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)
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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
Listen, therefore, to the better voices whispering to each heart.
Remember, the honor and consistency of the United States are involved
in this case. By a conviction of the defendants, you condemn the
Revolution of your ancestors; you sustain the theories of the worst
courtiers who surrounded George III. in his war to put down the
rebellion; you will appear to the world as stigmatizing revolutionists
with the names of outlaws and pirates, which is the phraseology applied
to them by Austria and Russia; you will violate the law of nations; you
will appear to be merely wreaking vengeance, and not making legitimate
war; you will henceforth preclude your nation from offering a word of
sympathy to people abroad who may be struggling for their independence,
and who have heretofore always turned their hearts to you. You can
never--having punished your revolutionists on the gallows--send an
invitation to the unfortunate champions of independent Government in
the old world. Kossuth will reply: The American maxim is that of
Francis Joseph, and of Marshal Haynau. You cannot say "Godspeed!" to
Ireland, if she shall secede. No! as you love the honor of your
country, and her place among nations, refuse to pronounce these men
pirates.
Tell your Government to wage manly, open, chivalric war on the field
and ocean, and thus or not at all; that dishonor is worse even than
disunion. Stain not your country's hand with blood. If I were your
enemy, I would wish no worse for your names, than to record your
verdict against these prisoners. Leave no such record against your
country in her annals; and when the passions of the hour shall have
subsided, your verdict of acquittal of Thomas H. Baker and the other
defendants herein, will be recalled by you with satisfaction, and will
receive the approval of your countrymen.
ARGUMENT OF MR. DAVEGA.
_May it please your Honors: Gentlemen of the Jury_:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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