14 



ALABAMA. 



The right to testify in courts, in certain cases, 

 was extended to the freedrnen at the session 

 of 1865-'66, and experience has demonstrated 

 that the law was productive of good results. 

 Colored persons were permitted to testify in 

 cases where they were interested and where 

 there was every inducement for false swearing 

 which may be reasonably supposed to influence 

 witnesses. But even with these strong temp- 

 tations to commit perjury, the testimony of 

 freedmen has been found valuable in the ascer- 

 tainment of truth, and the Governor recom- 

 mended that all restrictions should be removed. 

 A steadfast cooperation has existed between 

 the Bureau for the Freedmen and the Governor, 

 and the results have been a growing kindliness 

 between the white and black race?, an increased 

 fairness in the application of the laws, with 

 prospective changes of a most useful tendency. 

 He also recommended that a portion of the 

 taxes derived from freedmen should be applied 

 to the education of their children and the sup- 

 port of the indigent, aged, and infirm of that 

 population. 



A case, involving the validity of the acts of 

 the Legislature after secession came before the 

 Supreme Court of the State, and was decided on 

 January 23, 186T. An act, passed on Novem- 

 ber 9, 1801, authorized executors to invest in 

 bonds of the Confederate States or of Alabama. 

 The court unanimously sustained the validity 

 of the government of Alabama as a de facto 

 government during the war, and the authority 

 of the Legislature to pass such an act. 



In the Circuit Court of Butler County a mo- 

 tion was made to dismiss a suit on the ground 

 that the original writ, when issued, was not 

 stamped as required by the U. S. Revenue Law. 

 In opposition to the motion, it was urged that 

 the act did not apply to this case, for the reason 

 that, when the writ was issued, the State of 

 Alabama was under the exclusive control, pos- 

 session, and dominion of, and owed allegiance to 

 the then existing Confederate States Govern- 

 ment. 



Judge J. K. Henry decided that for the time 

 being the sovereignty of the United States was 

 suspended, and the laws of the United States 

 could no longer be enforced in Alabama, or be 

 obligatory upon the inhabitants who remained 

 and submitted to the existing power. These 

 inhabitants passed under a temporary allegiance 

 to the then existing government, and were 

 bound by such laws and such only as for the 

 time being it chose to recognize and impose. 

 The ordinance of 1865, annulling the ordi- 

 nance of secession of 1861, clearly refers to 

 the present and not to the pa?t, in the declara- 

 tion that "the same" (i. e. the ordinance of 

 secession) "le and is hereby declared null and 

 void." ^ Not that it was null and void from the 

 beginning, but that it be now declared null and 

 Toid. Analogous cases often arise in the ordi- 

 nary legislation of the country. When an act 

 is repealed, the language commonly used is, 

 *' That the same be and is repealed ; " yet no 



ALLEN, HENRY W. 



one understands this language as declaring that 

 the act repealed was void or repealed from the 

 beginning. 



The subsequent surrender and destruction of 

 the Confederate States authority, and the com- 

 plete restoration of the United States authority, 

 could not change the character of the previous 

 state of things, so far as this question is con- 

 cerned. The writ having been issued before the 

 authority of the United States was reestablished, 

 he was of opinion that the" plaintiff could not 

 be required to place a stamp upon the process. 



ALLEN, HENRY W ATKINS-, ex-Governor of 

 Louisiana, a brigadier-general in the Confed- 

 erate Army, born in Prince Edward County, 

 Va., April 29, 1820 ; died in the city of Mexico, 

 April 22, 1866. He was the fourth son of 

 Dr. Thomas Allen, a medical practitioner of 

 some distinction, and when quite young 

 removed with his father to Lexington, Mo. 

 After spending some time in school, he was 

 induced to enter a store in the position of 

 under clerk, but having an unconquerable dis- 

 like for mercantile life, his father consented to 

 his enrolment among the students of Marion 

 College, Mo. Remaining here two years, some 

 dissatisfaction with the parental authority in- 

 duced him to leave and enter at once upon a more 

 independent career. He ran away from college, 

 and making his way to^the little village of Grand 

 Gulf, Miss., obtained* the position of teacher 

 in the family of a wealthy planter, and after- 

 ward opened a large school. Subsequently he 

 devoted his whole attention to the study of 

 law, was licensed to practise, and had already 

 become quite successful as a lawyer, when in 

 1842 President Houston called for volunteers 

 to aid Texas against Mexico. Having inherited 

 a military taste, young Allen was not long in 

 deciding to offer his services ; he raised a com- 

 pany, and proceeded to the scene of conflict, 

 where he acquitted himself well, and upon the 

 termination of his engagement his command 

 was ordered to rendezvous at Egypt, on the Co- 

 lorado, where they were honorably discharged. 

 Returning to Grand Gulf, he resumed the prac- 

 tice of his profession, married, and in 1846 was 

 elected to the Legislature of Mississippi. A few 

 years later, upon the death of his wife, he re- 

 moved to Tensas Parish, La., and afterward to 

 his estate in West Baton Rouge, where, in 

 1853, he was elected to the Legislature. The 

 following year he quitted his estate, and en- 

 tered the Cambridge University as a student of 

 law, and spent some time in reviewing his 

 studies. In 1859, attracted by the Italian war, 

 he went to Europe, but arrived too late for a 

 personal share in the struggle He spent some 

 time in travel, the incidents of which tour were 

 gathered up in a volume, entitled the " Travels 

 of a Sugar-Planter." During his absence he 

 was reflected to the Legislature. He took a 

 prominent position in that body, was an earnest, 

 eloquent speaker, and well qualified for leader- 

 ship. In his politics he was a Whig until the 

 election of Mr. Buchanan whec he became a 



