Secession: Considered as a Right in the States Composing the Late American Union and Justification of the Southern States in Exercising the Right (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780692466827)

Alexander H. Handy was born in Somerset County, Maryland on December 25, 1809. He moved to Mississippi in 1836 and was elected to the State's High Court of Errors and Appeals in 1853; he was elevated to chief justice of the Court in 1864. Always a champion of States' rights and an outspoken secessionist, he was a staunch supporter of the Southern cause throughout the war, declaring in a speech delivered at Canton, Mississippi as late as March 1, 1865 that the Confederacy must fight on either to independence or death. In 1866, Judge Handy struck down as unconstitutional the Civil Rights Act, arguing that while the Thirteenth Amendment had freed the slaves, it did not give Congress the right to determine the Negroes' future political status. When the military authorities ignored his decision and continued to try civilians before military tribunals for allegedly violating the Act, Handy and two of his colleagues resigned from the Court. He thereafter returned to his native State and was appointed professor of law at the University of Maryland. In 1871, he went back to Mississippi to resume a law practice at Jackson. He died in Canton on September 12, 1883.