The undersigned, Senators and Representatives in Congress from
Massachusetts, ask leave to call your serious attention to the
proceedings initiated by the Navy Department against Benjamin G. Smith
and Franklin W. Smith, of Boston, of the firm of Smith Brothers & Co.,
a much respected firm, which has hitherto enjoyed the confidence,
personal and mercantile, of the community where they reside. Among
their neighbors and friends these proceedings have already attracted
much attention, and awakened corresponding feeling.
The proceedings have seemed to be harsh, vindictive, and unnecessary.
1. In the character of the arrest of Messrs. Smith, which was attended
by circumstances of severity utterly unjustifiable.
2. In requiring bonds to so large an amount as half a million of
dollars. The fact that the parties in question easily obtained bonds
for a much larger amount does not render the exaction of “excessive
bail” less obnoxious to the requirements of the Constitution and of
justice, or less indicative of the spirit in which these proceedings
have been conducted.
3. In the seizure of their books and papers, which are still detained,
although regarded by their eminent counsel as important to their
defence.
4. In turning into a military offence what is more proper for a civil
tribunal, and dragging these defendants before a court-martial.
5. In transferring the proceedings from Boston, where the parties
reside, and the transactions in question occurred, to Philadelphia:
thus increasing greatly the difficulties and the cost of defence. This
will be appreciated, when it is understood that the witnesses are very
numerous, and chiefly engaged in mercantile business, so that they
cannot leave Boston without neglect of their private interests.
The undersigned, on reviewing these circumstances, which are so
inconsistent with the administration of justice in its most ordinary
forms, have been at a loss to account for the spirit manifested in
the prosecution. If they look at the trivial character of many of the
specifications against the defendants, they are still more at a loss.
It is difficult to account for such elaborate and persistent harshness,
without yielding to the prevailing belief that other motives than the
vindication of justice have entered into this case.
The undersigned are not strangers to the fact, that one of these
defendants, in the discharge of what he believed to be his duty as a
good citizen, has, by correspondence and testimony before committees
of Congress, been brought into collision with officers of the Navy
Department; and there is too much reason to believe that some of these
officers have allowed themselves to be governed by personal feelings
throughout these strange proceedings.
Under such circumstances, the undersigned most respectfully ask your
assistance in securing justice to these defendants, according to the
common course of proceedings at law. They are acquainted with the
statute which provides court-martial for contractors in certain cases,
and they are unwilling to make any suggestion which shall interfere
with its efficiency; but they have no hesitation in saying that such
a statute, intended for extreme cases, should not be applied to a
case like the present, where, with a single exception, the questions
are simply whether the defendants complied with their _contract_, and
therefore, from their nature, can be better considered by the ordinary
tribunals accustomed to such questions than by a naval tribunal
composed of officers who have no familiarity with them.
If the pending proceedings against the Messrs. Smith should be
continued, there are two courses with regard to them which may be
recommended.
_First_, That they should be transferred at once to the United States
Court in Massachusetts, and be placed under the direction of the
learned Attorney of the United States for that District.
_Secondly_, If the foregoing order is not deemed expedient, on the
existing evidence, then a commission or commissioner might be appointed
by the President to inquire into the circumstances attending the arrest
of the defendants, and also into the nature of the charges against
them, in order to ascertain and report if there is any sufficient
reason for the singular harshness to which they have been already
subjected, and also for the exceptional proceedings instituted against
them.
For the sake of justice, and to relieve the Government from all
suspicion of undue harshness, the undersigned protest against the
spirit in which these proceedings have been conducted, and appeal to
you for such remedy as shall seem best, to the end that the public
interests may be adequately protected without any sacrifice of the
rights of the citizen, and without needless interference with the order
of business.
CHARLES SUMNER,
HENRY WILSON,
THOMAS D. ELIOT,
HENRY L. DAWES,
S. HOOPER,
JOHN B. ALLEY, _by C. Sumner, as by letter_,[183]
D. W. GOOCH,
WILLIAM B. WASHBURN,
JOHN D. BALDWIN,
GEORGE S. BOUTWELL.
[BOSTON, August 15, 1864.]
The trial proceeded at Charlestown, lasting several months,
with able counsel for the defendants, and it ended in judgment
against the defendants, who were sentenced to imprisonment for
two years and a fine of twenty thousand dollars. This judgment
and sentence were approved by the Secretary of the Navy, and
it only remained for the President to give them his sanction.
Before this was done, Mr. Sumner saw him. The President
listened to his appeal, and at once put into his hands the
elaborate report from the Secretary of the Navy, setting forth
the facts in the case and approving the conclusion of the
court-martial,--asking him to read it carefully and give his
opinion upon it, which he did without delay.