Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume 2 by United States Department of the Navy

Author:United States Department of the Navy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Official Records, Civil War
Publisher: United States Department of the Navy
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

As in original copy

Page 553

OPERATIONS OF THE CRUISERSUNION. 553

will survive the destruction of his ship (unless in reference to a prize which she may have captured) and enable him to act as a commissioned officer wherever he may be found. If I am correc~ in this, Parker can only be regarded as a private citizen of the Confederacy, with no right, such as he assumed, to enlist men or appoint officers in its service, and as he was not present when the Chesapeake was taken, the character of the capture must be determined by that of persons on board at the time. If, however, I am mistaken in my view of the law upon this point (which I would be very glad to find), there is another principle, which, while it would not affect the captors with any crime in the eye of public law, would no doubt be appealed to in order to deprive us of the fruits of the capture. I mean that enunciated by the Supreme Court of the United States in the cases of LArmistad De Renes, 5 Wheat., 385; the Bello Corcurnes, 6 Wheat., 152; La Conception, ib., 235; La AS1antissima Trinidad, 7 Wheat., 283, 289, to wit, that where a prize has been taken by any agency created in violation of neutral sovereignty it will, if brought voluntarily within the neutral jurisdiction, be restored to the original owners. I do not know that the case of the Chesapeake can be brought within the range of any exception to this principle. The evi- dence contained in the report of the trial at St. John (of which I send a copy) discloses a clear violation of the British foreign enlistment act by Parker, and upon this ground alone I apprehend that any claim we might advance to the Chesapeake would be defeated. The conduct of the captor after the capture in peddling the cargo in violation of the revenue laws of the province, and the appropriation of a portion of the proceeds by~some of them to their own nse, and all the developments which have been made as to the ir~ptives and character of Braine, are calculated to throw as [so] much suspicion and discredit around the whole transaction that I should deem it unwise, even were the law sup- posed to be in our favor, without weightier reasons than now exist, to compromise the Confederacy by assuming its responsibility.

I can not close this communication without bringing to the attention and notice of the Government the generous sympathy and liberal con- tribution in every matter in which the interests of the Confederacy were supposed to be involved of some prominent gentlemen in this city, and especially of Dr. Almon, Mr. Keith, Mr. Weir, and Mr. Ritchie. They have given money, time, and influence without reserve, as if our cause had been that of their own country. I feel that I shall not transcend the spirit of my instructions in tendering Mr. IRitchie, of this city, and Mr.

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