Trial of the Officers and Crew of the Privateer Savannah, on the Charge of Piracy, in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New YorkWarburton, A. F. (Adolphus Frederick)
History
Trial of the Officers and Crew of the Privateer Savannah, on the Charge of Piracy, in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York
Warburton, A. F. (Adolphus Frederick)
Piracy -- United States; Privateering -- United States; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
I rise, however, to present to the Court, as one of the authorities,
or rather a citation which will receive its respectful consideration,
the Charge of Mr. Justice Grier, in the case tried in Philadelphia;
and also the opinion of Judge Cadwalader, in the same case.
_Mr. Brady:_ Who reported this?
_Mr. Smith_: I received it, by telegraph, from the District Attorney
of Philadelphia; and it is also printed in a newspaper published last
evening in Philadelphia. I have compared them, and the two accounts
perfectly agree. I do not cite them as authority, but as entitled to
the respectful consideration of the Court.
_Mr. Brady_: As, now-a-days, what the newspapers publish one day they
generally contradict the next, I think any report should be taken with
some grains of allowance, at least. I suppose I would recognize the
style of Judge Grier.
_Mr. Blatchford_: I think you will, on examining it. It is evidently
printed from the manuscript.
_Mr. Smith_ read the charge of Judge Grier in the case of the
privateers tried in Philadelphia.
_Mr. Brady_: Tell me what question of fact was there left to the Jury?
_Mr. Smith_: I refer you to Judge Cadwalader's opinion, which is much
longer.
_Mr. Brady_: I do not see that there was anything left for the Jury.
Judge Grier decided that case,--which undoubtedly he could do, for he
is a very able man.
_Mr. Sullivan_ put in evidence the log-book of the Savannah.
ARGUMENT OF MR. MAYER, OF COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENCE.
MR. MAYER said:--May it please your honors,--A foreign-born citizen
now rises, on behalf of eight of the defendants, who, as it has been
conceded by the prosecution, are subjects of foreign States. It might
appear almost superfluous, after the full and eloquent argument of our
venerable brother--I was almost tempted to say father (Mr. LORD)--for
one of the junior counsel for the defence to say anything. Still, I
thought it incumbent on me to anticipate a construction or
interpretation which the prosecution may attempt to make, by offering,
myself, a proposition. But before reading it, I will, as briefly as my
proposition is brief, state my comment thereon.
Let us, in the first place, look at the aspect of the relations in
which these foreigners stood at the time of their committing this
alleged offence. They are all sea-faring men. Their various crafts had
been locked up in the port of Charleston by the blockade there.
Business, as we have heard here in evidence, was prostrated. Nothing
was left for them but to enlist in the army of the Confederacy, or to
become privateers. It is certainly a pity that they did not choose the
first alternative; for, even if they had been caught with arms in
their hands, their fate would now be far better than it is. They would
not now be in jeopardy of their lives, threatened with the pains and
penalties of a law that is not applicable to them. But being, as I
said before, inured to the life of seafarers, they chose to become
privateers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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