfully
submitted
D.M Short.
Asst Superintendant [sic] of Texas
Penitentiary.