This remark, inquisitively made, and evidently to draw out something

against Cromwell, failed of its object. It drew no remark from

Spencer; it merely acted upon his looks and spirit, according to the

commander--who proceeds in this strain:

"This effectually aroused him, and his countenance assumed a

demoniacal expression. He said no more of the innocence of

Cromwell. Subsequent circumstances too surely confirmed his

admission of his guilt. He might perhaps have wished to save

him, in fulfilment of some mutual oath."

This passage requires some explanation. Spencer had always declared

his total ignorance of Cromwell, and of his visionary schemes: he

repeated it earnestly as Mackenzie turned off to go and announce his

fate to him. Having enraged him against the man, he says he now said

no more about Cromwell's innocence; and catching up that silence as

an admission of his guilt, he quotes it as such; but remembering

how often Spencer had absolved him from all knowledge even of his

foolish joking, he supposes he wished to save him--in fulfilment of

some mutual oath. This imagined cause for saving him is shamefully

gratuitous, unwarranted by a word from any delator, not inferrible

from any premises, and atrociously wicked. In fact this whole story

after the commander returned from Small and Cromwell, is without

warrant from any thing tangible. Mackenzie got it from Gansevoort;

and Gansevoort got one half from one, and the other half from

another, without telling which, or when--and it was provably not

then; and considering the atrocity of such a communication to

Spencer at such time, it is certainly less infamous to the captain

and lieutenant to consider it a falsehood of their own invention,

to accomplish their own design. Mackenzie's telling it, however,

was infernal. The commander then goes on with a batch of gratuitous

assumptions, which shows he had no limit in such assumptions but in

his capacity at invention. Hear them!

"He (Spencer) more probably hoped that he might yet get

possession of the vessel, and carry out the scheme of murder

and outrage matured between them. It was in Cromwell that he

had apparently trusted, in fulfilment of some agreement for a

rescue; and he eloquently plead to Lieutenant Gansevoort when

Cromwell was ironed, for his release, as altogether ignorant of

his designs, and innocent. He had endeavored to make of Elisha

Andrews appearing on the list of the "certain," an _alias_ for

Small, though his name as Small appeared also in the list of

those to effect the murder in the cabin, by falsely asserting

that Small was a feigned name, when he had evidence in a letter

addressed by Small's mother to him that Small was her name as

well as his."

Assumptions without foundations, inferences without premises,

beliefs without knowledge, thoughts without knowing why, suspicions

without reasons--are all a species of _inventions_ but little

removed from direct falsehood, and leaves the person who indulges in

them without credit for any thing he may say. This was pre-eminently

the case with the commander Slidell Mackenzie, and with all his

informers; and here is a fine specimen of it in himself. First:

the presumed probability that Spencer yet hoped to get possession

of the vessel, and carry out the scheme of murder and piracy which

he had matured. What a presumption in such a case! the case of

men, ironed, bagged and helpless,--standing under the gallows

in the midst of armed men to shoot and stab for a motion or a

sign--and a presumption, not only without a shadow to rest upon,

but contradicted by the entire current of all that was sworn--even

by Garty and Wales. "Fulfilment of secret agreement for rescue."

Secret! Yes! very secret indeed! There was not a man on board the

vessel that ever heard such a word as rescue pronounced until after

the arrests! The crazy misgivings of a terrified imagination could

alone have invented such a scheme of rescue. The name of Small was a

sad stumbling block in the road to his sacrifice, as that of Andrews

to the truth of the razor case paper. One was not in the list, and

the other was not in the ship: and all these forced assumptions were

to reconcile these contradictions; and so the idea of an _alias

dictus_ was fallen upon, though no one had ever heard Small called

Edward Andrews, and his mother, in her letter, gave her own name

as her son's, as Small. Having now succeeded in getting Spencer

enraged against his two companions in death, the commander takes

himself to his real work--that of getting confessions--or getting up

something which could be recorded as confessions, under the pretext

of writing to his father and mother: and to obtain which all this

refined aggravation of the terrors of death had been contrived.

But here recourse must be had to the testimony before the court to

supply details on which the report is silent, or erroneous, and in

which what was omitted must be brought forward to be able to get

at the truth. McKinley swears that he was six or eight feet from

Spencer when the commander asked him if he wished to write. Spencer

answered that he did. An apprentice named Dunn was then ordered

to fetch paper and campstool out of the cabin. Spencer took the

pen in his hand, and said--"I cannot write." "The commander spoke

to him in a low tone. I do not know what he then said. I saw the

commander writing. Whether Mr. Spencer asked him to write for him or

not, I can't say."--Mr. Oliver H. Perry swears: "Saw the commander

order Dunn to bring him paper and ink: saw the commander write:

was four or five feet from him while writing: heard no part of the

conversation between the commander and Spencer: was writing ten or

fifteen minutes."--Other witnesses guess at the time as high as

half an hour. The essential parts of this testimony, are--_first_,

That Spencer's hands were ironed, and that he could not write:

_secondly_, that the commander, instead of releasing his hands,

took the pen and wrote himself: _thirdly_, that he carried on all

his conversation with Spencer in so low a voice that those within

four or five feet of him (and in the deathlike stillness which then

prevailed, and the breathless anxiety of every one) _heard not a

word of what passed between them!_ neither what Mackenzie said to

Spencer, nor Spencer said to him. Now the report of the commander

is silent upon this lowness of tone which could not be heard four

or five feet--silent upon the handcuffs of Spencer--silent upon

the answer of Spencer that he could not write; and for which he

substituted on the court-martial the answer that he "declined to

write"--a substitution which gave rise to a conversation between the

judge advocate and Mackenzie, which the judge advocate reported to

the court in writing; and which all felt to be a false substitution

both upon the testimony, and the facts of the case. A man in iron

handcuffs cannot write! but it was necessary to show him "declining"

in order to give him a recording secretary! And it is silent upon

the great fact that he sat on the arm-chest with Spencer, and

whispering so low that not a human being could hear what passed:

and, consequently, that Mackenzie chose that he himself should be

the recording secretary on that occasion, and that no one could know

whether the record was true or false. The declaration in the report

that Spencer read what was written down, and agreed to it, will be

attended to hereafter. The point at present is the secrecy, and

the fact that the man the most interested in the world in getting

confessions from Spencer, was the recorder of these confessions,

without a witness! without even Wales, Gansevoort, Garty; or any

one of his familiars. For the rest, it becomes a fair question,

which every person can solve for themselves, whether it is possible

for two persons to talk so low to one another for, from a quarter

to half an hour, in such profound stillness, and amidst so much

excited expectation, and no one in arm's length able to hear one

word. If this is deemed impossible, it may be a reasonable belief

that nothing material was said between them--that Mackenzie wrote

without dictation from Spencer; and wrote what the necessity of his

condition required--confessions to supply the place of total want

of proof--admissions of guilt--acknowledgments that he deserved to

die--begging forgiveness. And so large a part of what he reported

was proved to be false, that this reasonable belief of a fabricated

dialogue becomes almost a certainty.

The commander, now become sole witness of Spencer's last

words--words spoken if at all--after his time on earth was

out--after the announcement in his presence that the ten minutes

were out--and hearing the commander's response to the notification,

"Very well:" this commander thus proceeds with his report: "I

asked him if he had no message to send to his friends? He answered

none that they would wish to receive. When urged still further to

send some words of consolation in so great an affliction, he said,

'Tell them I die wishing them every blessing and happiness. I

deserve death for this and many other crimes--there are few crimes

I have not committed. I feel sincerely penitent, and my only fear

of death is that my repentance may come too late.'"--This is what

the commander reports to the Secretary of the Navy, and which no

human witness could gainsay, because no human being was allowed

to witness what was said at the time; but there is another kind

of testimony, independent of human eyes and ears, and furnished

by the evil-doer himself, often in the very effort to conceal his

guilt, and more convincing than the oath of any witness, and which

fate, or accident, often brings to light for the relief of the

innocent and the confusion of the guilty. And so it was in this

case with Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie. That original

record made out upon inaudible whispers on the camp-stool! It still

existed--and was produced in court--and here is the part which

corresponds (should correspond) with this quoted part of the report;

and constituting the first part of the confession: "When asked if

he had any message to send: none that they would wish to receive.

Afterwards, that you die wishing them every blessing and happiness;

deserved death for this and other sins; that you felt sincerely

penitent, and only fear of death was that your repentance might

_be too late_."--Compared together, and it is seen that the words

"other sins," in the third sentence, is changed into "_many other

crimes_,"--words of revoltingly different import--going beyond what

the occasion required--and evidently substituted as an introduction

to the further gratuitous confession: "_There are few crimes

which I have not committed._" Great consolation in this for those

parents for whom the record was made, and who never saw it except

as promulgated through the public press. In any court of justice

the entire report would be discredited upon this view of flagrant

and wicked falsifications. For the rest, there is proof that the

first sentence is a fabrication. It is to be recollected that this

inquiry as to Spencer's wishes to communicate with his parents was

made publicly, and before the pen, ink and paper was sent for,

and that the answer was the inducement to send for those writing

materials. That public answer was heard by those around, and was

thus proved before the court-martial--McKinley the witness: "_The

commander asked him if he wished to write?_ Mr. Spencer said he did.

The commander ordered Dunn to fetch paper and campstool out of the

cabin. Spencer took the pen in his hand--he said, 'I cannot write.'

The commander spoke to him in a low tone: I do not know what he then

said. I saw the commander writing." This testimony contradicts the

made-up report, in showing that Spencer was asked to write himself,

instead of sending a message: that the declaration, "_nothing that

they would wish to hear_," is a fabricated addition to what he did

say--and that he was prevented from writing, not from disinclination

and declining, as the commander attempted to make out, but because

upon trial--after taking the pen in his hand--he could not with his

handcuffs on. Certainly this was understood beforehand. Men do not

write in iron handcuffs. They were left on to permit the commander

to become his secretary, and to send a message for him: which

message he never sent! the promise to do so being a mere contrivance

to get a chance of writing for the Secretary of the Navy, and the

public.

The official report continues: "I asked him if there was any one he

had injured, to whom he could yet make reparation--any one suffering

obloquy for crimes which he had committed. He made no answer; but

soon after continued: 'I have wronged many persons, but chiefly my

parents.' He said 'this will kill my poor mother.' I was not before

aware that he had a mother." The corresponding sentences in the

original, run thus: "Many that he had wronged, but did not know how

reparation could be made to them. Your parents most wronged ...

himself by saying he had entertained same idea in John Adams and

Potomac, but had not ripened into.... Do you not think that such

a mania should ... certainly. Objected to manner of death." The

dots in place of words indicate the places where the writing was

illegible. The remarkable variations between the report and the

original in these sentences is, that the original leaves out all

those crimes which he had committed, and which were bringing obloquy

upon others, and to which he made no answer, but shows that he did

make answer as to having wronged persons, and that answer was, that

he did not know how reparation could be made. There is no mention

of mother in this part of the original--it comes in long after.

Then the John Adams and the Potomac, which are here mentioned in

the twelfth line of the original, only appear in the fifty-sixth

in the report--and the long gap filled up with things not in the

original--and the word "idea," as attributed to Spencer, substituted

by "mania."

The report continues (and here it is told once for all, that the

quotations both from the report and the original, of which it

should be a copy, follow each in its place in consecutive order,

leaving no gap between each quoted part and what preceded it):

"_when recovered from the pain of this announcement (the effect

upon his mother)_, I asked him if it would not have been still more

dreadful had he succeeded in his attempt, murdered the officers and

the greater part of the crew of the vessel, and run that career

of crime which, with so much satisfaction he had marked out for

himself: he replied after a pause; 'I do not know what would have

become of me if I had succeeded.' I told him Cromwell would soon

have made way with him, and McKinley would probably have cleared

the whole of them from his path." The corresponding part of the

original runs thus: "Objected to manner of death: requested to be

shot. Could not make any distinction between him and those he had

seduced. Justifiable desire at first to.... The last words he had to

say, and hoped they would be believed, that Cromwell was innocent

... Cromwell. Admitted it was just that no distinction should be

made."--This is the consecutive part in the original, beginning in

utter variance with what should be its counterpart--hardly touching

the same points--leaving out all the cruel reproaches which the

official report heaps upon Spencer--ending with the introduction of

Cromwell, but without the innocence which the original contains,

with the substitution of Cromwell's destruction of him, and with

the addition of McKinley's destruction of them all, and ultimate

attainment of the chief place in that long career of piracy which

was to be ran--and ran in that state of the world in which no pirate

could live at all. What was actually said about Cromwell's innocence

by Spencer and by McKinley as coming from Cromwell "to stir up the

devil between them," as the historian Cooper remarked, was said

before this writing commenced! said when Mackenzie returned from

announcing the ten minutes lease of life to him and Small! which

Mackenzie himself had reported in a previous part of his report,

before the writing materials were sent for: and now, strange enough,

introduced again in an after place, but with such alterations and

additions as barely to leave their identity discoverable.

The official report proceeds: "'I fear,' said he, 'this may injure

my father.' I told him it was too late to think of that--that

had he succeeded in his wishes it would have injured his father

much more--that had it been possible to have taken him home as I

intended to do, it was not in nature that his father should not have

interfered to save him--_that for those who have friends or money

in America there was no punishment for the worst of crimes_--that

though this had nothing to do with my determination, which had

been forced upon me in spite of every effort I had made to avert

it, I, on this account the less regretted the dilemma in which I

was placed: it would injure his father a great deal more if he

got home alive, should he be condemned and yet escape. The best

and only service which he could do his father was to die."--Now

from the original, beginning at the end of the last quotation:

"Asked that his face might be covered. Granted. When he found

that his repentance might not be in season, I referred him to the

story of the penitent thief. Tried to find it. Could not. Read the

Bible, the prayer-book. Did not know what would have become of

him if he had succeeded. Makes no objection to death, but objects

to time. Reasons--God would understand of him offences ... many

crimes. Dies, praying God to bless and preserve.... I am afraid

this will injure my father."--The quotation from the report opens

with apprehended fear of injury to his father: it concludes with

commending him to die, as the only service he could render that

parent: and the whole is taken up with that topic, and crowned

with the assertion that, for those who have friends or money in

America there is no punishment for the worst of crimes--a sweeping

reproach upon the American judiciary; and, however unfounded in his

broad denunciation, may he not himself have counted on the benefit

of the laxity of justice which he denounced? and--more--did he not

receive it? The rest of the paragraph is only remarkable for the

declaration of the intention to have brought his prisoners home, and

of the change, of which intention they had no notice until placed

in the presence of the completed preparations for death, and told

they had but ten minutes, by the watch, to live.--Turning to the

original of this paragraph, and it will be seen that it opens with

preparations for death--goes on in the same spirit--barely mentions

his father--and ends with his death--"_dies praying God to bless

and preserve_".... This is evidently the termination of the whole

scene. It carries him through the last preparations, and ends his

life--sees him die praying to God. Now does the report give any

of these circumstances? None. Does the report stop there? It does

not. Does it go on? Yes: two hundred and thirty lines further. And

the original record go on further? Yes: sixty lines further--which

was just double the distance it had come. Here was a puzzle. The

man to be talking double as much after his death as before it.

This solecism required a solution--and received it before the

court-martial: and the solution was that this double quantity was

written after hanging--how long, not stated--but after it. Before

the court Mackenzie delivered in a written and sworn statement,

that his record embracing what was taken down from the lips of

Spencer finished at the sentence--"_I am afraid this will injure my

father_:" and that the remainder was written shortly afterwards. Now

the part written before the death was thirty-three lines: the part

written shortly after it, is above fifty. This solecism explained,

another difficulty immediately arises. The commander reported that,

"he (Spencer) _read over what he (Mackenzie) had written down_,"

and agreed to it all, with one exception--which was corrected. Now

he could not have read the fifty odd lines which were written after

his death. (All the lines here mentioned are the short ones in the

double column pages of the published, "Official Proceedings of the

Naval Court Martial.)" These fifty odd lines could not have been

read by Spencer. That is certain. The previous thirty-three it is

morally certain he never read. They are in some places illegible--in

others unintelligible; and are printed in the official report with

blanks because there were parts which could not be read. No witness

says they were read by Spencer.

The additional fifty odd lines, expanded by additions and variations

into about two hundred in the official report, requires but a brief

notice, parts of it being amplifications and aggravations of what

had been previously noted, and additional insults to Spencer; with

an accumulation of acknowledgments of guilt, of willingness to die,

of obligations to the commander, and entreaties for his forgiveness.

One part of the reported scene was even more than usually inhuman.

Spencer said to him: "But are you not going too far? are you

not too fast? does the law entirely justify you?" To this the

commander represents himself as replying: "That he (Spencer) had not

consulted him in his arrangements--that his opinion could not be an

unprejudiced one--that I had consulted all his brother officers,

his messmates included, except the boys; and I placed before him

their opinion. He stated that it was just--that he deserved death,"

For the honor of human nature it is to be hoped that Mackenzie

reports himself falsely here--which is probable, both on its face,

and because it is not in the original record. The commander says

that he begged for one hour to prepare himself for death, saying

the time is so short, asking if there was time for repentance, and

if he could be changed so soon (from sin to grace). To the request

for the hour, the commander says no answer was given: to the other

parts he reminded him of the _thief_ on the cross, who was pardoned

by our Saviour, and that for the rest, God would understand the

difficulties of his situation and be merciful. The commander also

represents himself as recapitulating to Spencer the arts he had used

to seduce the crew. The commander says upwards of an hour elapsed

before the hanging: he might have said two hours: for the doom of

the prisoners was announced at about eleven, and they were hung at

one. But no part of this delay was for their benefit, as he would

make believe, but for his own, to get confessions under the agonies

of terror. No part of it--not even the whole ten minutes--was

allowed to Spencer to make his peace with God; but continually

interrupted, questioned, outraged, inflamed against his companions

in death, he had his devotions broken in upon, and himself deprived

of one peaceful moment to commune with God.

The report of the confessions is false upon its face: it is also

invalidated by other matter within itself, showing that Mackenzie

had two opposite ways of speaking of the same person, and of the

same incident, before and after the design upon Spencer's life. I

speak of the attempt, and of the reasons given for it, to get the

young man transferred to another vessel before sailing from New

York. According to the account given first of these reasons, and

at the time, the desire to get him out of the Somers was entirely

occasioned by the crowded state of the midshipmen's room--seven,

where only five could be accommodated. Thus:

"When we were on the eve of sailing, two midshipmen who had been

with me before, and in whom I had confidence, joined the vessel.

This carried to seven, the number to occupy a space capable

of accommodating only five. I had heard that Mr. Spencer had

expressed a willingness to be transferred from the Somers to the

Grampus. I directed Lieut. Gansevoort to say to him that if he

would apply to Commodore Perry to detach him (there was no time

to communicate with the Navy Department), I would second the

application. He made the application; I seconded it, earnestly

urging that it should be granted on the score of the comfort

of the young officers. The commodore declined detaching Mr.

Spencer, but offered to detach midshipman Henry Rodgers, who had

been last ordered. I could not consent to part with Midshipman

Rodgers, whom I knew to be a seaman, an officer, a gentleman; a

young man of high attainments within his profession and beyond

it. The Somers sailed with seven in her steerage. They could not

all sit together round the table. The two oldest and most useful

had no lockers to put their clothes in, and have slept during

the cruise on the steerage deck, the camp-stools, the booms, in

the tops, or in the quarter boats."

Nothing can be clearer than this statement. It was to relieve the

steerage room where the young midshipmen congregated, that the

transfer of Spencer was requested; and this was after Captain

Mackenzie had been informed that the young man had been dismissed

from the Brazilian squadron, for drunkenness. "And this fact," he

said, "made me very desirous of his removal from the vessel, chiefly

on account of the young men who were to mess and be associated with

him, the rather that two of them were connected with me by blood and

two by marriage; and all four intrusted to my especial care." After

the deaths he wrote of the same incident in these words:

"The circumstance of Mr. Spencer's being the son of a high

officer of the government, by enhancing his baseness in my

estimation, made me more desirous to be rid of him. On this

point I beg that I may not be misunderstood. I revere authority.

I recognize, in the exercise of its higher functions in this

free country, the evidences of genius, intelligence, and virtue;

but I have no respect for the base son of an honored father;

on the contrary, I consider that he who, by misconduct sullies

the lustre of an honorable name, is more culpable than the

unfriended individual whose disgrace falls only on himself. I

wish, however, to have nothing to do with baseness in any shape;

the navy is not the place for it. On these accounts I readily

sought the first opportunity of getting rid of Mr. Spencer."

Here the word base, as applicable to the young Spencer, occurs

three times in a brief paragraph, and this baseness is given as the

reason for wishing to get the young man, not out of the ship, but

out of the navy! And this sentiment was so strong, that reverence

for Spencer's father could not control it. He could have nothing to

do with baseness. The navy is not the place for it. Now all this

was written after the young man was dead, and when it was necessary

to make out a case of justification for putting him, not out of the

ship, nor even out of the navy, but out of the world. This was an

altered state of the case, and the captain's report accommodated

itself to this alteration. The reasons now given go to the baseness

of the young man: those which existed at the time, went to the

comfort of the four midshipmen, connected by blood and alliance

with the captain, and committed to his special care:--as if all in

the ship were not committed to his special care, and that by the

laws of the land--and without preference to relations. The captain

even goes into an account of his own high moral feelings at the

time, and disregard of persons high in power, in showing that he

then acted upon a sense of Spencer's baseness, maugre the reverence

he had for his father and his cabinet position. Every body sees

that these are contradictions--that all this talk about baseness

is after-talk--that all these fine sentiments are of subsequent

conception: in fact, that the first reasons were those of the time,

before he expected to put the young man to death, and the next

after he had done it! and when the deed exacted a justification,

and that at any cost of invention and fabrication. The two accounts

are sufficient to establish one of those errors of fact which the

law considers as discrediting a witness in all that he says. But

it is not all the proof of erroneous statement which the double

relation of this incident affords: there is another, equally

flagrant. The captain, in his after account, repulses association

with baseness, that is with Spencer, in any shape: his elaborate

report superabounds with expressions of the regard with which he had

treated him during the voyage, and even exacts acknowledgment of

his kindness while endeavoring to torture out of him confessions of

guilt.

The case of Spencer was now over: the cases of Small and Cromwell

were briefly despatched. The commander contrived to make the three

victims meet in a narrow way going to the sacrifice, all manacled

and hobbling along, helped along, for they could not walk, by

persons appointed to that duty. Gansevoort helped Spencer--a place

to which he had entitled himself by the zeal with which he had

pursued him. The object of the meeting was seen in the use that was

made of it. It was to have a scene of crimination and recrimination

between the prisoners, in which mutual accusations were to help out

the miserable testimony and the imputed confessions. They are all

made to stop together. Spencer is made to ask the pardon of Small

for having seduced him: Small is made to answer, and with a look

of horror--"_No, by God!_" an answer very little in keeping with

the lowly and Christian character of Small, and rebutted by ample

negative testimony: for this took place after the secret whispering

was over, and in the presence of many. Even Gansevoort, in giving a

minute account of this interview, reports nothing like it, nor any

thing on which it could be founded. Small really seems to have been

a gentle and mild man, imbued with kind and pious feelings, and no

part of his conduct corresponds with the brutal answer to Spencer

attributed to him. When asked if he had any message to send, he

answered, "I have nobody to care for me but a poor old mother, and

I had rather she did not know how I died." In his Bible was found

a letter from his mother, filled with affectionate expressions. In

that letter the mother had rejoiced that her son was contented and

happy, as he had informed her; upon which the commander maliciously

remarked, in his report, "that was before his acquaintance with

Spencer." There was nothing against him, but in the story of the

informer, Wales. He instantly admitted his "foolish conversations"

with Spencer when arrested, but said it was no mutiny. When

standing under the ship gallows (yard-arm) he began a speech to his

shipmates, declaring his innocence, saying "I am no pirate: I never

murdered any body!" At these words Mackenzie sung out to Gansevoort,

"Is that right?" meaning, ought he to be allowed to speak so? He

was soon stopped, and Gansevoort swears he said "he deserved his

punishment." Cromwell protested his innocence to the last, and with

evident truth. When arrested, he declared he knew nothing about the

mutiny, and the commander told him he was to be carried home with

Spencer to be tried; to which he answered, "I assure you I know

nothing about it." His name was not on the razor-case paper. Spencer

had declared his ignorance of all his talk, when the commander

commenced his efforts, under the ten minutes' reprieve, to get

confessions, and when Spencer said to him, as he turned off to go

to Small and Cromwell with the ten minutes' news--the first they

heard of it: "As these are the last words I have to say, I trust

they will be believed: Cromwell is innocent." When told his doom,

he (Cromwell) exclaimed, "God of the Universe look down upon me; I

am innocent! Tell my wife--tell Lieutenant Morris I die innocent!"

The last time that Mackenzie had spoken to him before was to tell

him he would be carried to the United States for trial. The meeting

of the three victims was crowned by reporting them, not only as

confessing, and admitting the justice of their deaths, but even

praising it, as to the honor of the flag, and--penitently begging

pardon and forgiveness from the commander and his lieutenant!--and

they mercifully granting the pardon and forgiveness! The original

record says there were no "hangmen" on board the ship: but that made

no balk. The death signal, and command, were given by the commander

and his lieutenant--the former firing the signal gun himself--the

other singing out "whip!" at which word the three wretched men

went up with a violent jerk to the yard-arm. There is something

unintelligible about Cromwell in the last words of this original

"record." It says: "S. Small stept up. Cromwell overboard, rose

dipping to yard-arm." Upon which the editor remarks: "The above

paper of Commander Mackenzie is so illegible, as not to be correctly

written" (copied). Yet it was this paper that Spencer is officially

reported to have read while waiting to be jerked up, and to have

agreed to its correctness--and near two-thirds of which were not

written until after his death!

The men were dead, and died innocent, as history will tell and

show. Why such conduct towards them--not only the killing, but

the cruel aggravations? The historian Cooper, in solving this

question, says that such was the obliquity of intellect shown by

Mackenzie in the whole affair, that no analysis of his motives

can be made on any consistent principle of human action. This

writer looks upon personal resentment as having been the cause of

the deaths, and terror, and a desire to create terror, the cause

of the aggravations. Both Spencer and Cromwell had indulged in

language which must have been peculiarly offensive to a man of

the commander's temperament, and opinion of himself--an author,

an orator, a fine officer. They habitually spoke of him before

the crew, as "the old humbug--the old fool;" graceless epithets,

plentifully garnished with the prefix of "damned;" and which were so

reported to the captain (after the discovery of the mutiny--never

before) as to appear to him to be "blasphemous vituperation." This

is the only tangible cause for hanging Spencer and Cromwell, and as

for poor Small, it would seem that his knowledge of navigation, and

the necessity of having three mutineers, decided his fate: for his

name is on neither of the three lists (though on the distribution

list), and he frankly told the commander of Spencer's foolish

conversations--always adding, it was no mutiny. These are the only

tangible, or visible causes for putting the men to death. The reason

for doing it at the time it was done, was for fear of losing the

excuse to do it. The vessel was within a day and a half of St.

Thomas, where she was ordered to go--within less time of many other

islands to which she might go--in a place to meet vessels at any

time, one of which she saw nearly in her course, and would not go

to it. The excuse for not going to these near islands, or joining

the vessel seen, was that it was disgraceful to a man-of-war to

seek protection from foreigners! as if it was more honorable to

murder than to take such protection. But the excuse was proved to

be false; for it was admitted the vessel seen was too far off to

know her national character: therefore, she was not avoided as a

foreigner, but for fear she might be American. The same of the

islands: American vessels were sure to be at them, and therefore

these islands were not gone to. It was therefore indispensable to do

the work before they got to St. Thomas, and all the machinery of new

arrests, and rescue was to justify that consummation. And as for not

being able to carry the ship to St. Thomas, with an obedient crew of

100 men, it was a story not to be told in a service where Lieutenant

John Rodgers and Midshipman Porter, with 11 men, conducted a French

frigate with 173 French prisoners, three days and nights, into safe

port.

The three men having hung until they ceased to give signs of

life, and still hanging up, the crew were piped down to dinner,

and to hear a speech from the commander, and to celebrate divine

service--of which several performances the commander gives this

account in his official report:

"The crew were now piped down from witnessing punishment, and

all hands called to cheer ship. I gave the order, 'stand by to

give three hearty cheers for the flag of our country!' Never

were three heartier cheers given. In that electric moment I

do not doubt that the patriotism of even the worst of the

conspirators for an instant broke forth. I felt that I was once

more completely commander of the vessel which had been entrusted

to me; equal to do with her whatever the honor of my country

might require. The crew were now piped down and piped to dinner.

I noticed with pain that many of the boys, as they looked to the

yard-arm, indulged in laughter and derision."

He also gives an impressive account of the religious service which

was performed, the punctuality and devotion with which it was

attended, and the appropriate prayer--that of thanks to God for

deliverance from a great danger--with which it was concluded.

"The service was then read, the responses audibly and devoutly

made by the officers and crew, and the bodies consigned to the

deep. This service was closed with that prayer so appropriate

to our situation, appointed to be read in our ships of war,

'Preserve us from the dangers of the sea, and from the violence

of enemies; that we may be a safeguard to the United States of

America, and a security for such as pass on the seas upon their

lawful occasions; that the inhabitants of our land may in peace

and quietude serve thee our God; and that we may return in

safety to enjoy the blessings of our land, with the fruits of

our labor, with a thankful remembrance of thy mercies, to praise

and glorify thy holy name through Jesus Christ our Lord.'"

This religious celebration concluded, and the prayer read, the

commander indulges in a remark upon their escape from a danger

plotted before the ship left the United States, as unfeeling,

inhuman and impious at the time, as it was afterwards proved to

be false and wicked. After the arrest of Spencer, the delators

discovered that he had meditated these crimes before he left the

United States, and had let his intention become known at a house in

the Bowery at New York. In reference to that early inception of the

plot, now just found out by the commander, he thus remarks:

"In reading this (prayer) and in recollecting the uses to which

the Somers had been destined, as I now find, before she quitted

the waters of the United States, I could not but humbly hope

that divine sanction would not be wanting to the deed of that

day."

Here it is assumed for certain that piratical uses were intended

for the vessel by Spencer before he left New York; and upon that

assumption the favor of Heaven was humbly hoped for in looking down

upon the deed of that day. Now what should be the look of Heaven

if all this early plotting should be a false imputation--a mere

invention--as it was proved to be. Before the court-martial it was

proved that the sailor boarding-house remark about this danger

to the Somers, was made by another person, and before Spencer

joined the vessel--and from which vessel the commander knew he had

endeavored to get transferred to the Grampus, after he had come into

her--the commander himself being the organ of his wishes. Foiled

before the court in attaching this boarding-house remark to Spencer,

the delators before the court undertook to fasten it upon Cromwell:

there again the same fate befell them: the remark was proved to have

been made by a man of the name of Phelps, and before Cromwell had

joined the vessel: and so ended this last false and foul insinuation

in his report.

The commander then made a speech, whereof he incorporates a synopsis

in his report; and of which, with its capital effects upon the crew,

he gives this account:

"The crew were now ordered aft, and I addressed them from the

trunk, on which I was standing. I called their attention first

to the fate of the unfortunate young man, whose ill-regulated

ambition, directed to the most infamous ends, had been the

exciting cause of the tragedy they had just witnessed. I spoke

of his honored parents, of his distinguished father, whose

talents and character had raised him to one of the highest

stations in the land, to be one of the six appointed counsellors

of the representative of our national sovereignty. I spoke of

the distinguished social position to which this young man had

been born; of the advantages of every sort that attended the

outset of his career, and of the professional honors to which a

long, steady, and faithful perseverance in the course of duty

might ultimately have raised him. After a few months' service

at sea, most wretchedly employed, so for as the acquisition of

professional knowledge was concerned, he had aspired to supplant

me in a command which I had only reached after nearly 30 years

of faithful servitude; and for what object I had already

explained to them. I told them that their future fortunes were

in their own control: they had advantages of every sort and in

an eminent degree for the attainment of professional knowledge.

The situations of warrant officers and of masters in the navy

were open to them. They might rise to commands in the merchant

service, to respectability, to competence, and to fortune; but

they must advance regularly, and step by step; every step to be

sure, must be guided by truth, honor, and fidelity. I called

their attention to Cromwell's case. He must have received an

excellent education, his handwriting was even elegant. But he

had also fallen through brutish sensuality and the greedy thirst

for gold."

But there was another speech on the Sunday following, of which

the commander furnishes no report, but of which some parts were

remembered by hearers--as thus by McKee:--(the judge advocate having

put the question to him whether he had heard the commander's

addresses to the crew after the execution). Answer: "I heard him on

the Sunday after the execution: he read Mr. Spencer's letters: he

said he was satisfied the young man had been lying to him for half

an hour before his death." Another witness swore to the same words,

with the addition, "that he died with a lie in his mouth." Another

witness (Green) gives a further view into this letter-reading, and

affords a glimpse of the object of such a piece of brutality. In

answer to the same question, if he heard the commander's speech the

Sunday after the execution? He answered, "Yes, sir. I heard him

read over Mr. Spencer's letter, and pass a good many remarks on it.

He said that Cromwell had been very cruel to the boys: that he had

called him aft, and spoke to him about it several times. To the

question, Did he say any thing of Mr. Spencer? he answered--"Yes,

sir. He said he left his friends, lost all his clothes, and shipped

in a whaling vessel." To the question whether any thing was said

about Mr. Spencer's truth or falsehood? he answered: "I heard the

commander say, this young man died with a lie in his mouth; but do

not know whether he meant Mr. Spencer, or some one else." It is

certain the commander was making a base use of these letters, as he

makes no mention of them any where, and they seem to have been used

solely to excite the crew against Cromwell and Spencer.

In finding the mother's letter in Small's bible, the captain finds

occasion to make two innuendos against the dead Spencer, then still

hanging up. He says:

"She expressed the joy with which she had learned from him that

he was so happy on board the Somers (at that time Mr. Spencer

had not joined her); that no grog was served on board of her.

Within the folds of this sacred volume he had preserved a copy

of verses taken from the Sailor's Magazine, enforcing the value

of the bible to seamen. I read these verses to the crew. Small

had evidently valued his bible, but could not resist temptation."

This happiness of Small is discriminated from his acquaintance with

Spencer: it was before the time that Spencer joined the ship! as

if his misery began from that time! when it only commenced from

the time he was seized and ironed for mutiny. Then the temptation

which he could not resist, _innuendo_, tempted by Spencer--of which

there was not even a tangible hearsay, and no temptation necessary.

Poor Small was an habitual drunkard, and drank all that he could

get--his only fault, as it seems. But this bible of Small's gave

occasion to another speech, and moral and religious harangue, of

which the captain gave a report, too long to be noticed here except

for its characteristics, and which go to elucidate the temper and

state of mind in which things were done:

"I urged upon the youthful sailors to cherish their bibles

with a more entire love than Small had done; to value their

prayer books also; they would find in them a prayer for every

necessity, however great; a medicine for every ailment of the

mind. I endeavored to call to their recollection the terror

with which the three malefactors had found themselves suddenly

called to enter the presence of an offended God. No one who

had witnessed that scene could for a moment believe even in

the existence of such a feeling as honest Atheism: a disbelief

in the existence of a God. They should also remember that

scene. They should also remember that Mr. Spencer, in his last

moments, had said that 'he had wronged many people, but chiefly

his parents.' From these two circumstances they might draw two

useful lessons: a lesson of filial piety, and of piety toward

God. With these two principles for their guides they could never

go astray."

This speech was concluded with giving cheers to God, not by

actual shouting, but by singing the hundredth psalm, and cheering

again--all for deliverance from the hands of the pirates. Thus:

"In conclusion, I told them that they had shown that they could

give cheers for their country; they should now give cheers to

their God, for they would do this when they sung praises to

his name. The colors were now hoisted, and above the American

ensign, the only banner to which it may give place, the banner

of the cross. The hundredth psalm was now sung by all the

officers and crew. After which, the usual service followed;

when it was over, I could not avoid contrasting the spectacle

presented on that day by the Somers, with what it would have

been in pirates' hands."

During all this time the four other men in irons sat manacled behind

the captain, and he exults in telling the fine effects of his

speaking on these "deeply guilty," as well as upon all the rest of

the ship's crew.

"But on this subject I forbear to enlarge. I would not have

described the scene at all, so different from the ordinary

topics of an official communication, but for the unwonted

circumstances in which we were placed, and the marked effect

which it produced on the ship's company, even on those deeply

guilty members of it who sat manacled behind me, and that it was

considered to have done much towards restoring the allegiance of

the crew."

Of these deeply guilty, swelled to twelve before the ship got

home, three appeared before the court-martial, and gave in their

experience of that day's work. McKee, the first one, testifies

that he had so little suspicion of what was going on, that, when

he saw the commander come upon deck in full uniform, he supposed

that some ship was seen, and that it was the intention to visit

or speak her. To the question, what passed between yourself and

the commander, after the execution? he answered: "He said he could

find nothing against any of the four that were then in irons--if

he had found any proof our fate would have been the same; and if

he could find any excuse for not taking them home in irons, he

would do so. I understood him to mean he would release them from

their irons." Green, another of them, in answer to the question

whether the commander spoke to him after hanging, answered--"Yes,

sir. He said he could not find any thing against us; if he could,

our fate would have been the same as the other three. He asked me

if I was satisfied with it?" McKinley was the third, and to the

same question, whether the commander spoke to him on the day of the

executions? he answered--"He did while the men were hanging at the

yard arm, but not before. He came to me, and said, 'McKinley, did

you hear what I said to those other young men?' I told him, 'No,

sir.' 'Well,' said he, 'it is the general opinion of the officers

that you are a pretty good boy, but I shall have to take you home

in irons, to see what the Secretary of the Navy can do for you.'

He said: 'In risking your life for other persons (or something to

that effect) is all that saves you.' He left me then, and I spoke

to Mr. Gansevoort--I asked him if he thought the commander thought

I was guilty of any thing of the kind. He said: 'No, I assure you

if he did, he would have strung you up.'" Wilson, the fourth of

the arrested, was not examined before the court; but the evidence

of three of them, with McKenzie's refusal to proceed against them

in New York, and the attempt to tamper with one of them, is proof

enough that he had no accusation against these four men: that they

were arrested to fulfil the condition on which the first three were

to be hanged, and to be brought home in irons with eight others, to

keep up the idea of mutiny.

The report having finished the history of the mutiny--its detection,

suppression, execution of the ringleaders, and seizure of the rest

(twelve in all) to be brought home in bags and irons--goes on, like

a military report after a great victory, to point out for the notice

and favor of the government, the different officers and men who

had distinguished themselves in the affair, and to demand suitable

rewards for each one according to his station and merits. This

concluding part opened thus:

"In closing this report, a pleasing, yet solemn duty devolves

upon me, which I feel unable adequately to fulfil--to do justice

to the noble conduct of every one of the officers of the Somers,

from the first lieutenant to the commander's clerk, who has

also, since her equipment, performed the duty of midshipman.

Throughout the whole duration of the difficulties in which

we have been involved, their conduct has been courageous,

determined, calm, self-possessed--animated and upheld always by

a lofty and chivalrous patriotism, perpetually armed by day and

by night, waking and sleeping, with pistols often cocked for

hours together."

The commander, after this general encomium, brings forward the

distinguished, one by one, beginning of course with his first

lieutenant:

"I cannot forbear to speak particularly of Lieutenant

Gansevoort. Next to me in rank on board the Somers, he was my

equal in every respect to protect and defend her. The perfect

harmony of our opinions, and of our views of what should be

done, on each new development of the dangers which menaced the

integrity of command, gave us a unity of action that added

materially to our strength. Never since the existence of our

navy has a commanding officer been more ably and zealously

seconded by his lieutenant."

Leaving out every thing minor, and dependent upon the oaths of

others, there are some things sworn to by Gansevoort himself which

derogate from his chivalrous patriotism. _First_, going round to the

officers who were to sit in council upon the three prisoners, and

taking their agreement to execute the three on hand if more arrests

were made. _Secondly_, encouraging and making those arrests on

which the lives of the three depended. _Thirdly_, going out of the

council to obtain from Spencer further proofs of his guilt--Spencer

not knowing for what purpose he was thus interrogated. _Fourthly_,

his calmness and self-possession were shown in the fire of his

pistol while assisting to arrest Cromwell, and in that consternation

inspired in him at the running towards where he was of a cluster

of the apprentice boys, scampering on to avoid the boatswain's

colt--a slender cord to whip them over the clothes, like a switch.

Midshipman Rodgers had gone aft, or forward, as the case may be, to

drive a parcel of these boys to their duty, taking the boatswain

along to apply his colt to all the hindmost. Of course the boys

scampered briskly to escape the colt. The lieutenant heard them

coming--thought they were the mutineers--sung out, God! they are

coming--levelled his revolver, and was only prevented from giving

them the contents of the six barrels, had they not sung out "It

is me--it is me;" for that is what the witnesses stated. But the

richness of the scene can only be fully seen from the lieutenant's

own account of it, which he gave before the court with evident

self-satisfaction: "The commander and myself were standing on the

larboard side of the quarter deck, at the after end of the trunk:

we were in conversation: it was dark at the time. I heard an

unusual noise--a rushing aft toward the quarter deck; I said to the

commander, 'God! I believe they are coming.' I had one of Colt's

pistols, which I immediately drew and cocked: the commander said his

pistols were below. I jumped on the trunk, and ran forward to meet

them. As I was going along I sung out to them not to come aft. I

told them I would blow the first man's brains out who would put his

foot on the quarter deck. I held my pistol pointed at the tallest

man that I saw in the starboard gangway, and I think Mr. Rodgers

sung out to me, that he was sending the men aft to the mast rope.

I then told them they must have no such unusual movements on board

the vessel: what they did, they must do in their usual manner: they

knew the state of the vessel, and might get their brains blown out

before they were aware of it. Some other short remarks, I do not

recollect at this time what they were, and ordered them to come aft

and man the mast rope: to move quietly." To finish this view of Mr.

Gansevoort's self-possession, and the value of his "beliefs," it is

only necessary to know that, besides letting off his pistol when

Cromwell was arrested, he swore before the court that, "I had an

idea that he (Cromwell) meant to take me overboard with him," when

they shook hands under the gallows yard arm, and under that idea,

"turned my arm to get clear of his grasp."

The two non-combatants, purser Heiskill and assistant surgeon

Leecock, come in for high applause, although for the low business of

watching the crew and guarding the prisoners. The report thus brings

them forward:

"Where all, without exception, have behaved admirably, it might

seem invidious to particularize: yet I cannot refrain calling

your attention to the noble conduct of purser H. W. Heiskill,

and passed assistant surgeon Leecock, for the services which

they so freely yielded beyond the sphere of their immediate

duties."

The only specification of this noble conduct, and of these services

beyond their proper sphere, which is given in the report, is

contained in this sentence:

"Both he and Mr. Heiskill cheerfully obeyed my orders to go

perpetually armed, to keep a regular watch, to guard the

prisoners: the worst weather could not drive them from their

posts, or draw from their lips a murmur."

To these specifications of noble conduct, and extra service, might

have been added those of eaves-dropping and delation--capacity to

find the same symptoms of guilt in opposite words and acts--sitting

in council to judge three men whom they had agreed with Gansevoort

two days before to hang if necessary to make more arrests, and which

arrests, four in number, were made with their concurrence and full

approbation. Finally, he might have told that this Heiskill was a

link in the chain of the revelation of the mutinous and piratical

plot. He was the purser of whom Wales was the steward, and to whom

Wales revealed the plot--he then revealing to Gansevoort--and

Gansevoort to Mackenzie. It was, then, through his subordinate (and

who was then stealing his liquor) and himself that the plot was

detected.

A general presentation of government thanks to all the officers, is

next requested by the lieutenant:

"I respectfully request that the thanks of the Navy Department

may be presented to all the officers of the Somers, for their

exertions in the critical situation in which she has been

placed. It is true they have but performed their duty, but they

have performed it with fidelity and zeal."

The purser's steward, Wales, is then specially and encomiastically

presented, and a specific high reward solicited for him:

"I respectfully submit, that Mr. J. W. Wales, by his coolness,

his presence of mind, and his fidelity, has rendered to the

American navy a memorable service. I had a trifling difficulty

with him, not discreditable to his character, on the previous

cruise to Porto Rico--on that account he was sought out, and

tampered with. But he was honest, patriotic, humane; he resisted

temptation, was faithful to his flag, and was instrumental

in saving it from dishonor. A pursership in the navy, or a

handsome pecuniary reward, would after all be an inconsiderable

recompense, compared with the magnitude of his services."

Of this individual the commander had previously reported a

contrivance to make a mistake in doubling the allowed quantity of

brandy carried out on the cruise, saying: "By accident, as it was

thought at the time, but subsequent developments would rather go

to prove by design, he (Wales) had contrived to make a mistake,

and the supply of brandy was ordered from two different groceries;

thus doubling the quantity intended to be taken." Of this double

supply of brandy thus contrived to be taken out, the commander

reports Wales for continual "_stealing_" of it--always adding that

he was seduced into these "thefts" by Spencer. Being a temperance

man, the commander eschews the use of this brandy on board, except

furtively for the corruption of the crew by Spencer through the

seduction of the steward: thus: "None of the brandy was used in the

mess, and all of it is still on board except what was stolen by the

steward at the request of Mr. Spencer, and drank by him, and those

he endeavored to corrupt." By his own story this Wales comes under

the terms of Lord Hale's idea of a "desperate villain"--a fellow who

joins in a crime, gets the confidence of accomplices, then informs

upon them, gets them hanged, and receives a reward. This was the

conduct of Wales upon his own showing: and of such informers the

pious and mild Lord Hale judicially declared his abhorrence--held

their swearing unworthy of credit unless corroborated--said that

they had done more mischief in getting innocent people punished

than they had ever done good in bringing criminals to justice. Upon

this view of his conduct, then, this Wales comes under the legal

idea of a desperate villain. Legal presumptions would leave him

in this category but the steward and the commander have not left

it there. They have lifted a corner of the curtain which conceals

an unmentionable transaction, to which these two persons were

parties--which was heard of, but not understood by the crew--which

was hugger-muggered into a settlement between them about the time

of Spencer's arrest, though originating the preceding cruise--which

neither would explain--which no one could name--and of which

Heiskill, the intermediate between his steward and the commander,

could know nothing except that it was of a "delicate nature," and

that it had been settled between them. The first hint of this

mysterious transaction was in the commander's report--in his proud

commendation of this steward for a pursership in the United States

Navy--and evidently to rehabilitate his witness, and to get a new

lick at Spencer. The hint runs thus: "I had a trifling difficulty,

not discreditable to his character, on the previous cruise to

Porto Rico." On the trial the purser Heiskill was interrogated as

to the nature of this difficulty between his subordinate and his

superior. To the question--"Did he know any thing, and what, about

a misunderstanding between the steward and the commander at Porto

Rico?" he answered, "he knew there was a misunderstanding, which

Wales told him was explained to the satisfaction of the commander."

To the further question, "Was it of a delicate nature?" the answer

was, "yes, sir." To the further question, as to the time when

this misunderstanding was settled? the purser answered: "I do not

know--some time since, I believe." Asked if it was before the

arrest? he answers: "I think Mr. Wales spoke of this matter before

the arrest." Pressed to tell, if it was shortly before the arrest,

the purser would neither give a long nor a short time, but ignored

the inquiry with the declaration, "I won't pretend to fix upon a

time." Wales himself interrogated before the court, as to the fact

of this misunderstanding, and also as to what it was? admitted the

fact, but refused its disclosure. His answer, as it stands in the

official report of the trial is: "I had a difficulty, but decline

to explain it." And the obliging court submitted to the contempt of

this answer.

Left without information in a case so mysterious, and denied

explanation from those who could give it, history can only deal with

the facts as known, and with the inferences fairly resulting from

them; and, therefore, can only say, that there was an old affair

between the commander and the purser's steward, originating in a

previous voyage, and settled in this one, and settled before the

arrest of midshipman Spencer; and secondly, that the affair was of

so delicate a nature as to avoid explanation from either party. Now

the word "delicate" in this connection, implies something which

cannot be discussed without danger--something which will not bear

handling, or exposure--and in which silence and reserve are the

only escapes from a detection worse than any suspicion. And thus

stands before history the informer upon the young Spencer--the

thief of brandies, the desperate villain according to Lord Hale's

classification, and the culprit of unmentionable crime, according

to his own implied admission. Yet this man is recommended for a

pursership in the United States navy, or a handsome pecuniary

reward; while any court in Christendom would have committed him

for perjury, on his own showing, in his swearing before the

court-martial.

Sergeant Michael H. Garty is then brought forward; thus:

"Of the conduct of Sergeant Michael H. Garty (of the marines) I

will only say it was worthy of the noble corps to which he has

the honor to belong. Confined to his hammock by a malady which

threatened to be dangerous, at the moment when the conspiracy

was discovered, he rose upon his feet a well man. Throughout the

whole period, from the day of Mr. Spencer's arrest to the day

after our arrival, and until the removal of the mutineers, his

conduct was calm, steady, and soldierlike. But when his duty was

done, and health was no longer indispensable to its performance,

his malady returned upon him, and he is still in his hammock.

In view of this fine conduct, I respectfully recommend that

Sergeant Garty be promoted to a second lieutenancy in the marine

corps. Should I pass without dishonor through the ordeal which

probably awaits me, and attain in due time to the command of a

vessel entitled to a marine officer, I ask no better fortune

than to have the services of Sergeant Garty in that capacity."

Now here is something like a miracle. A bedridden man to rise up a

well man the moment his country needed his services, and to remain

a well man to the last moment those services required, and then to

fall down a bedridden man again. Such a miracle implies a divine

interposition which could only be bottomed on a full knowledge of

the intended crime, and a special care to prevent it. It is quite

improbable in itself, and its verity entirely marred by answers of

this sergeant to certain questions before the court-martial. Thus:

"When were you on the sick list in the last cruise?" Answer: "I was

twice on the list: the last time about two days." Now these two

days must be that hammock confinement from the return of the malady

which immediately ensued on the removal of the mutineers (the twelve

from the Somers to the North Carolina guardship at New York), and

which seemed as chronic and permanent as it was before the arrest.

Questioned further, whether he "remained in his hammock the evening

of Spencer's arrest?" the answer is, "Yes, sir: I was in and out of

it all that night." So that the rising up a well man does not seem

to have been so instantaneous as the commander's report would imply.

The sergeant gives no account of this malady which confined him to

his hammock in the marvellous way the commander reports. He never

mentioned it until it was dragged out of him on cross-examination.

He was on the sick list. That does not imply bedridden. Men are

put on the sick list for a slight indisposition: in fact, to save

them from sickness. Truth is, this Garty seems to have been one of

the class of which every service contains some specimens--scamps

who have a pain, and get on the sick list when duty runs hard;

and who have no pain, and get on the well list, as soon as there

is something pleasant to do. In this case the sergeant seems to

have had a pleasant occupation from the alacrity with which he

fulfilled it, and from the happy relief which it procured him from

his malady as long as it lasted. That occupation was superintendent

of the bagging business. It was he who attended to the wearing

and fitting of the bags--seeing that they were punctually put on

when a prisoner was made, tightly tied over the head of nights,

and snugly drawn round the neck during the day. To this was added

eavesdropping and delating, and swearing before all the courts, and

in this style before the council of officers: "Thinks there are

some persons at large that would voluntarily assist the prisoners

if they had an opportunity."--"Thinks if the prisoners were at

large the brig would certainly be in great danger."--"Thinks there

are persons adrift yet, who, if opportunity offered, would rescue

the prisoners."--"Thinks the vessel would be safer if Cromwell,

Spencer, and Small were put to death."--"Thinks Cromwell a desperate

fellow."--"Thinks their object (that of Cromwell and Spencer), in

taking slavers, would be to convert them to their own use, and not

to suppress the slave trade." All this was swearing like a sensible

witness, who knew what was wanted, and would furnish it. It covered

all the desired points. More arrests were wanted at that time

to justify the hanging of the prisoners on hand: he thinks more

arrests ought to be made. The fear of a rescue was wanted: he thinks

there will be a rescue attempted. The execution of the prisoners

is wanted: he thinks the vessel would be safer if they were all

three put to death. And it was for these noble services--bagging

prisoners, eavesdropping, delating, swearing to what was

wanted--that this sergeant had his marvellous rise-up from a

hammock, and was now recommended for an officer of marines. History

repulses the marvel which the commander reports. A kind Providence

may interpose for the safety of men and ships, but not through an

agent who is to bag and suffocate innocent men--to eaves-drop and

delate--to swear in all places, and just what was wanted--all by

thoughts, and without any thing to bottom a thought upon. Certainly

this Sergeant Garty, from his stomach for swearing, must have

something in common, besides nativity, with Mr. Jemmy O'Brien; and,

from his alacrity and diligence in taking care of prisoners, would

seem to have come from the school of the famous Major Sirr, of Irish

rebellion memory.

Mr. O. H. Perry, the commander's clerk and nephew, the same whose

blunder in giving the order about the mast, occasioned it to break;

and, in breaking, to become a sign of the plotting, mutiny, and

piracy; and the same that held the watch to mark the ten minutes

that Spencer was to live: this young gentleman was not forgotten,

but came in liberally for praise and spoil--the spoil of the young

man whose messmate he had been, against whom he had testified, and

whose minutes he had counted, and proclaimed when out:

"If I shall be deemed by the Navy Department to have had any

merit in preserving the Somers from those treasonable toils by

which she had been surrounded since and before her departure

from the United States, I respectfully request that it may

accrue without reservation for my nephew O. H. Perry, now clerk

on board the Somers, and that his name may be placed on the

register in the name left vacant by the treason of Mr. Spencer.

I think, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, an act

of Congress, if necessary, might be obtained to authorize the

appointment."

All these recommendations for reward and promotion, bespeak an

obliquity of mental vision, equivalent to an aberration of the mind;

and this last one, obliquitous as any, superadds an extinction of

the moral sense in demanding the spoil of the slain for the reward

of a nephew who had promoted the death of which he was claiming the

benefit. The request was revolting! and, what is equally revolting,

it was granted. But worse still. An act of Congress at that time

forbid the appointment of more midshipmen, of which there were

then too many, unless to fill vacancies: hence the request of the

commander, that his nephew's name may take the place in the Navy

Register of the name left vacant by the "_treason_" of Mr. Spencer!

The commander, through all his witnesses, had multiplied proofs on

the attempts of Spencer to corrupt the crew by largesses lavished

upon them--such as tobacco, segars, nuts, sixpences thrown among the

boys, and two bank-notes given to Cromwell on the coast of Africa

to send home to his wife before the bank failed. Now what were the

temptations on the other side? What the inducements to the witnesses

and actors in this foul business to swear up to the mark which

Mackenzie's acquittal and their promotion required? The remarks of

Mr. Fenimore Cooper, the historian, here present themselves as those

of an experienced man speaking with knowledge of the subject, and

acquaintance with human nature:

"While on this point we will show the extent of the temptations

that were thus inconsiderately placed before the minds of these

men--what preferment they had reason to hope would be accorded

to them should Mackenzie's conduct be approved, _viz._: Garty,

from the ranks, to be an officer, with twenty-five dollars per

month, and fifty cents per diem rations: and the prospect of

promotion. Wales, from purser's steward, at eighteen dollars

a month, to quarter-deck rank, and fifteen hundred dollars

per annum. Browning, Collins, and Stewart, petty officers, at

nineteen dollars a month, to be boatswains, with seven hundred

dollars per annum. King, Anderson, and Rogers, petty officers,

at nineteen dollars a month, to be gunners, at seven hundred

dollars per annum. Dickinson, petty officer, at nineteen dollars

a month, to be carpenter, with seven hundred dollars per annum."

Such was the list of temptations placed before the witnesses by

Commander Mackenzie, and which it is not in human nature to suppose

were without their influence on most of the persons to whom they

were addressed.

The commander could not close his list of recommendations for

reward without saying something of himself. He asked for nothing

specifically, but expected approbation, and looked forward to

regular promotion, while gratified at the promotions which his

subordinates should receive, and which would redound to his own

honor. He did not ask for a court of inquiry, or a court-martial,

but seemed to apprehend, and to deprecate them. The Secretary of

the Navy immediately ordered a court of inquiry--a court of three

officers to report upon the facts of the case, and to give their

opinion. There was no propriety in this proceeding. The facts were

admitted, and the law fixed their character. Three prisoners had

been hanged without trial, and the law holds that to be murder

until reduced by a judicial trial to a lower degree of offence--to

manslaughter, excusable, or justifiable homicide. The finding of

the court was strongly in favor of the commander; and unless this

finding and opinion were disapproved by the President, no further

military proceeding should be had--no court-martial ordered--the

object of the inquiry being to ascertain whether there was necessity

for one. The necessity being negatived, and that opinion approved by

the President, there was no military rule of action which could go

on to a court-martial: to the general astonishment such a court was

immediately ordered--and assembled with such precipitation that the

judge advocate was in no condition to go on with the trial; and, up

to the third day of its sitting, was without the means of proceeding

with the prosecution; and for his justification in not being able to

go on, and in asking some delay, the judge advocate, Wm. H. Norris,

Esq., of Baltimore, submitted to the court this statement in writing:

"The judge advocate states to the court that he has not been

furnished by the department, as yet, with any list of witnesses

on the part of the government: that he has had no opportunity of

conversing with any of the witnesses, of whose names he is even

entirely ignorant except by rumor in respect to a few of them;

and that, therefore, he would need time to prepare the case by

conversation with the officers and crew of the brig Somers,

before he can commence the case on the part of the government.

The judge advocate has issued two subpoenas, _duces tecum_,

for the record in the case of the court of inquiry into the

alleged mutiny, which have not yet been returned, and by which

record he could have been notified of the witnesses and facts to

constitute the case of the government."

The judge advocate then begged a delay, which was granted, until

eleven o'clock the next day. Here then was a precipitation, unheard

of in judicial proceedings, and wholly incompatible with the idea

of any real prosecution. The cause of this precipitancy becomes

a matter of public inquiry, as the public interest requires the

administration of justice to be fair and impartial. The cause of it

then was this: The widow of Cromwell, to whom he had sent his last

dying message, that he was innocent, undertook to have Mackenzie

prosecuted before the civil tribunals for the murder of her

husband. She made three attempts, all in vain. One judge, to whom

an application for a warrant was made, declined to grant it, on the

ground that he was too much occupied with other matters to attend to

that case--giving a written answer to that effect. A commissioner

of the United States, appointed to issue warrants in all criminal

cases, refused one in this case, because, as he alleged, he had no

authority to act in a military case. The attempt was then made in

the United States district court, New York, to get the Grand Jury

to find an indictment: the court instructed the jury that it was

not competent for a civil tribunal to interfere with matters which

were depending before a naval tribunal: in consequence of which

instruction the bill was ignored. Upon this instruction of the court

the historian, Cooper, well remarks: "That after examining the

subject at some length, we are of opinion that the case belonged

exclusively to the civil tribunals." Here, then, is the reason why

Mackenzie was run so precipitately before the court-martial. It was

to shelter him by an acquittal there: and so apprehensive was he of

being got hold of by some civil tribunal, before the court-martial

could be organized, that he passed the intervening days between the

two courts "in a bailiwick where the ordinary criminal process could

not reach him."--(Cooper's Review of the Trial.) When the trial

actually came on, the judge advocate was about as bad off as he was

the first day. He had a list of witnesses. They were Mackenzie's

officers--and refused to converse with him on the nature of their

testimony. He stated their refusal to the court--declared himself

without knowledge to conduct the case--and likened himself to a

new comer in a house, having a bunch of keys given to him, without

information of the lock to which each belonged--so that he must try

every lock with every key before he could find out the right one.

The hurried assemblage of the court being shown, its composition

becomes a fair subject of inquiry. The record shows that three

officers were excused from serving on their own application after

being detailed as members of the court; and the information of the

day made known that another was excused before he was officially

detailed. The same history of the day informs that these four

avoided the service because they had opinions against the accused.

That was all right in them. Mackenzie was entitled to an impartial

trial, although he allowed his victims no trial at all. But how

was it on the other side? any one excused there for opinions in

favor of the accused? None! and history said there were members

on the court strongly in favor of him--as the proceedings on the

trial too visibly prove. Engaged in the case without a knowledge

of it, the judge advocate confined himself to the testimony of one

witness, merely proving the hanging without trial; and then left

the field to the accused. It was occupied in great force--a great

number of witnesses, all the reports of Mackenzie himself, all the

statements before the council of officers--all sorts of illegal,

irrelevant, impertinent or frivolous testimony--every thing that

could be found against the dead since their death, in addition

to all before--assumption or assertion of any fact or inference

wanted--questions put not only leading to the answer wanted, but

affirming the fact wanted--all the persons served as witnesses

who had been agents or instruments in the murders--Mackenzie

himself submitting his own statements before the court: such

was the trial! and the issue was conformable to such a farrago

of illegalities, absurdities, frivolities, impertinences and

wickednesses. He was acquitted; but in the lowest form of acquittal

known to court-martial proceedings. "Not proven," was the equivocal

mode of saying "not guilty:" three members of the court were in

favor of conviction for murder. The finding was barely permitted

to stand by the President. To approve, or disprove court-martial

proceedings is the regular course: the President did neither. The

official promulgation of the proceedings wound up with this unusual

and equivocal sanction: "As these charges involved the life of

the accused, and as the finding is in his favor, he is entitled

to the benefit of it, as in the analogous case of a verdict of

not guilty before a civil court, and there is no power which

can constitutionally deprive him of that benefit. The finding,

therefore, is simply _confirmed_, and carried into effect without

any expression of approbation or disapprobation on the part of

the President: no such expression being necessary." No acquittal

could be of lower order, or less honorable. The trial continued two

months; and that long time was chiefly monopolized by the defence,

which became in fact a trial of the dead--who, having no trial

while alive, had an ample one of sixty days after their deaths. Of

course they were convicted--the dead and the absent being always in

the wrong. At the commencement of the trial, two eminent counsel

of New York--Messrs. Benjamin F. Butler and Charles O'Connor,

Esqs.,--applied to the court at the instance of the father of the

young Spencer to be allowed to sit by, and put questions approved

by the court; and offer suggestions and comments on the testimony

when it was concluded. This request was entered on the minutes, and

refused. So that at the long _post mortem_ trial which was given

to the boy after his death, the father was not allowed to ask one

question in favor of his son.

And here two remarks require to be made--first, as to that faithful

promise of the Commander Mackenzie to send to his parents the dying

message of the young Spencer: not a word was ever sent! all was

sent to the Navy Department and the newspapers! and the "faithful

promise," and the moving appeal to the "feelings of nature," turn

out to have been a mere device to get a chance to make a report to

the Secretary of the Navy of confessions to justify the previous

condemnation and the pre-determined hanging. Secondly: That the

Secretary despatched a man-of-war immediately on the return of

Mackenzie to the Isle of Pines, to capture the confederate pirates

(according to Wales's testimony), who were waiting there for the

young Spencer and the Somers. A bootless errand. The island was

found, and the pines; but no pirates! nor news of any for near

twenty years! Thus failed the indispensable point in the whole

piratical plot: but without balking in the least degree the raging

current of universal belief.

The trial of Mackenzie being over, and he acquitted, the trial

of the rest of the implicated crew--the twelve mutineers in

irons--would naturally come on; and the court remained in session

for that purpose. The Secretary of the Navy had written to the judge

advocate to proceed against such of them as he thought proper: the

judge advocate referred that question to Mackenzie, giving him the

option to choose any one he pleased to carry on the prosecutions.

He chose Theodore Sedgwick, Esq., who had been his own counsel on

his trial. Mackenzie was acquitted on the 28th of March: the court

remained in session until the 1st of April: the judge advocate heard

nothing from Mackenzie with respect to the prosecutions. On that

day Mackenzie not being present, he was sent for. He was not to be

found! and the provost marshal ascertained that he had gone to his

residence in the country, thirty miles off. This was an abandonment

of the prosecutions, and in a very unmilitary way--by running away

from them, and saying nothing to any body. The court was then

dissolved--the prisoners released--and the innocence of the twelve

stood confessed by the recreancy of their fugitive prosecutor. It

was a confession of the innocence of Spencer, Small, and Cromwell;

for he was tried for the three murders together. The trial of

Mackenzie had been their acquittal in the eyes of persons accustomed

to analyze evidence, and to detect perjuries in made-up stories. But

the masses could form no such analysis. With them the confessions

were conclusive, though invalidated by contradictions, and obtained,

if obtained at all, under a refinement of terror and oppression

which has no parallel on the deck of a pirate. When has such a

machinery of terror been contrived to shock and torture a helpless

victim? Sudden annunciation of death in the midst of preparations

to take life: ten minutes allowed to live, and these ten minutes

taken up with interruptions. An imp of darkness in the shape of a

naval officer in full uniform, squat down at his side, writing and

whispering; and evidently making out a tale which was to murder the

character in order to justify the murder of the body. Commander

Mackenzie had once lived a year in Spain, and wrote a book upon its

manners and customs, as a "Young American." He must have read of the

manner in which confessions were obtained in the dungeons of the

Inquisition. If he had, he showed himself an apt scholar; if not,

he showed a genius for the business from which the familiars of the

Holy Office might have taken instruction.

Spencer's real design was clearly deducible even from the tenors of

the vile swearing against him. He meant to quit the navy when he

returned to New York, obtain a vessel in some way, and go to the

northwest coast of America--to lead some wild life there; but not

piratical, as there is neither prey nor shelter for pirates in that

quarter. This he was often saying to the crew, and to this his list

of names referred--mixed up with foolish and even vicious talk about

piracy. His first and his last answer was the same--that it was all

a joke. The answer of Small was the same when he was arrested; and

it was well brought out by the judge advocate in incessant questions

during the two months' trial, that there was not a single soul of

the crew, except Wales, that ever heard Spencer mention one word

about mutiny! and not one, inclusive of Wales, that ever heard one

man of the vessel speak of a rescue of the prisoners. Remaining long

in command of the vessel as Mackenzie did, and with all his power

to punish or reward, and allowed as he was to bring forward all

that he was able to find since the deaths of the men, yet he could

not find one man to swear to these essential points; so that in a

crew steeped in mutiny, there was not a soul that had heard of it!

in a crew determined upon a rescue of prisoners, there was not one

that ever heard the word pronounced. The state of the brig, after

the arrests, was that of crazy cowardice and insane suspicion on

the part of the officers--of alarm and consternation on the part of

the crew. Armed with revolvers, cutlasses and swords, the officers

prowled through the vessel, ready to shoot any one that gave them a

fright--the weapon generally cocked for instant work. Besides the

officers, low wretches, as Wales and Garty, were armed in the same

way, with the same summary power over the lives and deaths of the

crew. The vessel was turned into a laboratory of spies, informers,

eavesdroppers and delators. Every word, look, sign, movement, on

the part of the crew, was equally a proof of guilt. If the men were

quick about their duty, it was to cover up their guilt: if slow, it

was to defy the officers. If they talked loud, it was insolence:

if low, it was plotting. If collected in knots, it was to be

ready to make a rush at the vessel: if keeping single and silent,

it was because, knowing their guilt, they feigned aversion to

escape suspicion. Belief was all that was wanted from any delator.

Belief, without a circumstance to found it upon, and even contrary

to circumstances, was accepted as full legal evidence. Arrests

were multiplied, to excite terror, and to justify murder. The

awe-stricken crew, consisting four-fifths of apprentice boys, was

paralyzed into dead silence and abject submission. Every arrest was

made without a murmur. The prisoners were ironed and bagged as mere

animals. No one could show pity, much less friendship. No one could

extend a comfort, much less give assistance. Armed sentries stood

over them, day and night, to shoot both parties for the slightest

sign of intelligence--and always to shoot the prisoner first. What

Paris was in the last days of the Reign of Terror, the United States

brig Somers was during the terrible week from the arrest to the

hanging of Spencer.

Analogous to the case of Commander Mackenzie was that of Lieutenant

Colonel Wall, of the British service, Governor of Goree on the

coast of Africa--the circumstances quite parallel, and where

they differ, the difference in favor of Wall--but the conclusion

widely different. Governor Wall fancied there was a mutiny in the

garrison, the one half (of 150) engaged in it, and one Armstrong

and two others, leaders in it. He ordered the "long roll" to be

beat--which brings the men, without arms, into line on the parade.

He conversed a few minutes with the officers, out of hearing of the

men, then ordered the line to form circle, a cannon to be placed

in the middle of it, the three men tied upon it, and receive 800

blows each with an inch thick rope. It was not his intent to kill

them, and the surgeon of the garrison, as in all cases of severe

punishment, was ordered to attend, and observe it: which he did,

saying nothing: the three men died within a week. This was in the

year 1782. Wall came home--was arrested (by the civil authority),

broke custody and fled--was gone twenty years, and seized again by

the civil authority on his return to England. The trial took place

at the Old Bailey, and the prisoner easily proved up a complete

case of mutiny, seventy or eighty men, assembled in open day

before the governor's quarters, defying authority, clamoring for

supposed rights, and cursing and damning. The full case was sworn

up, and by many witnesses; but the attorney-general, Sir Edward

Law (afterwards Lord Ellenborough), and the solicitor-general, Mr.

Percival (afterwards First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of

the Exchequer), easily took the made-up stories to pieces, and left

the governor nakedly exposed, a false accuser of the dead, after

having been the foul murderer of the innocent. It was to no purpose

that he plead, that the punishment was not intended to kill: it

was answered that it was sufficient that it was likely to kill,

and did kill. To no purpose that he proved by the surgeon that he

stood by, as the regulations required, to judge the punishment, and

said nothing: the eminent counsel proved upon him, out of his own

mouth, that he was a young booby, too silly to know the difference

between a cat-o'-nine-tails, which cut the skin, and an inch rope,

which bruised to the vitals. The Lord Chief Baron McDonald, charged

the jury that if there was no mutiny, it was murder; and if there

was mutiny, and no trial, it was murder. On this latter point, he

said to the jury: "_If you are of opinion that there was a mutiny,

you are then to consider the degree of it, and whether there was as

much attention paid to the interest of the person accused as the

circumstances of the case would admit, by properly advising him, and

giving him an opportunity of justifying himself if he could._" The

governor was only tried in one case, found guilty, hanged within

eight days, and his body, like that of any other murderer, delivered

up to the surgeons for dissection--the King on application, first

for pardon, then for longer respite, and last for remission of the

anatomization, refusing any favor, upon the ground that it was worse

than any common murder--being done by a man in authority, far from

the eye of the government, on helpless people subject to his power,

and whom he was bound to protect, and to defend from oppression.

It is a case--a common one in England since the judges became

independent of the crown--which does honor to British administration

of justice: and, if any one wishes to view the extremes of judicial

exhibitions--legality, regularity, impartiality, knowledge of the

law, promptitude on one hand, and the reverse of it all on the

other--let them look at the proceedings of the one-day trial of

Governor Wall before a British civil court, and the two months'

trial of Commander Mackenzie before an American naval court-martial.

But the comparison would not be entirely fair. Courts-martial,

both of army and navy, since the trial of Admiral Byng in England

to Commodore Porter, Commander Mackenzie, and Lieutenant-colonel

Frémont in the United States, have been machines in the hands of the

government (where it took an interest in the event), to acquit, or

convict: and has rarely disappointed the intention. Cooper proposes,

in view of the unfitness of the military courts for judicial

investigation, that they be stripped of all jurisdiction in such

cases: and his opinion strongly addresses itself to the legislative

authority.

Commander Mackenzie had been acquitted by the authorities: he had

been complimented by a body of eminent merchants: he had been

applauded by the press: he had been encomiastically reviewed in

a high literary periodical. The loud public voice was for him:

but there was a small inward monitor, whose still and sinister

whisperings went cutting through the soul. The acquitted and

applauded man withdrew to a lonely retreat, oppressed with gloom and

melancholly, visible only to a few, and was only roused from his

depression to give signs of a diseased mind. It was five years after

the event, and during the war with Mexico. The administration had

conceived the idea of procuring peace through the instrumentality

of Santa Anna--then an exile at Havana; and who was to be returned

to his country upon some arrangement of the American government.

This writer going to see the President (Mr. Polk) some day about

this time, mentioned to him a visit from Commander Slidell Mackenzie

to this exiled chief. The President was startled, and asked how

this came to be known to me. I told him I read it in the Spanish

newspapers. He said it was all a profound secret, confined to his

cabinet. The case was this: a secret mission to Santa Anna was

resolved upon: and the facile Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State,

dominated by the representative Slidell (brother to the commander),

accepted this brother for the place. Now the views of the two

parties were diametrically opposite. One wanted secrecy--the

other notoriety. Restoration of Santa Anna to his country, upon

an agreement, and without being seen in the transaction, was the

object of the government; and that required secrecy: removal from

under a cloud, restoration to public view, rehabilitation by some

mark of public distinction, was the object of the Slidells; and

that required notoriety: and the game being in their hands, they

played it accordingly. Arriving at Havana, the secret minister put

on the full uniform of an American naval officer, entered an open

_volante_, and driving through the principal streets at high noon,

proceeded to the suburban residence of the exiled dictator. Admitted

to a private interview (for he spoke Spanish, learnt in Spain), the

plumed and decorated officer made known his secret business. Santa

Anna was amazed, but not disconcerted. He saw the folly and the

danger of the proceeding, eschewed blunt overture, and got rid of

his queer visitor in the shortest time, and the civilest phrases

which Spanish decorum would admit. The repelled minister gone, Santa

Anna called back his secretary, exclaiming as he entered--"_Porque

el Presidente me ha enviado este tonto?_" (Why has the President

sent me this fool?) It was not until afterwards, and through the

instrumentality of a sounder head, that the mode of the dictator's

return was arranged: and the folly which Mackenzie exhibited on this

occasion was of a piece with his crazy and preposterous conceptions

on board the Somers.

Fourteen years have elapsed since this tragedy of the Somers.

The chief in that black and bloody drama (unless Wales is to be

considered the master-spirit, and the commander and lieutenant

only his instruments) has gone to his long account. Some others,

concerned with him, have passed away. The vessel itself, bearing a

name illustrious in the navy annals, has gone to the bottom of the

sea--foundering--and going down with all on board; the circling

waves closing over the heads of the doomed mass, and hiding all from

the light of Heaven before they were dead. And the mind of seamen,

prone to belief in portents, prodigies, signs and judgments, refer

the hapless fate of the vessel to the innocent blood which had been

shed upon her.

History feels it to be a debt of duty to examine this transaction

to the bottom, and to judge it closely--not with a view to affect

individuals, but to relieve national character from a foul

imputation. It was the crime of individuals: it was made national.

The protection of the government, the lenity of the court, the

evasions of the judiciary, and the general approving voice, made

a nation's offence out of the conduct of some individuals, and

brought reproach upon the American name. All Christendom recoiled

with horror from the atrocious deed: all friends to America beheld

with grief and amazement the national assumption of such a crime.

Cotemporary with the event, and its close observer, the writer of

this View finds confirmed now, upon the fullest examination, the

severe judgment which he formed upon it at the time.

The naval historian, Fenimore Cooper (who himself had been a naval

officer), wrote a clear exposure of all the delusion, falsehood,

and wickedness of this imputed mutiny, and of the mockery of the

court-martial trial of Mackenzie: but unavailing in the then

condition of the public mind, and impotent against the vast

machinery of the public press which was brought to bear on the dead.

From that publication, and the official record of the trial, this

view of the transaction is made up.