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.

1476 CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.
Answer. The reason upon which he seemed to lay most stress was this-I will have
to go into an explanation, so that you gentlemen can understand it better. Under the
constitution, adopted immediately after the surrender, under the President's proclamation, the government established —
Question. The provisional government?
zAnewer. The provisional government, I mean; elections were held, and at the first
election held in Hale County, which was taken from Greene County, and Marengo
County, and Tuscaloosa County, and Perry County, a gentleman named A. I. Hutchinson, now dead, was elected. I am giving this explanation with a view to make his
statement understood. Hutchinson was elected probate judge in 1867, I think. A
convention, called under the reconstruction acts, adopted a constitution, and ordered an
election for county officers under that constitution. At that election Blackford was
elected probate judge. For a good while it was doubted whether that constitution
would be accepted by Congress, as ratified by the people of the State. We always
thought that it was not ratified, and that the Congress of the United States acted in
bad faith with us in not carrying out the provisions of the act. It was not adopted
by a majority of the registered voters. In consequence of that, there was some delay,
and Blackford and others, elected at that election, did not enter upon these offices until
some time in July, 1868, and it was doubted whether they would have entered upon
them; he did finally, however, after the governor and officers, &c., elected under that
constitution had been recognized by the United States, get his commission and demand
the office from Hutchinson; Hutchinson being still in the office exercising the functions
of it. He demanded the office, and Hutchinson delivered it under protest. Hutchinson, thinking it was usurpation on his part, entered his protest on the books. He did
it under my advice. He asked me whether I thought he ought to resist. I told him
no; to simply record his protest, if le chose to do so, and Hutchinson seemed to be
discontented. He claimed that he was entitled to the office. That is the explanation I
give as prefatory to what Blackford stated to me. Blackford stated to nme that he
believed that the friends of Hutchinson-he did not charge Hutchinson with any
knowledge of the attack on him-that the friends of Hutchinson, acting in his interest,
had made the attack upon him, with a view to drive him from the office. He never, in
my presence, charged it as having been done on account of his political opinions. It
was simply, he believed, because the friends of Hutchinson wished to expel him from
the office, as he supposed, for IIutchinson to get the appointment in the vacancy
which would be filled by the governor of the State. That, I believe, was the tenor of
his explanations and declarations to me. We had frequent conversations about it.
Question. Was it the opinion in the community that that was the cause?
Answer. Well, sir, there was a diversity of opinion. I believe the majority of the
reasoning, cool-headed, and thinlking men in the community inclined to that opinion.
I am frank to say, I inclined to that opinion.
Question. That it. was the friends of Hutchinson who wanted to alarm him?
Answer. Yes, sir; for that purpose. It seemed to me that there were several communications.
Question. Did he say these men were disguised?
Answer. He said they were disguised; but he did not know himself, because he did
not see them; he had already left; he heard some noise approaching, and he left without trying to inquire the cause of it, or who made it; he had his information just as I
had, from hearsay. I have always heard that he was there in bed with a negro woman
at that time, and that he attributed his escape to the fact that he was engaged with
her in some private employment suitable to the hour or to the occasion.
Question. Did he ever say to you that he had the negro woman in bed with him at
that time?
Ansier. I do not think he ever said so.
Question. Did he assign his escape to that fact-that he had one there?
Answer. Not to ne. I have heard others say he had declared it repeatedly to them.
Question. That he escaped, from the fact of his being awake, having this woman il
bed with him?
Answer. He never made that declaration to me; but I have understood from a number of persons that he did assign that reason. I suppose the reason he never communicated it to me to have been this: Blackford always professed to have considerable respect for my good opinion. I had, at the risk of; and to solme extent, in fact, I had incurred a little censure from some rather extreme men in their views, as I thought, in
the county, when Blackford assumed the office of probate, by becoming his adviser.
He was a man utterly ignorant of the law. He had been a physician, and knew nothing of the law; and upon his entering upon that office, he came to me and expressed
his intention of discharging the duties of the office faithfully and honestly. He admitted his ignorance of the law, and stated that he wanted some one to advise him;
2e had come to me because he thought I would do it frankly and honestly. I consented to do so, upon condition that he followed my advice upon all matters in which
he required it, and I undertook to meet any responsibility to the people and the popu