Sunday, January 4, 2015

January 5, 1865---"I claim for loyal citizens of Florida all the rights and all the protection to which a citizen of Illinois or of New York may be entitled . . . "



JANUARY 5, 1865:   


Although the Confederate Constitution provided for a Judiciary, that third branch of government was never put into operation. As a matter of practicality, local judges remained on the bench handling legal matters in conformity with the Common Law and U.S. Case Law where it could be applied. Prewar Federal District Judges frequently remained on the bench and their Courts often became quiet centers of gravity for Unionist sentiment.  

As the United States reabsorbed areas of the South, the business of the Courts slowly returned to normal. In 1862, the Union retook Jacksonville and reinstituted the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Occasionally the business of the Courts and military exigencies collided. On this day President Lincoln received a letter from The Honorable Philip Fraser, the loyal Federal Judge of the Northern District of Florida, decrying the destructiveness of property seizures against Unionists. It reads in part:

Sir:

I hope you will find an excuse for my appealing to you . . . in behalf of the people of my state . . . Threatened by the rebels on one side, our rights as citizens of the United States disregarded and trampled upon by commanders of our armies on the other, our property taken from us [and] used . . . without compensation, our title to protection as American Citizens . . . treated with coldness or contempt, we appeal as a last resort to your Excellency, for that protection to which we are entitled as . . . citizens of these United States . . . 

I would rather fall to-day by a rebel bullet fighting for my country, than to be subjected day by day to the humiliation of submitting to the petty despotism of small men . . . men . . . incapable of grappling, like Grant and Sherman and Thomas and Sheridan and Porter and Farragut with this great rebellion . . . through weakness of head or want of heart . . . [who] expend . . . their power upon unoffending and unarmed citizens who have under the Constitution equal rights with themselves --- I claim for [the] loyal citizens of Florida all the rights and all the protection to which a citizen of Illinois or of New York may be entitled . . . 

Thanks to General Sherman we hope soon to see Florida free and restored to her rightful position under the Government --- upholding constitutional liberty, and rebuking tyranny with the ballot . . .

I claim Mr. President to be a loyal citizen ready to sacrifice what little I have not already sacrificed, to restore the authority of the Government over the rebel states. I am ready to fight when men of my physical ability are needed --- I will vouch for greater sacrifices than my own on the part of some of my fellow citizens now in Florida. [Is] Gen Foster [Commanding the Department of The South] privileged to take what little remains to us . . . ? We do not believe that the Government will sustain him in such designs . . . 

Some of the citizens who have lost large amounts of property on account of their fidelity to the Union have purchased confiscated rebel property at Marshals sale --- General Foster refuses to give them possession, and alleges that he holds it as a military necessity --- When applied to by one of the purchasers, I am credibly informed that he replied -- "that if the      U. S. Court did not stop interfering with him he would evacuate Florida"--- The carrying out of such a threat might exhibit good Generalship in escaping from a dangerous enemy viz: the U. S. Court, but I think it will hardly be considered by General Grant a military necessity.

I wish myself to place no impediment in the way of military operations. The Court has not done so thus far. Neither can it do so --- It is merely exercising its proper functions by enforcing the laws of Congress. If the Government will sustain the Court it will continue to do so, if not it must discontinue its business and adjourn until happier days ---

. . . 

I have the honor to be

Very Respectfully

Your Obedient Servant

Philip Fraser
U. S. District Judge
Northern District of Florida




























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