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
_The District Attorney_, in reply, said that in respect to the
intimation of a necessity to refer to Charleston, it was a matter of
notoriety that the prisoners were in constant communication with that
city. Counsel were bound to disclose the nature of testimony required,
that the Court might judge of the sufficiency of the reasons for a
postponement. Much of it might be to facts which the prosecution would
admit; as, in reference to the question of citizenship, there would be
no difficulty in conceding the fact that certain of the prisoners were
not citizens of the United States. He was not tenacious as to the very
day named. Without throwing the case over to the fall term, the trial
could be so fixed as to afford counsel ample opportunity to collect
their proofs and examine the questions of law involved. All the
difficulties suggested to impede the trial were obstructions created by
these defendants themselves and their confederates, and it was in the
nature of taking advantage of their own wrong to seek a postponement
because of the existence of a state of things for which they were
responsible. It had been said, thirteen lives are at issue. He would
say that many more lives were at stake--lives, in his judgment, of far
greater value--the lives of innocent officers and sailors in the
merchant marine. The facts are simple. The law appears to be certain.
There can be no defence here, the nature of which is not visible. The
only justification for the piracy would seem to be the treason. If the
prisoners ought justly to be convicted, such conviction should be
speedy, in order to deter their confederates from expeditions partaking
of the character of both treason and piracy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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