Speeches and Associated Correspondence of Alexander H. Handy, Mississippi's Commissioner to Maryland





Alexander Hamilton Handy (1809--1883) was born in Somerset County, Maryland, located on what is now known as the Eastern Shore or the Delmarva Peninsula.  He was admitted to the bar in 1834, and moved to Mississippi in 1836, with his new wife.  In 1853 he was elected to the Mississippi High Court of Errors and Appeals, and re-elected in 1860.  In December of that year, Gov. John J. Pettus appointed him Commissioner to his native state of Maryland.  In this position he communicated with Gov. Thomas Hicks of Maryland, but was unable to convince Gov. Hicks to call a secession convention in Maryland, nor was he allowed to speak to the state legislature.  Included here are four items:
 After the war, Handy again took up his judicial post in Mississippi, and was elected Chief Justice, but he resigned in 1867, due to Reconstruction policies in the state, and returned to Maryland, where he taught at the University of Maryland Law School and maintained a private practice.  He moved back to Mississippi in 1871, and died in Canton, in September, 1883.  A pamphlet attributed to Handy, justifying secession is also on this website.

I confess to being unhappy that I cannot find an image of Handy to include here.  Queries to friends from Mississippi as well as the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, in addition to the obvious online searches, have come up empty. 






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Source:  The Baltimore speech may be found in the December 20, 1860, issue of the Baltimore Daily Exchange; the rest of the material can be found at the University of North Carolina Documenting the American South website. 

Date added to website:  June 28, 2024.

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