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
Some people in New England take particular offence at applying these
doctrines to the present state of affairs. Has New England ever
repudiated them? Has the South ever maintained with more unhesitating
declaration, more vigorous resolve, more readiness for the deadly
encounter, than the North, these views which I present? Gentlemen, when
we look at history, we must take it as we find it. In the war of 1812,
the New England States, which had taken offence before at the embargo
of 1809, were found, to a very great extent among her people, in an
attitude of direct resistance to the war; and they were not afraid to
say so. New England said so through her individual citizens. She said
so in her public associations. She said so in the form of conventions
and solemn resolves. To one of these I will call attention. I do this
for no other purpose than to present analogies, principles, and
precedents showing what rights belong to those who oppose the
Government, or to a state of civil war, or revolution,--that men
situated like our clients are not to be treated as pirates and robbers.
I have here a book called "THE UNION FOREVER; THE SOUTHERN REBELLION,
AND THE WAR FOR THE UNION." It is an excellent compilation, prepared
and published under the superintendence of _James D. Torrey_, of this
city. I read from it:
"The declaration of war against Great Britain, June, 1812, brought
the excitement to its climax. A peace party was formed in New
England, pledged to offer all possible resistance to the war. * * *
The State Legislatures of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, &c.,
passed laws forbidding the use of their jails by the United States
for the confinement of prisoners committed by any other than
judicial authority, and directing the jailors at the end of thirty
days to discharge all British officers, prisoners of war, committed
to them. The President, however, applied to other States of the
confederacy for the use of their prisons, and thus the difficulty
was, in a measure, obviated."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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