Viewing page 42 of 58
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
76 Fullerton. Head Quarters Dist. of Alabama Montgomery June 13 1866 Brig Gen J S Fullerton Montgomery, Ala. General, In reply to so much of your note of this date as makes inquiry "to what extent the operations of the Bureau have been aided or opposed by the White people in said Department," I have the honor to make the following statement. When I reached Gene on the First of August Past the Provisional Governor had but recently declared the slave code also gated, and no steps had been taken by any one to secure to the Freedmen any of those rights essential to security and well being, and enjoyed by other inhabitants of the State. To secure these was my first object, and two methods presented themselves of attempting 1. To seek to give to the judicial machinery of the State such shape and operation as should attain my purpose as nearly as it could be reached by any means, 2. Failing to secure or choosing to ignore co-operation in this particular, I might set up Military or "Freedmens" Courts and proceed by martial law. The first method was liable to this objection that it ight be formally accepted but particularly repudiated. On the other hand, it would be comprehensive, permanent, cheap and an educator of public sentiment. The record was almost impracticable. One court in each country would cost, for the State, half a million a year. It would take vastly more officers than I could procure; both courts and decrees would be temporary; and would leave behind a consolidated hatred of their protegees. Accordingly, as soon as I could maturely consider the matter, in a General Order (No 8.1865.) I made the following proposition to the people of Alabama. ****************************************************** 77 "Until further orders, the judicial officers and magistrates holding office by appointment of the Provisional Governor of Alabama, are hereby designated as agents of this Bureau for the administration of justice in the cases above mentioned. They will take for their method of procedure the laws now in force in this State, except so far as those laws make a distinction on account of color. ******************************************************* "Failure to signify acceptance, or evident denial of justice, will be followed by revocation of the appointment herein conferred, and the substitution of marital law in the District where it shall occur." The alternative thus presented was extensively debated, and a few of the persons addressed signified their acceptance. The majority referred the matter to the Provisional Governor for decision. That officer a few days later replied by a proclamation in which the order was republished and they were advised to confirm to its requirements. It was intimated that removal from office would follow non-compliance, and this was affected in the case of the then Mayor of Mobile. In a few weeks it was the established rule in all the courts of this State to administer in every case to which a freedman was a party "the laws now in force in this State, except so far as those laws make a distinction on account of color." This was applied as fully in the Probate Courts to matters of marriage, conveyancing, inheritance and apprenticeship as in the Courts of ordinary adjudication. When the Constitutional Convention met efforts were made to secure the rule above mentioned by organic law. The delegates declared the people not prepared for this, but by an ordinance continued the Agency system until the close of the next session of the General Assembly. This was as they said that the public mind might be educated to it and the same thing be then enacted by the Legislature. When the Legislature met several efforts were made to break up this rule, and one or two bills passed that trenched on it severely15. They were,
