Viewing page 183 of 257

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Mobile, December 13th 1866

Maj. Gen'l Wager Swayne,
Gen'l. Superintendent Freedman's Bureau for Alabama,

[[stamp]]THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES [[/stamp]]

Dear Sir:
Our attention was called some days since by Brvt. Maj. Tracy to a communication from yourself respecting the case of the negro George Morrison now under sentence of death for an attempt to commit a rape upon a white female.

The act was committed in the 17th day of March 1866 and we do not doubt the legality of the proceedings and sentence under the decision of the Supreme Court of Alabama in the case of Wetherby, a freedman, to which you can have access in the Supreme Court room at Montgomery.  The act you will observe was committed prior to the date when the new penal code of this state took effect as well as before the passage of the civil rights bill by the Congress of the United States: And in this case no question was raised as to the effect of those enactments - 

While not doubting the legality or propriety of the proceeding in the case of Morrison we are, nevertheless, not