Report of the Joint select committee appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states, so far as regards the execution of laws, and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States and Testimony taken.

ALABAMA-SUB-COMMITTEE. 1877
Question. Did you take part in the rebellion?
-nswer. No, sir.
Question. How did you avoid it?
Answer. I resisted secession up to the very last moment; I had settled a plantation
in Choctaw County; I lived in Demopolis; and when I saw Alabama was going out, I
took my family to my plantation, to live there'in peace and quiet out of the way of
the excitement until it was over. I supposed it would not last more than a year at the
outside. I remained on my own plantation and attended to my own business there
during the war, and at the close of the war my property-my negroes were emancipated-my whole property consisted in my plantation, some stock, and some cotton I
had down there. I made cotton during the war against the will of my neighbors there,
and just after the surrender some of them went and set fire to my gin-house and
burned it.
Question. Who did that?
Ansuser. I cannot say; I suspected a man in the neighborhood. I had retired from
the practice of the law years before that. I had enough to live in comfort, and having
my property taken from me and everything, I had, in my old age, to go back to first
principles, and I have been working in the profession since.
Question. You had done nothing in the war to make you subject to the political disabilities imposed by the fourteenth amendment?
Answer. None at all; I did this: I lived on my plantation; before the war came on
the neighborhood where I lived was made up mostly of poor men; I was cultivating
rich bottom-lands, and I would frequently go out and help them cultivate their crops,
and give them meat and corn. I kept up the same habit in the war. When theirhusbands would be taken oft to the war, and families left destitute, I supplied them with
bread and meat, and worked their crops, and visited them when they were sick. I was
not in the war.
Question. You did not render any such aid as would make you subject to disqualification?
Answer. I rendered no aid.
Question. Did you make application to Congress to have your disabilities removed?
Answer. I did write there; at least a friend of mine prepared an application. I told
him I was satisfied I was not under disability, but if there was any application needed
I would make application. I had no idea of seeking office at the time, but my application was sent there and not acted upon,. I suppose.
Question. Was it signed by you?
Anszier. Yes, sir.
Question. What did you set forth in that application?
Answver. Simply the facts as I have stated them to you; that I was a Union man before the war; that I had no confidence in the success of the confederate government
here; that I had lived on my plantation, and had supplied the poor families around me
with provisions when they were out, as I had done before the war, and that I had
taken no part in the rebellion at all; but if I was considered to be under any disabilities, that I wanted them removed.
Question. What was done with your application?
Answter. It was sent to Senator Spencer, and I suppose he presented it to the Senate.
I never heard from it.
Question. Has Congress never acted on that application?
Answer. I never heard of it.
Question. You are now holding office under an appointment from Governor Lindsay?
Answzer. Yes, sir.
Question. Is that the only office you have held since the war?
Answer. Yes, sir.
By Mr. BUCKLEY:
Question. Did you hold an office before the war?
Answzer. Yes, sir.
By the CHAIRMAN:
Question. Were you a member of the legislature before the war?
Answer. Yes, sir, but I felt a consciousness that I had done nothing during the war
to put me underdisabilities.
Question. You say that Robert Fullerlove was a violent, turbulent sort of man?
Answuer. That is the character he has in the neighborhood. I do not know him personally.
Question. In what way do people say he js turbulent?
Answer. They say he is dictatorial and overbearing, and he is considered the leader
of his party up there.
Question. Leader of the colored people?
Answer. Well, of the radical party, which is the colored people.