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DEFENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 / 
 
 COMMODORE JESSE DINCAN ELLIOTT, 
 
 OF THE UNITED STATES NAJPfJ 
 READ BY THE 
 
 L©KTo ©E©o MEPMLIM ID) AILJL. AS, 
 
 BEFORE THE NAVAL COURT MARTIAL AT PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 JUNE 20, 18-40. 
 WITH LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS EXPLANATORY OF PORTION d OF THE DEFENCE 
 
 
 H O 
 
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DKFENCK 
 
 OF 
 
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 COMM I) 11 E E L L I O T T . 
 
 The trial of this officer on numerous charges and specifications, commenced 
 before the Naval Court Martial, at the Navy \ an!, in the County of Philail 1- 
 phia, on the 1 Ith of May, IS 10, and continued from day to day until the 20th 
 of June following. The Court was composed of nine naval Captains: — Captain 
 .1 \i OB JONES, President, Captain Lewis Warrington, Captain John 
 Downs, Captain Edmund P. Kennedy, Captain Chables W. Morgan, 
 Captain F. C. Parker, Captain David Conner, Captain John D. Sloat, and 
 Captain George W. Storeb — John M. Read, Esq. acted as Judge Advo- 
 cate. 
 
 The evidence having closed on the 15th instant, lour days were allowed for 
 the preparation of the defence, which was handed in on the 20th inst. , al 11 
 o'clock in the morning, by Commodore Elliott, and read by the Hon. Geoj 
 Mifflin Dallas, Ins Counsel, as follows: — 
 
 Mi:. Prcsid nt, 
 
 AND G THE < JOURT, 
 
 After an arduous career of six and thirty 
 years in the Navy of the United States, my only 
 desire, under thei ircumst inces which now 
 round me, is i i avoid saying a single word, or 
 doing the slightest act, that might lie injurious 
 i i any branch of that Bervice, or derogat try to 
 the rank I hold in it. The few plausible impu- 
 tations before 3 1 , which have been can fully 
 distilled from th porum ind, 
 
 and whi ;h ii is thought may derive from c im- 
 binatioa an imp >i uice they 
 separately, are aoi of a nature to ala m my 
 of honor, or 10 awaken any fear that my 
 whole life lias been Bpent in vain. ( Jome what 
 may on the presi ntoci ision, the distinguished 
 fellow offi impose this < Sourt, shall 
 
 find me acquiescing, with entire candor and 
 confidence, in the conclusions of thoir di 
 sionate judgments. 1 have yet strength and 
 seal to devote to oar cherished country, but I 
 am also old enough to be quite sure, that the 
 i' i-i, with whatever of usefulness ami reputa- 
 tion may have attached i i it, is hoarded 
 beyond the reach of calumny or cavil, while it" 
 I 
 
 future, be its pains and solicitudes what they 
 may, must be brief. 
 
 In Bober truth, gentlemen, the pursuit to 
 which I have been su I, 1-, in its origin 
 
 and character, and as a pTeci dent, far more dan- 
 1 1 the noble arm of national di fence and 
 glory to which •■ • than it can bo 
 
 hurtful t 1 myself individually. Permit me, 
 with unfeigned deference, to explain my mean- 
 ing. 1 n ive no desire to complain of persecu- 
 tion, to v. 10 your sympalfa . tinting out 
 the peculiar difficulties of my position, nor to 
 inveigh against the pr iscriptions of political 
 party orth issaults of the press; these 
 pics which might misleed or be miscon- 
 i: — bul I > ! upon your at- 
 tention certain genera] and glaring featur 
 this prosecution; — to awaken you, as legitimate 
 liana of the highest in' ^.rai t- 
 Navy to their inevitafa . ind to in- 
 voke your most strenuous and unwaverin | 
 forts 10 defeat them. Were it the last act of my 
 life, I should, dying, rejoice in having been in- 
 strumental, through the finding of this tribunal 
 icuing our gallant corps from the perilous 
 mischiefs to which 1 advert. 
 
The experience of those who hear me must 
 have satisfied them that nothing is practically 
 more difficult than to reconcile the incontesti- 
 ble rights of free citizens, and the courtesies of 
 polished deportment, with the hourly exigen- 
 cies of military discipline and subordination. — 
 They whose duty it is to order, cannot always 
 pause to measure their words, and adapt them 
 to the precise privileges or pretensions of those 
 whose duty it is to obey. A thousand uncon- 
 trollable causes intervene to prevent them. — 
 This may be regretted, but cannot be remedied. 
 Nevertheless discipline and subordination must 
 be maintained: their purposes are too vital and 
 paramount to be abandoned; their operations 
 cannot, without the most pernicious consequen- 
 ces, be arrested by frivolity, or relaxed by fa- 
 voritism. Once waive their necessity; — sanc- 
 tion the idea that regulations are cobwebs to be 
 broken through at pleasure, that rank is enti- 
 tled to no deference, that commands may be 
 disputed or denied, that the superior officer 
 should silently submit to having his admoni- 
 tions "repelled'' by flat contradiction, and be 
 content with the ''forbearance*'' that leaves him 
 personally unassailed; — that the settled grada 
 tions of authority, with their designated chan- 
 nels of communication are idle formalities; and 
 what will become of the naval system, of whose 
 fruits the American people have heretofore been 
 sojustly proud] — what will become of the best 
 bulwark which free institutions can organize 
 against foreign aggression. 
 
 I do not at this moment, propose an elaborate 
 application of these principles tothe cases before 
 you; — a fitter occasion as to each will present 
 itself hereafter: — but I venture to assert that no 
 reflecting man can have followed the develop- 
 ments of this trial, and have marked with dis- 
 crimination its sources, without a deep convic- 
 tion that almost every one of the various char- 
 ges and specifications, find their real roots in a 
 restless intolerance of discipline — in that pru- 
 rient and preverse spirit which seeks distinc- 
 tion by defying subordination — in that false am- 
 bition which hopes to attain eminence by resis- 
 ting and humbling established authority. Else 
 wherefore is it that I am here for having repres- 
 sed a personal altercation between two of the 
 officers under my command on the arena of a 
 thronged^race-course"? Else, wherefore is it that 
 I am here for having inflexibly refused to con- 
 sider the result of a flagrant violation of law, 
 civil, military, and divine, as entitled to official 
 indulgence and indirect sanction"? Else where- 
 fore am I here, for having transferred a chap- 
 lain trom a frigate to a schooner, confiding his 
 safety to the same winds, waves, and boat, to 
 
 which I entrusted distinguished officers and 
 excellent seamen? Else, wherefore am I here- 
 for having, unalarmed, forborne to shoot down 
 as mutineers, scores of as brave and faithful 
 tars as ever carried their country's flag unsul- 
 lied to the close of a protracted cruize, but 
 whom the culpable negligence of inferior offi- 
 cers had betrayed into the temporary disorders- 
 of intoxication"? I am here, gentlemen, yes, I 
 am here, solely because my sense of duty and 
 my experience have had to deal with some who- 
 can brook no government, suffer no control, ex- 
 cept that_which they themselves exercise"? 
 
 Nor is the alarming tendency of this prose- 
 cution less obvious in the novelty and incon- 
 gruity of its pretended legal foundations. If 
 what I may be permitted to characterize as the 
 laic of several of the charges obtain recognition, 
 the officers of the American Navy have uncon- 
 sciously become the slaves of a secret, unset- 
 tled, and capricious domination. It is in vairi 
 that the Constitution of the United States has 
 expressly forbidden the malting of ex punt facto 
 laws: — it is in vain (in the language of one of 
 the best and wisest of our Judges) "the genius, 
 the nature, the spirit of our governments, 
 amount to a prohibition of such acts of legisla- 
 tion;" — it is in vain that the great first princi- 
 ples of reason and of the social compact repel 
 them, if, at the mere discretion of power, and in 
 order to suit the exigencies of private malice, 
 actions long deemed innocent are suddenly de- 
 nounced as crimes, and penal enactments, made 
 elastic for oppression, are stretched and tortur- 
 ed beyond their just and natural application. I 
 am willing to obey — it is the fundamental les- 
 son of military life — but let me know for whom 
 and for what my obedience is claimed. I am 
 old in submission to the laws, usages, and prin- 
 ciples of my country: I am yet unborn to the 
 vassalage of hidden and entrapping rescripts. 
 When I tell the Court, as their careful consid- 
 eration of the proofs will verify, that of the 
 twenty-two specifications, ranged under the 
 third and eighth charges, every one of them de- 
 lineates as criminal, that which had before, and 
 in countless distinguished instances, been re- 
 garded as strictly right or harmless, and what 
 no legislative provision, no executive injunc- 
 tion, no judicial sentiment or decree had ever 
 intervened to proscribe or discourage, may I 
 not say that here is a large and fearful stride 
 towards an arbitrary and destructive system"? 
 
 Nor is this the, worst. It would seem as if, 
 to attain the ends of this unprecedented proceed- 
 ing, certain preconceived and universal rules of 
 honor were to be reversed, and that hencefor- 
 ward the affection and respect of our fellow- 
 
men were to be repudiated as badges of shamo. 
 Do American officers and American seamen 
 cease to be tmnrican eitizensl In assuming 
 fossi ;i >>t' ;i r: 11 -i, and devoting their lives, 
 to the national defence and glory, hare they 
 loot ili" humble right "'.' being I><-1 rved, or the 
 ioveluable privile re of manifesting tb 
 in. -Hi' Why is it that raj merely receivings! 
 testimonial ofe ratitude from a nu- 
 
 merous body of men -is free and fearless as my- 1 
 
 . 
 or. unbecoming and nnofficerlikel 77/'// and 
 ill v . witnout :; • ■ of the innumer- 
 
 qu i!il'', ing I If is the 
 
 li.il.l imputation of the first speci i tation, of the 
 third charge and >n of] 
 
 jhth. What does it mean] Is it design- 
 •■ 
 navigate our ships and fight our 
 
 • d hy virtuous anl inde- 
 pendent motive . tr to appr i tch 
 with mi polluting their professional chief! I 
 in proti Bt ag iinsi jerved 
 and sweeping a denunciation, [demand for the 
 free spirit, the pe "s mal o -n r.i^-', the manly in- 
 telligence of the crew of the ( lonstitution — nay, 
 1 el, uji for the greal class of mariners in the 
 n iv. ii service of our country, an exemption 
 from this lordly and contemptuous ban. They 
 are a hardy, adventurous, and disinten 
 race, early trained to a knowledge of their 
 rights, but submissive t i the law — quick to 
 resent petty tyranny, but kind and confiding to 
 tlndr friends; easily moved I i avenge a wrong, 
 butgenerous as bold, and always patriotic. 
 Surely the warm-hearted, tribute of Buch men 
 cannot disgrace the loftiest in pretension. .Sure- 
 ly he whose stern duty ii is to exact from them 
 constant privation, and unlimited ob 
 may innocently delight in a gifl which ai 
 Ins having, in Bome me it I the 
 oharacter of their commander, with il i 
 guardian of their happiness and interests. Is 
 it not strange, gentlemen, thai I i the 
 moral alembic of this prosecuti . w< mould 
 be tauntingly reproached with whatconstii 
 our pride! 
 
 It is essential to the purpose of these re- 
 marks, th.it their true bearing should not he 
 mistaken. 1 have no desire to review with 
 unnecessary sevi rily the errors of intemperate 
 passion, which have from the first and p 
 veringly marked the conduct of my accusers, 
 nor the cool or careless, the designing or delu- 
 ded, misjudgmenta of those by whom these 
 accusations have been encouraged and adopted; 
 much less do 1 impute to the organ of govern- 
 ment before this Court, who has moulded the 
 
 materials famished him into the only structure 
 of which they were susceptible, their vague 
 and discordant character. But I insist upon 
 the broad and conservative principles, that 
 crimes are not to be fabricated on the spur of 
 every .!,out of acts in themselves un- 
 
 importamVand indifferent — that what theemi- 
 il me have repeated- 
 ly dono uncessured and unassailed, shall not 
 abruptly be proclaimed as tru il t in me, and that 
 that only shall b -rime, subject to 
 
 the jurisdiction of a Court Martial, which is 
 clearly cognisable by some one or other of the 
 articles, rules, and regulations of the Navy. 
 Let i ointedly illustrate the ground 
 
 thus : jreeebly to the ?d article of the 
 
 first section of the Act of Congress of the 23d 
 of April, 1800, entitled, "An Act lor the better 
 
 t I mi i.t of the Navy of the I ui ted St. ; - 
 1 admit that :m officer may be tried, convicted, 
 cashiered, or punished at discretion, upon the 
 third charge exhibited here, of "Scandalous 
 
 icl tending to the destruction of good mor- 
 als" — but 1 wholly deny the competency of 
 any accuser, private or public, subordinate or 
 in authority, to range in maintenance of this 
 charge, a nduct or conversation, ha- 
 
 ving not the remoti st imaginable connection 
 with '•"! /■-' '-," and to ask, first, that the charge 
 shall be i be sustained by the spe- 
 
 cification, and second, that the speoificstioBj 
 shall take its character from the charge. Were 
 such a course permitted, the ordinary inter- 
 course of social life, the casual incidents of 
 convivial enjoyment, the consul) ttiona of con- 
 fidential friendship, and every proceeding not 
 at once appreciated in (very respect by every 
 body, would become the basis of trial and con- 
 dem nation . The law would dilate or contract 
 to covi r presented, and instead of 
 
 d, limited, and precise rule, would 
 vary to accommodate the prejudices, thecapri- 
 
 orthe tastes of its expounders. What, 
 
 "scandal and tendency to the destruction of 
 
 predicated of my publicly 
 
 pting a present from my crew? What, 
 
 .(/ tendency to the destruction of good 
 
 morale" can be attributed to my embarking 
 
 useful animals on hoard the ( lonStitutionlWhsAj 
 
 idol and tend ncy to the destruction of good 
 
 morals," can bo 'my openly employ- 
 
 ing men in feeding and otherwise protecting 
 And what, "scandal and ten- 
 ilinci/to the destruction of good morals,, can 
 be inferred from my having notoriously, and 
 by regular requisitions, consumed in the erec- 
 tion of stalls for their comfort and safety, cer- 
 tain boards, plank, nails, canvass, and junk? 
 
If these specifications describe matters that are 
 really offences, cognizable under some other 
 comprehensive provision of law, let them not 
 be set forth under this, to which no ingenuiy 
 can possibly apply them. If there be no arti- 
 cle or regulation to the standard of which they 
 can be rallied, would it not be wiser, juster, 
 safer, and better, to recognize the truth, and to 
 own that they are not offences at all? Let me 
 add, without wishing in the slightest degree, to 
 restrict the import of the legal phraseology, that 
 it is difficult to avoid perceiving, on reading the 
 Act of Congress, the exact nature of the irregu- 
 larities or indecencies against which its modest 
 generality is directed: — "any officer or other 
 person in the Navy, who shall be guilty 
 of oppression, cruelty, fraud, profane swear- 
 ing, drunkenness, or any other scandalous con- 
 duct tending to the destruction of good morals'" 
 a momentary glance at the statute of the Bri- 
 tish parliament from which this provision was 
 drawn, and which is less delicate in itu terms, 
 perfectly explains the allusion. 
 
 1 cannot gentlemen, omit to remark upon 
 another peculiarity of the investigation through 
 which you have passed, whose inconvenient 
 and dangerous consequences I have painfully 
 witnessed. It will be recollected that the pre- 
 cept issued by the Honorable the Secretary of 
 the Navy for the organization of a Court of In- 
 quiry, instead of being restricted to the only 
 charges which engaged the least attention, and 
 as to which it was cheerfully sought, author- 
 ized an examination into every incident of my 
 life, important or unimportant, during the four 
 years of active, anxious, and laborious public 
 service, connected with my command in the 
 Mediterranean. If there be in the annals of 
 naval government, a paralel inquisition re- 
 corded, it has escaped my research. Though 
 not so designed, it operated instantly as an in- 
 vitation to everyone on whom the discharge of 
 my military duties had borne with any severity 
 to come forward and seek his revenge; to find 
 in the lapse of time, in s the confusedly remem- 
 bered incidents of distant days, and in the per- 
 verted reasoning of moody and long indulged 
 mortification or enmity, ample means of assail- 
 ing me at unguarded points, and of giving 
 plausibility to stories and insinuations which 
 no memory, however tenacious, could pretend 
 to retain with the fullness and accuracy necess- 
 ary to perfect explanation. It placed me at 
 once as a target for all the discontented, for all 
 who hated bitterly or felt spitefully, for all 
 who thought themselves aggrieved, or were 
 ready to believe that others had been so. If 
 this be esteemed a just ordeal, the precedent, 
 
 first set in my case, may be useful to the Ameri- 
 can Navy: — if it be esteemed otherwise, as on 
 my soul I believe it to be as unjust as it was 
 new, long may it remain without imitation — 
 long, very long may it be before a brother offi- 
 cer, however honorable and innocent, shall be 
 forced to undergo it ! What have been its ob- 
 vious results 1 Looks, words, gestures — nay, 
 even tones of voice — things which can scarce- 
 ly be remembered from day to day, have mir- 
 aculously outlived years, and are reported as 
 positively as if of last hour's growth : — the 
 setting sun, the rising wind, the rate of sailing, 
 ihe time of tide, the transfer of provisions at 
 any given hour four years ago, have been 
 narrated with a hardy confidence than throws 
 into shade almanacs and log books: while 
 blindness itself could scarcely fail to see the 
 dove-tailing, corroborating, mutually counte- 
 nancing and encouraging indications of a grad- 
 ually formed, extensive, and if you please, un- 
 conscious combination to destroy. 
 
 It may not be amiss to show briefly a few of 
 the singular contradictions and inconsistencies 
 into which the prosecuting witnesses were 
 thrown by the test of cross-examination — rend- 
 ering it manifest how little reliance could be 
 placed upon their real recollections. I am not 
 anxious to inculcate a harsher conclusion. — 
 When, however, it is considered that a correct 
 appreciation of the truth or falsehood of many 
 of the specifications might, (such is their na- 
 ture!) depend upon the insertion or omission, 
 at particular emergencies, of a single word or 
 qualifying phrase — when a slight circumstance 
 remembered, or forgotten, or evaded, might be 
 the illuminating index of motive or feeling, it 
 cannot fail to inspire great caution and doubt, 
 if we detect irreconcileable discrepancies in 
 the sources of testimony. Opposite assertions 
 cannot both be true, and the witnesses who 
 make them, unintentionally but fatally disprove 
 and impeach each other. 
 
 Is it not something to shake your confidence 
 in the statement of Lieut. Charles G. Hunter, 
 that he should at one time vehemently assert 
 that I shook the cane over his head — but, at 
 another time when the impossibility of my 
 having done so by my distance from him is 
 overwhelmingly proved, that he should vary 
 the phraseology to shaking the cane at him 1 
 
 Is it not something to awaken an apprehen-' 
 sion lest the solemnity of the occasion may not 
 be adequately felt or the memory be very fee- 
 ble, when the same gentleman on Monday 
 morning positively avers that he saw Chaplain 
 Lambert on the immediately preceding Sun- 
 day evening at the office of the Judge Advo- 
 
rate, but on Tuesday morninrr recalls his aver- 1 crow on the berth dock, while Mr. Hutchinson 
 rnent, sndhas reason to believe that he mista- 1 who sent them from his house, and Captain 
 
 tod the factl 
 
 Is it not something to bewilder the besl ex- 
 poonders of evidence, when Lieut. McBIair 
 represents the Constitution as going Into 
 Hampton Roads on the first <f the flood — 
 Lieut. Bntlus, at half flood — and Sailing-mas- 
 ter Muse tit high 
 
 [s it not something to embarrass your choice 
 and beep yon suspended between the greater 
 knowledge of the officer and the BuperioT 
 tity of ili'- clergyman, when Lieut. Watson 
 tells yon unhesitatingly that the ship in the 
 harbor of Suda was hove to, while Chaplain 
 Lambert as p isitively tells you she was notl 
 
 Is it not Bomeihinj 1 1 inspire misgiving, that 
 id Midshipman Barton should ui 
 i at he had received no orders not to go on 
 from ili" Shark, while Lieut. Totti n as- 
 serts that he in person <■ mrounic vi ry 
 orders to him? — th d the a ime passed Midship- 
 man I! irton denied that he was left at Smyrna 
 at liis own request, when the letter of Dr. 
 1 1 yd to his father Dr. Wm. i'. I '. Barton, un- 
 equivocally states that he was 1— and that the 
 seme passed Midshipman Barton shi old depict 
 '•///<• Hondas madly gushing through the hi 
 
 of Ins wounded limb, when Dr. Wood- 
 worth s iv ■; that si! -li a phras • is .i u flg uralive 
 expression" which he does not understand, and 
 that the haemorrhage wasslightl - 
 
 Is it ling inexplicable, as fin oper- 
 
 ation of mere memory, that Purser Hamb 
 should inform yon th i I i Borai m, in re- 
 
 porting to some of the crew after dinner on the 
 day of anchoring .it Hampton Roads the reply 
 of the Commodore to their inquiry when the 
 ship wonld proceed to Norfolk, said "at 
 aa the pilot would carry her" while Lieut. i>n!!- 
 as pronounces it i i have b< i •■ ion as the 
 anim at «fthe ship" and while ' 'apt. 
 
 Boraem himself admits neither statement to be 
 correct, but alleges his reply to have I 
 "thai oftern morning ! 
 
 Is ii i de that I'.iss- 
 
 e<l Midshipman Anderson's r col lee ti m should 
 warrant his declaring that someofthe stalls of 
 the animals wi I or nailed to some of 
 
 the trucks of the guns, while ( Jarpenter Sagee 
 who constructed them all, peremptorily af- 
 firms that nothing of the sort was dune in any 
 one instance ? 
 
 And is it not something, a little more than 
 singular, that Lieut. Bellas Bhould declare that | animah 
 two of the pieces of plate, the pitcher and wai- 
 ter, had not the inscription engraved on them 
 at the time when they were exhibited to tho 
 
 Boraem who received them on board, just pri- 
 or to thai exhibition, aver that they /nut! 
 
 God grant, gentlemen, that tbi se direct and 
 almost extravagant contradictions and discrep- 
 ancies on points bearing upon the merits of 
 the specifications, be accidental ! 
 
 I have endeavored to analyze the « - i if 1 1 1 
 charges, with their thirty four specificati 
 to divest them of their mere descriptive or ex- 
 aggerating epithets and to sv-ii matize their 
 substance bo as to presi nt distinct and com. 
 prehensive an were lo all and each of them. 
 It is obviously nnn< c low 
 
 them • ively and according 
 
 arrai geraent, as b< me of them 
 are mere ri petitions under different heads, and 
 others only varied by slight additions or orais- 
 . more forma] than mati rial. \ 
 
 intention, so I hope this Court will find on can- 
 didly and carefully considering what I shall 
 ■ gation made in any shape, to 
 which the evid the least application, 
 
 has been Buffered to pass without its jnst and 
 ample 
 Of the thirty-four specifications seven of 
 be characterized as purely personal, 
 ndividual complainanls,nami \] , 
 Lient. Charles (■'. I lunti r, < lhaplain I 
 R. Lambert, and Passed midshipman Charles 
 irton. The replies to these Bp< cificatiohs 
 will therefore be I marshal themselves undet 
 the names of tin ir reepi ctive original 
 Of the remaining twenty-seven 
 
 1 from wh ! : 
 rmit! d I lish as the Crew's 
 
 pres 'nt of silver Plate; - rj are d< - 
 
 duced from the fact, with its i inci- 
 
 dents, of my having brought to the United 
 3 on board the John Adams and the Con- 
 ition, the animals enumerated; floe other* 
 
 nnded out of th e I f 
 
 id mutiny at Hampton Itoads; and tho 
 three last apply to the infliction, on twt 
 
 ■e servants and a seaman, of u tra pun 
 nun/. 
 
 I propose, therefore to answer all the thirty- 
 four specifications, and ot course the i 
 charges, for lions once removed, 
 
 char sarily fall to the ground, nndei 
 
 the foil iwing distinctive heads, pursuing an 
 order conformable to what may he esteemed 
 their relative dignity or importance. 1. '/". 
 
 The alleged mutiny at Hamp- 
 ton Roads, 3, The Crew's present of Silver 
 Plate, 4. Pasted midshipman Charles ('. 
 Barton. b. Lieut. Charles 0. Hunt r. 6, 
 
6 
 
 Chavlain 7komas R. Lambert. 7. Extra 
 Punishment. 
 
 I. THE ANIMALS. 
 
 Under this head, my remarks without more de- 
 tailed analysis, will apply to the 5ih, Gth, 
 7th, and 8th specifications of the 3d 
 Charge; , specification.' of the 6th charge; 
 specification of the 7th charge — 3d, 8th, 
 yth, 10 h and 11th, specifications of the 8th 
 charge. 
 
 It is certainly true, gentlemen, as a general 
 proposition, that the guilt or innocence of an 
 accused, should be determined without refer- 
 ence to the expediency or inexpediency, the 
 policy or impolicy of the law which is said 
 to have been violated. The power to legis- 
 late is not vested in any courts, civil or mili- 
 tary, nor is it within their competency to 
 abate the force or qualify the injunctions of 
 acts of Congress. And were I able to dis- 
 cover in any statute an express or implied pro- 
 hibition of the offences imputed tome within 
 this category — were I not necessarily driven 
 by the vagueness of the terms of the charges, 
 to show their inapplicability to the matters 
 specified, I should not feel, as in fact I do feel, 
 bound as well as able, independently of sub- 
 stantive and special justification, as a devoted 
 friend of the American Navy, to convince this 
 tribunal, that what is here characterized as 
 *' scandalous conduct tending to the destruc- 
 tion of good morals" or " unbecoming and 
 unofficerlike conduct" was in strict accor- 
 dance with a wise national policy, long actuat- 
 ing our fellow citizens at large, long sanction- 
 ed by the gove r nment, and especially useful to 
 our branch in reconciling its otherwise seem- 
 ing idleness in times of profound peace, and 
 its necessarily heavy cost, to the sympathies, 
 affections, and opinions, of avast body of our 
 countrymen. 
 
 I refer, it will be remembered, at the outset, 
 to the broad assertion that I acted criminally 
 in bringing to the United States, from foreign 
 lands, two animals on board the John Adams, 
 and twenty three on board the Constitution. 
 After encountering this, it will be my duty to 
 enter into closer details, and to satisfy you, 
 that being right in the general purpose, it 
 would be absurd to ascribe guilt to me on ac- 
 count of its necessary incidents,- or its tem- 
 porary though unavoidable consequences. If 
 I might bring these animals home in one or 
 more vessels of war under my command, I 
 cannot persuade<myself to believe that I shall 
 experience any embarrassment in convincing 
 those whom I address that they were stowed 
 
 away as conveniently as possible, in reference 
 to armament or crew; and that I was not wrong 
 in providing them with food, nor in securing 
 them by stalls, nor in having somebody to 
 pay them the proper attention on the voyage, 
 nor in having them safely landed on anchoring 
 in Hampton Roads. 
 
 In early life, gentlemen, it so happened that 
 I contracted an habitual respect and a strong 
 taste for agricultural pursuits, as well as some 
 knowledge of the difficulties with which the 
 farmers in our new and thinly settled regions 
 have to contend. The sudden death of a fath- 
 er, who fell by the hand of a savage while in the 
 actual military service of his country, leaving 
 to his widow and children nothing but the 
 invaluable inheritance of a good name, hurried 
 a younger brother with me into the profession I 
 have ever since followed. But the storms of 
 ocean, the wanderings of seamanship, the oc- 
 casional and absorbing bustle of battle, with 
 the many cares created by a temperament some- 
 what too ardent and heedless, have never ex- 
 tinguished my fondness for the labours of the 
 husbandman, and the desire to contribute, to 
 the extent of my ability and means, to their 
 solace and encouragement. Men never cease 
 to relish what they loved as boys, and rarely 
 do we outgrow even an exaggerated estimate 
 of the importance of our first occupations. The 
 basis of all other arts — the oldest and most uni- 
 versal — the art which employs nine-tenths 
 of every community — the one which as certain- 
 ly produces individual happiness as it is es- 
 sential to national prosperity — the art which 
 invigorates bodily health, assuages mental in- 
 firmities, fosters virtuous sentiments, inspires 
 moral independence, and gives to the institu- 
 tions of liberty their wisest, purest, and stern- 
 est protectors — that art has always seemed to 
 me to be the art of agricultu.e. Heretofore 
 this conviction found its origin perhaps in hab- 
 it or inclination — it is now confirmed by reflec- 
 tion and experience. It is very possible that 
 in my zeal to improve the resources of those 
 who cultivate the soil, I may have done that 
 which in the eyes of men whose tastes and 
 opinions take a different direction, appears 
 strange if not ludicrous. Indeed it is obvious 
 that many of my young and accomplished ac- 
 cusers refrained with difficulty from sneers 
 and smiles, when their polite lips were doom- 
 ed to utter the words "Jackasses;" and even the 
 Honorable Secretary of the Navy, if I correct- 
 ly appreciate the tone of the letter he address- 
 ed to me on the 15th day of November, 1838, 
 deemed the dignity of his pen as much lower- 
 ed by the phrase as was the flag of the Consti- 
 
tii lion outraged by floating over such unmen- 
 t iiMi.ible creatures. The blood of the Arabi- 
 an or Andalusian racer rescues him r¥om con- 
 1 1 1 1 ■ i • > 1 v ; perhaps his immediate destina- 
 tion, to grace the fashionably thronged turf, 
 secures to bun asUenl and solid glory; while 
 the homely and humble '•Jack is," whose 
 qualities endear him only to the homely and 
 bnmble farmer; whose value is not swiftness 
 hut steadiness, not pride but patience, not 
 beauty but bottom, mosl ir the boT- 
 
 « 1 1 -it oft temptuouS bc irn. And yet, this de- 
 
 jeeted drudge has been praised fbr the peculi- 
 arities Whieh constitutes his merits in my 
 eyes; and I am tempted, in vindicati in of my 
 taste, and in b ime m propitiate the of- 
 
 fended dignity of th j of the Navy, 
 
 and of my polish id assailants, to remark with 
 the author "f those praisi . ■••'•. - 
 
 ••i -, - ■ tly named the Father of his Cuun- 
 ii /ry, was the^rW who introduced this useful 
 "animal into tie- I nited States, and his lauda- 
 "ble example lias since been imitated by a 
 
 ♦•small number ■ f agriculturists." 
 
 Wherefore, then, may 1 ask, with 
 timents and objects, was I precluded, upon 
 general principles, from making these animals 
 accompany me in the vessels of war which I 
 oommandedl 1 have proved inuontrovertibly to 
 this Court, by measures taken, and convi 
 tions held contemporaneously with the pur- 
 chase of the animals, and by their subsequent 
 distribution throughout the United Si 
 that my avowed ami real purposes were what 
 1 have HOW St ited. Was it, nevertheless, scan- 
 dal msand immoral, unbecoming and unoflicer- 
 like! 
 
 First, It was no whete directly or expressly 
 condemned by any law or regulation, and the 
 very same thing bad been done over and over 
 again, by older and more enlightened and abler 
 officers than myself, without the slightest re- 
 proof or objection. You have it distinctly, from 
 the lips of uncontradicted witnesses, thai — 
 
 Commodort Stephen Decatur, in 1805, brought 
 in bis ship to the I nited States, four Arabian 
 horses. 
 
 Commodore haac Chauncey, in 1818, several 
 horses. 
 
 Commodort Win. "Bainbridge, in L826, six 
 
 animals — a bull, a heifer, a ram, a ewe, a jack, 
 and another. 
 
 Comtn » Rodgers, in 1^07, four 
 
 ajeks and jenni 
 
 , in 1824, one horse. 
 
 Commodore Patterson, three animals once, 
 and again a flock of sheep. 
 
 Commodore Crane, six or seven jacks and 
 
 jennies; and another irreproachable and big* 
 minded Captain, whose valor adorned his coun- 
 try with one of her brightest chapli ts, con- 
 sidered it not unworthy of his imitation. I 
 need hardly remark, a> it is notorious ami in- 
 disputable, that none of these distinguished 
 men were treated with categorical impeach 
 men t and censure,.raueh less with impntatioi 
 Bcaudalons, immoral, and nnorncerlike Bondoct 
 Such treatment n erved for roe alone. 
 
 ■ itl. Nor is it possible with any oonafa' 
 
 ten -y or justice, to consider the bringing «•; 
 
 tii- ■ animals amenable to blame, w hen a vail 
 
 sty oi analogous acts and proceedings, aeeotr 
 panted by the utmost publicity, are of daily > •• 
 currence. It would really seem ^s if the -■< 
 
 in, in order t i provoke cert 
 ■'il, and appro| 
 to rel e pursuits of the humble 
 
 classes of our countrymen: — should it be use- 
 less, merely ornamental, and limited to scenen 
 of luxury and fashion, like charity, it will o v 
 era multitude of sins. Take For illustration, the 
 enormous, pun!. ! almost shapeless 
 
 in -^ ol :.; ii ile, in procuring and embarking 
 which on the coast of Greece, Commodore 
 
 rson employed the s. . iron 
 
 for weeks, and encumbered his ship dun 
 protracted cruize. It has stood for k many y 
 a dis igured and incomprehensible monument 
 of ancient sculpture in front of the Philadelphia 
 my of the Fine Arts, no doubt deservt dly 
 an object of learned criticism or idle curiosity, 
 but contributing not the fifty millionth frai 
 of its own weight to the benefit of nine- 
 tenths of our population. Let me not be under- 
 stood as finding fault; 1 have done a similar act 
 
 myself, (not j I discovered to be wrong) in 
 presenting to the Girard College a huge gran- 
 ite sarcophagus of immense antiquity, procured 
 on the heights of Heyroot at much private ex- 
 pense, ami removed to my ship with great dif- 
 ficulty: — what I upon 
 is, that you cannot, as the Naval Department 
 always has, countenance and eneoui - ci 
 impoi : war, 
 without at least refraining to censure the bri'i";- 
 ing of anim 
 
 to be accorded to in inimate, unproductive, and 
 useless articles of fancy or fashion, over living* 
 creatures of immediate utility and of perma- 
 nent improvement. 
 
 Ami now, gentlemen, after these remarks, 
 does not mv defence on th. • irre- 
 
 sistible, when I adduce the positive written in- 
 structions , I" the Navy Deparlnv 
 warranting, bat inviting the \i ry j 
 alleged to be criminal? These instructions pen- 
 
8 
 
 ned by an able lawyer and statesman, then at 
 the head of our service, are dated the 27th day 
 of June, 1327, and came into my hands as com- 
 mander of the squadron in the Mediterranean, 
 by regular transmission from my predecessors 
 on that station. They refer to the very policy 
 on which I have commented, to the very mo- 
 tives by which I have proved myself actuated. 
 They are in the following clear and comprehen- 
 sive language. "It will probably be in your pow- 
 v.r, while protecting the commercial, to add 
 something to the agricultural interests of the 
 nation, by procuring information respecting 
 valuable animals, seeds, and plants, and im- 
 porting such as you can conveniently without 
 inattention to your more appropriate duties, or 
 expense to the government.'''' 
 
 The construction of this authority admits of 
 no perplexity. The importation on board our 
 ships of war of valuable animals is distinctly 
 and directly encouraged. It does not pretend to 
 confer a new power, not before known to exist 
 and be exercised by our naval commanders, but 
 recognizes the power already in being, and ex- 
 horts to its active use. The government 
 wisely judged it expedient andjnstthat agri- 
 culture should share with commerce in a perfect- 
 ly reconcileable extent, the benefits incident to 
 our active and costly employment during times 
 of peace: — it desired to inculcate this mode of 
 being doubly useful to the country — and it 
 doubtless saw in the practice the means of 
 kindling among our farmers, and far through the 
 interior, sympathies and interests in our behalf 
 such as prevail among merchants and along the 
 seaboard. 
 
 What then was meant in the official instruc- 
 tions by "importing" animals'? Does it not ne- 
 cessarily authorize all the incidents attendant 
 upon such an act! Does it not justify the occu- 
 pation of adequate space on board the public 
 ship? Does it not warrant the employment of 
 such agents and such means for the care of the 
 quadrupeds as a public ship affords? Surely it 
 cannot and will not Le imputed to a high func- 
 tionary of the American government, that he 
 worded his instructions i.i order to mislead and 
 entrap — that he intended to allure the naval 
 commanders into "importation" and then dis- 
 claim having specified any privileges of room, 
 of protection, of attendance? When he empow- 
 ered us to "import" valuable animals, he sanc- 
 tioned all the unavoidable accompaniments or 
 consequences of our doing so, equally as when 
 was authorized the transportation of specie, 
 equally as when were permitted loads of 
 lfyelfstock to bestowed for messes, equally 
 as*! when were allowed private persons, 
 
 our own citizens or foreigners, to be received on 
 board, and to be conveyed as passengers from 
 one place to another. And yet to so refined and 
 ingenious an extent has the opposite construc- 
 tion been narrowed, that it seems to be regard- 
 ed as evidence of my having transcended Sec- 
 retary Southard's authority, that the horses 
 brought in the Constitution had temporarily 
 "discolored^ the deck, and left some strag- 
 gling tufts of their hair upon the stauncheons of 
 the ship! Nay, indeed, if I am not mistaken in 
 the scope of the suggestion, it is thought that 
 though I might "import' 1 '''' the animals, I was 
 bound to be my own groom, or import grooms 
 as well as animals, and that to bestow upon 
 them any of the time or labor of any portion of 
 the crew was improper and illegal. Driven to 
 so attenuated an extreme are my accusers, that 
 in order to criminate, they abandon the dic- 
 tates of practical common sense. 
 
 Undoubtedly, gentlemen, when workings of 
 fancy are substituted for fact, and we are ask- 
 ed to imagine all the evils which might spring 
 from almost any act, it is easy to delineate a 
 very gloomy picture. Nothing is quite so harm- 
 less, but it can under some circumstances be- 
 come dangerous if not fatal. I can readily ad- 
 mit that the presence of a single animal in a 
 ship might possibly affect the comfort of her 
 men; that messing and sleeping places might 
 be interfered with; that even the battery might 
 be encumbered; that the force and efficiency of 
 the ship might be impaired; and that she might 
 become unequal to sustain the honor of the Hag 
 in an emergency. These grave and resounding 
 consequences might follow upon consequences 
 infinitely less ostensible than the one suppo- 
 sed. But then again the converse is equally 
 maintainable, and a hundred animals might not 
 produce any one of those direful results. — 
 Hence it is that the instructions of the Secreta- 
 ry of the Navy prescribe no limit or condition 
 whatever, except the one which would exist 
 unexpressed, namely, that the authorized im- 
 portation must be unaccompanied by "inatten- 
 tion to more appropriate duties or by expense to 
 the government.'" 
 
 The facts as proved by all the witnesses in- 
 contestibly show that I was not guilty of "inat- 
 tention to more appropriate duties," and a rap- 
 id review of their chief features may not be in- 
 appropriate or tedious. 
 
 1. The animals were embarked on board the 
 Constitution at Mahon, in the island of Minor- 
 ca, the customary rendezvous or head quarters 
 of the Amer |c an armed vessels stationed in the 
 Mediterranean Sea, after having been collected 
 and kept on a farm in the neighborhood. On the 
 
13th of Juno, 1S3S, my tour of duty as com- 
 mander of the squadron was over, and I had 
 nothing more to do, at the close of a four years' 
 cruize, than to stretch directly across the Atlan- 
 tic wiih my single ship, and regain our own 
 country. It was a period of perfectly profound 
 peace. The rutlled aspect of our relations with 
 France, which at one time excited my utmost 
 vigilance, had tranquilly dispelled, leaving a 
 smoother surface than had existed for years be- 
 fore, and not the slightest shade of controversy 
 Qotted upon the horizon of international poli- 
 tics to awaken doubt or apprehension. Every 
 thing seemed, every thing was secur . 
 ;uh1 serene, and his mind must have been inor- 
 bidly disordered who could entertain the remo- 
 test suspicion that my frigate might, in the 
 centre of Christendom, and at that moment 
 of universal amity, have encountered obstacle 
 or rudeness of any sort. 
 
 S. Previous to embarkation, I consulted ful- 
 ly and freely with my officers, and to comman- 
 der Horaem, certainly discharging the func- 
 tions of Captain, I gave the undisputed and 
 positive order, w hiob became generally under- 
 stood throughout the ship, that in case of any 
 unanticipated emergency, the animals with all 
 tin i r encumbrances should be immediately 
 thrown overboard. The arrangements for their 
 convenient accommodation, first clustering 
 amidships, and subsequently against the sides 
 between the guns, approved as the very best 
 by every witness who has described them, 
 were constructed in eighteen hours by carpen- 
 ter Sagre, were carefully kept by him uncon- 
 nected with the guns, their carrriages and tac- 
 kle, and were so slightly fixed, that at a mo- 
 ment's warning, and in less than fifteen min- 
 utes, the deck could have been effectually clear- 
 ed of any obstruction. 
 
 3. Little offensive as such animals are, gen- 
 erally indeed objects of attraction and kindness 
 to seamen, every care was taken to prevent ih«-i r 
 proving sources of even fancied annoyance. — 
 N ine persons to have them in charge were de- 
 signated and BysteutUed, thus limiting to an 
 easily spared number, the temp »rary relief from 
 other duties of the ship — the stalls were 
 pulonsly preservi d in acondition of clean!. 
 and purity, and were located 0:1 the gun-deck 
 and npar the port holes, with special reference 
 to a free circulation or air during ;>. Bummer 
 month, and the few berthing or messing pi: 
 with which they interfered wt re utterly unim- 
 portant on hoard a ship wh 11 short by 
 forttf'four of her regular complement. 1. 
 add, as overwhelming 
 
 those arrangements, that of the lour hundred 
 2 
 
 and fifty on board, not a solitary officer or man 
 has ventured at your stand to aver that the pres- 
 ence of these animals in the ship impeded his 
 duties, affected his health, or impaired his com- 
 forts: " t h ai thy medical gentlemen havenni- 
 forrnly conceded their entire wholesomeness, 
 and that not more than three or four partially 
 sick men, were ever heard during the whole 
 voyage to ascribe their natural restlessness at 
 night to the noise of their hoofs. Every seaman 
 was satisfied am! 
 
 Having then, gentlemen, the clear and ex- 
 Na- 
 vy f.,i tin 'importation of these valuable ani- 
 mals, ■ , [ask, was th . •■ 
 to mi/ more approprit " Is it to be 
 found in fact, or in fi a conclusi in of 
 Bolemn justice to be reached through realities 
 and truth, or throagh exaggerating verbiage and 
 fiction? 
 
 It is unnecessary to advert particularly to the 
 instance of my b< d States 
 
 more than a year before the • Constitution return- 
 e. I. ami by the John \dams, two similar animals, 
 farther than to remind the < lourl that the incor- 
 poration of this among the B] eeificationa only 
 shows that my accusers were wholly unappri- 
 sed or regardless of the instructions of Sec 
 ry Southard, and that they deemed the law- 
 usages of the Navy i qually violated by the im- 
 portation of two, as of twenty such create' 
 that nevertheless that valuable officer, Captain 
 Stringham, with emphasis repelled the C B- 
 sciousness of bavin/ been required to do what 
 was "unbecoming and " that he 
 
 pronounced the arrangements he had made to 
 have been unattended by the least 1 mbarrass- 
 inent;t lr.it he denied the efficiency of bis sloop to 
 have been weaken! d; and that neither he nor any 
 of his officers, had ever con sidered the circum- 
 stance worthy of being reported to the Navy 
 irtment. It was reserved for 1 know not 
 whom to disinter this transaction,and to make it 
 i whal 1 hope I may be pardoned for term- 
 ing the sweeping drag-net of the eighth charge 
 exhibited against me. 
 
 One short additional explanation, and I will 
 a you no longer under this bead. I under- 
 which I am alleg d in the spe- 
 iation of the ti 
 
 ." and in the specification of the 
 dentinal- 
 ly the -. 1 I am [uently 
 
 alleged, in tin- 10th specification of the li^/ith 
 used for my own private benefit. 
 They are almost all such appropria- 
 
 ted to the acconmod male, and 
 
 in that light are carried to m j account. How 
 
1U 
 
 they can be regarded as "unnecessarily expen- 
 ded" or as "wasted," according to the unbro- 
 ken current of evidence you have heard, I am 
 utterly at a loss to conjecture. I presume this 
 to be merely a formal variation of the same im 
 putation. My known, and declared, and proved 
 intention, according to the established practice 
 and principles of our service, was to have re- 
 turned them in kind, or to have paid for them 
 They were notoriously obtained by regular re- 
 quisition at the times and in the quantities repre- 
 sented to be wanted, and I gave directions that 
 lists of them should be properly kept and handed 
 tome. Such lists never reached me. Carpenter 
 Sagre has sworn that the one he prepared re- 
 mained long after it had been prepared, undeli- 
 vered in the hands of Gomella, erroneously 
 thought to be my steward, and Lieut. Bull us has 
 confessed, on cross-examination, that the list he 
 made for rough memoranda, was compiled for 
 use before the Court of Inquiry, (although the 
 subject, as one for scrutiny, was accidentally 
 started there without having been heard of be 
 fore,) and that he never communicated it to me. 
 Had the list been submitted to my inspection, 
 and ascertained to be correct, its really small 
 amount would have left me without excuse for 
 not restoring or paying: but once made the ba- 
 sis of attack and investigation, it would have 
 ill become me secretly to ratify it, and so ap- 
 parently to shrink from a full and public deve- 
 lopment of its origin and character. It is 
 now as publicly as unquestionably shown that 
 these articles cannot be traced to my use, and 
 that if, contrary to what 1 have proved, as to 
 leading items, like the tent of Captain Boraem, 
 they were applied wholly to my private purpo- 
 ses, yet were so applied from time to time, in 
 making, or repairing, or cleansing the accom- 
 modations for the animals. In the opinion I 
 have formed after much reflection, most of 
 them, as absolutely necessary to effectuate the 
 safe and convenient importation which the Se- 
 cretary's instructions invited, should be ranged 
 under the general expenses of the ship, and 
 many of them, of old canvass, the proof shows 
 to have been returned; but be this as it mav, 
 having early made my intention in relation to 
 them distinctly known, I shall prefer fully li 
 quidatintr their value. ■ 
 II.— THE ALLEGED MUTINY AT 
 HAMPTON ROADS. 
 Under this head my remarks will apply with- 
 out more detailed analysis, to the 1st and 2d 
 specifications of the 4th Charge; 12th, 
 13th, and 14th specifications of the 8th 
 charge. 
 The discipline of the squadron in the Me 
 
 diterranean, while under my command, is con- 
 ceded to have been well and efficiently main- 
 tained; and every officer of the Frigate Consti- 
 tution has felt himself obliged to confess that 
 the conduct of her crew, during all his expe- 
 rience, throughout her three years absence, 
 until she again anchored in the waters of the 
 United States, was unexceptionable. I speak 
 now of the general deportment, activity, order, 
 and obedience of the men; not considering the 
 fact of Lieut Bullus having punished, in the 
 course of one morning, and in the absence of 
 Captain Boraem and myself, thirty or forty or 
 seventy, nor the occasional other irregularities 
 committed by detached groupes or single indi- 
 viduals, set forth in the Book of Punishment, 
 as indicating any thing beyond the casual and 
 transient ebullition or forgetfulness to which 
 masses of men, under the best rules, and of 
 the best dispositions, are prone. 
 
 The Captain of an armed vessel who has 
 tried and knows the real character of his crew, 
 and who appreciates the responsibility of his 
 public trust, is not always called upon even in 
 emergencies, to execute his duties with force, 
 terror, and destruction. Such resorts may be 
 the very ones he should avoid, for, however 
 much they might manifest the power with 
 which he is invested, or the uncompromising 
 rigor of his command, they may be ill-suited 
 and ill-timed to the circumstances, and by ag- 
 gravating the very mischiefs he wishes to 
 remedy, defeat his just purposes altogether. 
 How best to manage men, and sailors especi- 
 ally, is an art, or a tact, of slow acquirement. 
 The flourish of the cat, the rivetting of the 
 irons, the brandishing of the cutlass, the vol- 
 leys of marines, may^be all good in their way, 
 and all are confided to the tempered discretion., 
 of him who has at the same time committed 
 to his charge the lives of officers and crew, the 
 public prosperity, and the honor of the flag. 
 Who doubts, since the evidence thrice repeat- 
 ed before this court, that a very large propor- 
 tion of the craw of the Constitution, had, 
 owing to the culpable carelessness of subor- 
 dinate officers, become intoxicated on the after- 
 noon and evening of the 31st of July, 1838, 
 after anchoring before the town of Hampton? 
 and who doubts that this intoxication was im- 
 pelled and excited by the conscientious belief 
 of many that their contracts of service having 
 expired, and their feet once planted on 
 their native shore, they were free from the re- 
 straints of military discipline; and entitled to 
 set them at defiance? Men thus conditioned 
 and thus actuated, become dangerous and for- 
 midable only when exasperated by unnecessa- 
 
11 
 
 ry severity, and learned in combination ; 
 common object — while yet more pervi 
 than prov I talkative than daring,more 
 
 qnarrelsome amongst themselves than oon 
 ing against others, they may be Vigilantly 
 
 hed or separately oonfined, but are neither 
 
 ntle- 
 mon, that this is a lesson of prudence, which 
 the rash spirit of youth and th 
 of i r -tilty 
 
 comprehend. With such, the sill. 
 or noisy insolence of a drunken tar is to 
 ' .villi hot haste, and 
 
 a and pain- 
 ful. Willi such, i doubt not»l 
 is another word f r frain 
 
 i punishing is submi 
 that our own American hi i 
 an Generic in d( in waters, 
 
 than that any mode Bhort of violence sh 
 
 ik or appease the follies of drunkeni 
 These are not, however, the sentiment 
 
 . nor do 1 ent 
 sligh hension of their being adopted 
 
 by a tribunal of 
 
 It is possible, the professional t;ilent of the 
 Juil_ te has proved it to be so, to 
 
 cluster an I th • half d sen incidents 
 
 of a half dozen b >urs into almost as few : 
 and to give them* 1 by strong phraseolo 
 pungency redolent "[' crime. With no other 
 foundation than the diaorder to which 1 have 
 referred, I am gravely charged with having 
 witnessed a mutiny and doing nothing I 
 press it! I take issue on both points, and 
 on behalf of the noble crew of the Constitu- 
 tion, that they ever mutinied, and b 
 sert it to be incontesttbly proved, that that 
 whieh is misnamed a mutiny was by 
 mender of the ship, or by myself, fearlessly, 
 and thoroughly, and judiciousl) repr< 
 
 1. I do not think 1 have yet heard, or that 
 1 shall hi ir the scene at 1 [am| 
 
 Roads denominated a mutiny by any military 
 man. None of tin tailed 
 
 its various and unconnected irr have 
 
 committed their professional intelligence and 
 discrimination quite that far. The n 
 approach to it, and yet far distant, were the 
 pregnant expressions of Lieut. Bullus, who 
 thought it "almost a mutiny" Lieutenant 
 Melii.ur aaysil v., is no insurrection, only a 
 general disregard of orders. Dr. Washington 
 avers distinctly that it was not a mutiny: — 
 Passed midshipman Muse says the disorder 
 and righting n . the men themselves, 
 
 and not resistance to the officers. Midshipman 
 \nderson says there was no violence toward 
 
 the officer?. Assistant Surgeon McLcod says, 
 the en settling their quarrels among 
 
 resi itance to the offi- 
 re a lys tl i at- 
 
 tempt the officers. Captain B i 
 
 himself seemed to think that it would have 
 bei n exceedingly preposterous to order out 
 the marine guard to repress a mutiny when 
 
 rizes the 
 •• drunken rou 
 
 . Nicholas 
 gunner Thos Riley,witb Price, 
 ards, ami Paul, ov< rw helming- 
 ly est truth of this uniform statement. 
 
 But, gentlemen, what is a mutiny 1 It is 
 inly an offence of which one seaman can 
 uilty as will as a hundred. Its essential 
 not numbers, hut active, sub- 
 It is, however, not (!rui:k> n- 
 abusive insoh nee ; nor is it 
 quarrelling ; nor is i ; nor is it 
 
 .- is it all thi se in combination* 
 or "mutinous 
 eon Utct" to he taken for the more substantive 
 and precise crime, as is accurately observed in 
 idmirahle treatise of Capt. Wm. Hough 
 on the practici of Courts Martial. The defi- 
 nition i f perhaps the ablest writer upon tho 
 subject, Capt. Thos F. Simmons, meets at once 
 thecompreh nsion of ei ry discerning mind, 
 and conveys a distin c : — Mutiny 
 
 he, •• is individually f fen . 
 
 _ military 
 ■ I or 
 
 inrrs of ii uiiiitiiri/ natuT 
 and '« it m ' by words 
 
 alom . except in eonni < 
 
 with fat words againtt 
 
 mutiny. 11 
 how aggi n be 
 
 . , which does Dot satisfy 
 this • i : — it must be g hij 
 
 ' - 'ng military 
 
 . "' It will strike every member of 
 this Court, nge and confound 
 
 Bcale of punishments, as cutting every 
 il liu iy adrift, and as setting the whole 
 classification of offences afloat without com- 
 pass, chart, or soundings, if ev< ry improper 
 or wanton misbehaviour can be exaggerated 
 beyond its real character. 
 
 When, according to < 'apt. Simmons, "traitor- 
 ous v insl his majesty," uttered from 
 the ranks of a British army, or by the crew of 
 a are not mutiny — when mere 
 words are incompetent to establish that crime, 
 is it notexacting rather beyond what is reason- 
 able from you to expect, that you will give more 
 
12 
 
 potent efficacy to vapid and absurd epithets 
 muttered against Lieut. Bullus by men in irons 
 or in liquor 1 
 
 Strange mutiny, this, gentlemen ! which is 
 unaccompanied by forcible resistance ; whose 
 only clamor is dissension and quarrel among 
 the mutineers themselves; whose single weap- 
 on is a wash-bucket, and whose chief victim is 
 a pugnacious black; which is without any aim, 
 without any concert, without any pretension : 
 amidst which the commodore, the captain, the 
 lieutenants, the midshipmen, and even the sur- 
 geons are bustling and busy, unharmed, unas- 
 sailed, unresisted : which opens with an ine- 
 briated row, dwindles to an inebriated " sky 
 larking,'''' and closes in the profound silence of 
 an inebriated sleep ! 
 
 And let me ask, whence sprung the drunken 
 disorder and how was it quelled ] 
 
 Prior to the return of the men who had been 
 engaged in landing the animals neat Hampton, 
 not a symptom of turbulence or riot was exhi- 
 bited. Commander Boraem brings down to 
 its realities the exaggerated and contradictory 
 statements of others, in relation to that part of 
 the crew who, on the day of anchoring, and 
 immediately after dinner, were anxious to as- 
 certain when the vessel would proceed to Nor- 
 folk, and he states without hesitation or quali- 
 fication,'that their number did not exceed fif- 
 teen, that their deportment was perfectly res- 
 pectful and proper, and that when he answered 
 them, they retired contentedly and tranquilly. 
 At every repetition, or cross-examination, each 
 witness harmoniously replied that the great 
 origin of all the confusion which prevailed dur- 
 ing the afternoon Fand evening, was; the 
 liquor obtained on shore and brought to the 
 ship. It is suggested, if it be not expressly 
 averred in the specification, that had the frigate 
 gone directly up to her port of destination, in- 
 stead of coining to anchor in the Roads, no 
 disorder would have occurred. This may be 
 true,but can scarcely be considered very logical, 
 if it be stated as an argument to show that the 
 disorder is attributable as a consequence to our 
 anchoring. It was neither a natural necessity 
 nor presumable effect of such a cause. The 
 detention was unavoidable — it was known to 
 be unavoidable as soon as we took our pilot off 
 Cape Henry Light. To him the exact state of 
 the tide and the position of the bar were fami- 
 liar. Some of my youthful accusers have in- 
 deed ventured bravely on the opinion, that the 
 wind and current being inward our stopping 
 was not essential ; this is but a shoot from the 
 same stock of heroism which disdains either 
 prudence or patience, and I trust they may live 
 
 to be old enough and cool enough to take coun- 
 sel from their pilot, to endure the safety he pro- 
 motes, and not rush with superiluous valor in- 
 to the perils of shoals and flats. But indepen- 
 dent of the actual necessity for coming to an- 
 chor, the commander of the Constitution might 
 for many reasons, deem it expedient. I believe 
 it to be no uncommon trait in the character of 
 my brother officers, that they feel a generous 
 and manly pride in the appearance of their 
 ships in entering harbor, in the neatness and 
 freshness of their equipments, and in the ab- 
 sence of all the disfigurations which every 
 voyage more or less produces ; nor am I aware 
 that this sentiment has ever been or ever will 
 be discouraged by their country or its rulers. 
 Although authorized te bring with me the ani- 
 mals on board and sedulous in maintaining 
 their cleanliness, I must own having felt -an ea- 
 ger wish to divest the deck of the Constitution 
 of their encumbrance before reaching Norfolk, 
 and I availed myself as promptly as possible 
 of the delay before Hampton which the state of 
 the tide enforced. 
 
 And now I ask any candid and honorable 
 man to say whether, from the established cha- 
 racter and conduct of my officers and men, or 
 from the known habits of the Naval service of 
 the United States, I could and ought to have 
 foreseen, as a natural result of the landing of 
 these animals, when and where I did, that in- 
 toxication, riot, and insubordination, would, 
 for the first time, disgrace the ship"? Whence 
 was Ijustified in deducing an apprehension so 
 unfounded on any thing which a long cruize 
 had displayed] Why was I to suspect that 
 the midshipman or the boatswain would be 
 unwisely selected'? that supervision and con- 
 trol would be relaxed by those whose duty it 
 was to exert them, and who had never before 
 failed to exert them] That seamen heretofore 
 steady and true to discipline, should suddenly 
 abandon themselves to licentious misrule] Sure- 
 ly it cannot be meant to insist that I had no right 
 to direct the landing of the animals at all; and 
 yet if I had that right, clearly and incontesti- 
 bly, and no natural cause existed for misgiving, 
 is it not somewhat oppressive that the gist of 
 the laboured and highly wrought specification 
 numbered twelve, of charge the eighth, is my 
 "having occasioned" all the disorder there evi- 
 dently pourtrayed, " by employing the crew 
 and boats" in the exercise of that right] Let 
 us be wary, gentlemen, aye, so wary as to be 
 motionless and still — let us forbear the use of 
 any privilege, the exercise of any authority, no 
 matter how auspicious the appearances of 
 things, lest some unseen and unknown subor- 
 
13 
 
 dinate, at the farthest remove inthe graduated 
 scale of military organization, should prove 
 faithless to his duty, and involve us alike in 
 his vices and his inlM-hiei's. 
 
 It is here that I am hound, professionally 
 bound, unyieldingly to withstand what appears 
 to me an equally disloyal and desperate effort 
 
 save mc harmless were my assumption much 
 broadert hut 1 am not willing to see the barriers 
 ;md avenues which mark the lines and limits of 
 naval discipline entirely prostrated or defaced. 
 That I commanded the American squadron 
 in the Mediterranean Sea; that 1 hoisted my 
 broad pendant on board the ( 'onstitution by the 
 
 to confound all gradations of rank and all dis- special instructions of the S. cretary of the N;i- 
 tinctiona of responsibility. In reference to an vy, dated the 8th of luguat, 1 B35, and con- 
 order given, for what, as the naval ohief, am I formably to the twenty-third chapter of the rules 
 aaawerablel Certainly for its lawfulness, its regulating the civil administration of the Navy, 
 lienoy, its prudence — but never f r the to which he particularly referred; that while on 
 manner of its execution; that lies tir-t with thai foreign station [ appointed Commander 
 him to whom the order is delivered, is then William Boraem the Flag Captain of my ship, 
 
 transferred from one recipient to the ni 
 
 so step by 81 p, until it finally reaches and I 
 
 on the 1st of December, 1836, blytothe 
 
 thirty-sevi ntb chapter of said rules; that tin 
 
 with him whose eye raosl see or whose hand pointmentwas immediately c mmunieated to, 
 niii-t enforce its fulfilment; When I instruct- and subsequently on the 93d day of February, 
 ed Captain Boraem in general words t > r.m -e l>.'!7, acknowledged and ratified by the ( 'hief 
 the animals to he landed, it In came hisduly ot the Department; thai every coromunii 
 either to superintend and direct the operation I addressed to the government, and everj 
 himself, or to assiga that duty to Lieut. Bui- 1 1 received from it. d nised 
 
 his, or to some other officer, by whom again! my position as commander of the squadron; 
 
 some inferior might he invoked to take its 
 charge, and on which last agent should he duly 
 and regularly thrown the responsibility for 
 the safety, sobriety, and return of the boats 
 and men. Upon any other rule of action, no 
 commander is safe who does not personally 
 follow the order he issues from his own lips or 
 pen, through every channel of conveyance, pre- 
 serving it from corruption or change at each 
 advance, and witnessing its consummation; 
 and as a strict corollary, justice and security 
 would require that at a given moment the num- 
 ber sf command) r> should he precisely equal 
 to the number of orders then to be executed. 
 It does not become me, in this presence, to ex- 
 tend this view, by argument or illustration — its 
 intimation even was perhaps unnecessary. And 
 yet, plain and primary as it is, how completely 
 and perseveringly isitoverlooked orrepudiated, 
 when not merely the acts and omissions of 
 Captain Boraem and of Lieut. Bullus, in their 
 respective spheres of duty, hut those of mid- 
 shipmen or boatswains, with all their conse- 
 quences, are formally accumulated at my door? 
 If, indeed, as he more than hinted, 1 exonera- 
 ted Captain Boraem* in a private conversation, 
 from the responsibilities of his executive post, 
 is it to be understood that a similar derogatory, 
 arrangemenl relieved every one else under my 
 command, and that all were freed by my large 
 and undiscriminating readiness to answer for 
 all things, to do or not to do with impunity! 
 Gentlemen, I am content to hear, nay, I claim 
 to bear the burden rightfully annexed to mv 
 ank and station; the facts in evidence would 
 
 and that every document! report, account, let- 
 ter, or order, connected with the discharj 
 
 my military duties, emanating from any quar- 
 ter, so delineated me, are facts so indisputably 
 and glaringly proved by the original papers 
 themselves on your record, that I must confess 
 my utter amazement at having witnessed the 
 introduction of a single piece of testimony by 
 the judge advocate as rebutting all this, by 
 showing that I was originally, on the 88th l'i !>- 
 ruary, 1835, ordered to take command of the 
 frigate Constitution only! Whence has come 
 this order of the 28th February, 1835, and 
 wherefore is it adduced] The question is a 
 pregnant one, and I must be pardoned for car- 
 rying it out. It is drawn from the files of the 
 Navy Department, and it is laid before this 
 Court as evidence of the restricted nature ef 
 my command. When offered by the Judge 
 Advocate, it will be recollected that through 
 my counsel I enquired the object for which it 
 was offered, and was candidly answered as I 
 have mentioned. Indeed, it could have no 
 other possible application to the case. 
 
 See, tin ii, Mr. President, in this striking in- 
 stance, a melancholy illustration of the man- 
 ner in w bioh I am treated ! This solitary short 
 letter is detached from a long series of official 
 correspondence, addressed to me by the same 
 Secretary of the Navy — it imports that my 
 command was confined to one vessel only, and 
 the proof of that fact being deemed essential 
 to my overthrow before the Court, it is for that 
 purpose adduced; and yet, Sir, on the very pilo 
 whence this has been torn, so near that careless- 
 
14 
 
 ness itself could not fail to find it, must be, aye, 
 must be, the order penned by Secretary Dick- 
 erson, on the 8th of August, 1835, only six 
 months subsequently, the original of which I 
 was fortunate enough to have at hand and to 
 place on your table, directing me to proceed 
 il to the Mediterranean and relieve Commodore 
 Patterson in the command of the United States 
 squadron on that s/ah'on." 
 
 I know not, gentlemen, whether this be a re- 
 sult of accident or design; it might in eitheras- 
 pect have proved fatal to me. Nor do I feel soli- 
 citous to know how or from whom this mutila- 
 ted and deceptive piece of rehutting^evidence 
 was obtained and forwarded for use here. Of 
 one thing I am quite sure, that it has failed to 
 establish, even formally, as fact, that which 
 every one of you, every one of my accusers, 
 and every man, woman, and child in this na- 
 tion, knows to be utterly and absolutely false. 
 If that fragment of official record was read to es- 
 tablish that I was not commander of the Ameri- 
 can squadron in the Mediterranean, but merely 
 of a single frigate, it is impossible to exagger- 
 ate the delusion under which the American 
 government, the American navy, the American 
 people, and all with whom I had intercouse, 
 personal or official, during my cruize, laboured 
 and continued to labour. 
 
 That order of the 28th February, 1835, is 
 the wretched shift of a desperate pretension, 
 that being no more than the Captain of the 
 Constitution myself, I was not entitled to a 
 Flag Captain, and that therefore Commander 
 Boraem would not be invested by me with the 
 responsibilities and rights to which I called 
 him. Failing the competency of that order 
 thus to narrow my command, the conclusion is 
 inevitable, namely, that Captain Boraem's ap- 
 pointment, known to and acquiesced in by the 
 Secretary of the Navy, devolved on him the 
 very executive duties which these specifications 
 charge me with neglecting. The distinction be- 
 tween the duties of one who is " commander 
 of a squadron,'''' and of one who is merely 
 " a Captain or Commander" of a single vessel, 
 is broad in principle and express in enactment. 
 It is made in the rules and regulations present- 
 ed for our service, which we cannot have the 
 inclination,as we certainly have not the power 
 to dissolve our disregard ; agreeably to these, 
 Capt. Boraem was,?n their very terms* "respon- 
 siblefor the whole conduct and good government 
 of the ship, and for the due execution of all rules 
 and regulations which concern the several duties 
 of officers and company of the ship, and who are 
 to obey him in all things which he shall direct 
 them for the service of ihv United Stales." 
 
 When a staid and intelligent tribunal like this 
 shall resolve to nullify the positive provisions 
 of the law, to relieve a flag Captain from the 
 very responsibilities which that law imposes, 
 and to hold another answerable, whom the 
 same law, for enlarged and comprehensive pur- 
 poses, has expressly relieved; when, in fact, 
 such a tribunal shall claim to be above and 
 indifferent to the written and unequivocal rules 
 of its government, to the salutary usages and 
 principles of the navy — then, but not till then, 
 will I expect to see overthrown, as useless or 
 mischievous, the settled, legal, safe, conve- 
 nient, just and wise system of graduated 
 accountability under which we have so long 
 flourished. 
 
 The disturbances at Hampton were, in a 
 measure imputable to a practical evil which 
 almost every experienced officer in the navy 
 has at one time or other encountered. I mean 
 the expiration of the seamen's coniracts of 
 service before the voyage is completed — their 
 resolute claim to be at once exempted from 
 duty and discipline, their demand to be dis- 
 charged as soon as the anchor is down, and 
 the universally prevailing opinion that, except 
 on occasions of imminent peril or absolute ne- 
 cessity, their services cannot be compelled or 
 retained. The occurrence with Commodore 
 Isaac Hull, when just arrived off New York 
 with the United States, in 1827, is one of the 
 very many illustrations that might be made, 
 The Court will recollect that Captain James 
 Armstrong delineated the scene briefly but 
 strikingly. All hands were piped to dinner; 
 in fifteen minutes after three cheers resounded 
 from the deck — the officers hurried forth to 
 ascertain the cause, and found the crew collect- 
 ed in a body — Commodore Hull, at a glance, 
 understood the proceeding and immediately 
 authorized Captain Armstrong to permit one 
 hundred men to go ashore at a time: — No! no! 
 was their exclamation; " that wont do, Commo- 
 dore'? our times are out, we have faithfully 
 done our duty, we are free men, and we want 
 to go." "What was the reply of the able and 
 gallant hero, who tore our first trophy from 
 the maritime prowess of Great Britain"? Did 
 he marshal his marines, assert his authority, 
 enforce obedience] Did he resolve to drench 
 his deck with the blood of the mutineers'? Not 
 he! but turning indignantly round, he bade 
 them to " clear out then," and in twenty 
 minutes every soul was gone. 
 
 This subject, always a delicate and impractica- 
 ble one, had engaged my attention while at Mahon. 
 v The letters, addressed to me by the Honorable the 
 Secretary of the Navy, several. months before I sail- 
 
15 
 
 ed homeward*, and dated the 1st of Jannary, and 
 15th of April, 1838, which have be d laid before 
 you, attest nay si dm of its real embarrassments. 
 Lieut. Hardy of the Marines has told you of the 
 consultation held with myoffic r s in relation to it, ' 
 and of tli • enochaaione i> which we wi 
 by our united reflections. In order to preserve nay 
 valuable orew, I was at one time obliged to relui 
 from the ordinary language of shipping articles 
 respecting the moment at winch the voyage should 
 mod at an end and themselves at liberl 
 i. | dn nol »io with any 
 
 pie isure; th rery naval 
 
 if why its peculiarities Bhould be loach 
 light! . found in th 
 
 difficulty of harm lemyet undegra- 
 
 ded by impres 
 
 with the rights and freedom of its agents. 
 Act of Congress pi sed on the 2d day of March 
 1837, with whose provisions I v. miliar, 
 
 while thai our n itional legislators arc 
 
 alive to this in lit r and p 
 provide a rem< dy, al i ircura ipec 
 
 t ion, how very limited and doubtful is the extent 
 to which they nan constitutional j go. Foi my 
 own part, gentlemen, J fi It al II impton Roai 
 being remindi d I of the men I 
 
 tim< pretty much > lodore Hull 
 
 did at New ¥ork, aud henci 1 si inxious that 
 pilot boats should be obtained by means of Lieut. 
 Drayton,and th renas early as possible to 
 
 carry off the dissatisfii il. 
 
 1 I took no measures to re- 
 
 press the miscondui I 
 
 provi i, evi a i'i its narrowest import, from th 
 of my accusers 1 . Constantly on deck, re- 
 
 pelling \n iros or words the absui 
 
 of tome, bringing tee and irons the per- 
 
 versities a iiorting and tranquilizi 
 
 the foreca ille, encouraging and n li( ving thi 
 and fatig lea of my first Ii' utenant, and only 
 retiring to my cabin aft r having gone thn 
 
 out a silent and slumbering ship, and alter re- 
 
 i»g from Cap la in Bo he himself 
 
 lias frankly testified, the report, at eleven al 
 
 night, that all was well, I know not upon 
 
 what basis of tact it ran be pretended thai I 
 
 was backward or inactive. Pardon me, gt u- 
 
 tlemen, 1 do know — ii is that I pursued the dii 
 
 of an un I 
 
 vindicl 
 
 the lives of men, inst 
 
 forbo 
 
 longer sul nand — in fine it is that 
 
 the noble < suppress a fan- 
 
 of ii maddened into battle . 
 
 1 will add nothing more as to this alledged mutiny 
 except and my Count 
 
 painful and perplexing as th 
 
 for tumult was, I I ; view which 
 
 my memory can 
 
 in reference to my own conduct, without an error 
 to regret, or a fci lin ; to< ondi inn. 
 3. THE CR1 ■ r OF SILVER 
 
 PLATE. 
 Under this head my remarks will apply, witnout 
 
 more detailed analysis to tkt 1 ft 2d 3d and 4th 
 
 ' Third — and the 4th 
 
 6thGth and 7th Specifications ol ' Eighth. 
 
 nmandcr William Boraem on the 8th of 
 
 January 1" l! ian tiiree years and five 
 
 months ago, addrewod to me a letter saying "a 
 
 S.///I oj hat been plated in the ran 
 
 [th and myself by the Crtw, with thr. 
 with //mi we thould purchase a Service oj t'lnte 
 aresentsdlo you at a testimony of <*asi "-- 
 pert. The amount received hat been expended in 
 lance with that with ; and I S n the 
 
 name of the Crew, solicit t/o ■' the 
 
 accom wh I um ha 
 
 \ . . , and pined with it 
 
 lion wen: four pi r,-two tun 
 
 8 pitcher, and o waiter, — on each of which • 
 rod the following »i npli in i ription "l'i 
 
 ! /'. Ellu 
 ot of the United States Navy, by the ' the 
 
 Constitution. " 
 
 Although al this time, and 
 
 m,a he has himself explicit!] 
 living with me in the cabin on terms of 
 i J intercourse, and although und- 
 er such ci 1 might well imagine that 
 colloquial and friendly consultations in relati 
 a matter bo purely personal i ist, not be 
 , that the acceptance of 
 what he then declared himself "happy in being 
 ?iii (Hum of presenting" connected with a 
 short conversations which preceded as well the 
 
 der asthi ptance, constitute the sole ground on 
 
 this Bubjecl for theehar ndalout con ud 
 
 I r in,' i. -' i union of L r »i,/ muni's" and of 
 
 ecoming and unofficerlike conduct" It is 
 
 that < pi in Boraom or Lieut. 
 
 In interviews on this delicate trat 
 
 lion, utterly unconnected with their official duties, 
 
 in order to draw from me some unrt fleeting 
 
 phrase which might be caught up and treasured 
 
 tbr future i. . 
 
 Utit it to feel and know that, not- 
 
 withstanding my open and confiding franki 
 not a won! or an act 
 
 id with the it BS natural to honorable 
 
 ured to indul 
 
 ily bring 
 i my motives or my sentimi nl 
 ■ ■ 
 nf the ci I .lis, and this al me, is 
 
 iin il. 1 took fn m tl ' an offi- 
 
 cer high in rank, and from a man enjoying my un- 
 limited pers nial confidem 
 
 ■ r, bul on the eontrai 
 happy in being made the medium of pretenting." 
 I took il ,! "i :i "d by simply 
 
 . 1 have Subjected myself to arraignment 
 and In il! 
 
 filar transactions are constantly taking 
 place in i very country; a 
 nal appears th i mani» 
 
 tutu 1 kindn 
 1 am bound to suppose I 
 
 re must 
 in it, whioh give to 
 what is otherwise an ord: 
 
16 
 
 a totally opposite character. What these poi- 
 sonous ingredients were, I liave not been told, and 
 am left to conjecture as well as I may. Had the 
 accusation specified the noxious particulars, and 
 enabled me to turn at once to the pith and mar- 
 row of the supposed offence, much trouble would 
 have been spared and more justice done me. As 
 it is, the Court must pardon me while I attempt to 
 analyze in order to repel a charge so vague and 
 indefinite. 
 
 I do not know that it has ever been clearly set- 
 tled how far the administration of military law can 
 penetrate into the social relations and strictly in- 
 dividual actions of military men. There are, we all 
 feel, certain spheres within which we claim to 
 act as we please, with absolute independence, 
 unchecked but by our own sense of right. These 
 are spheres as to which no uniform rule can be 
 assigned, which do not involve illegality, vice, or 
 dishonor and which every gentleman, with every 
 shade of opinion and every variety of taste, must 
 regulate exclusively for himself. They are be- 
 yond and above civil regulation, and cannot well 
 be subjected to martial authority. Would it not be 
 deemed strange, if the Chief of the Naval Depart- 
 ment, happening to be a zealous champion of what 
 is known as the Temperance Cause should, in the 
 sincere spirit of amendment and reform, convoke 
 Courts to determine whether this or that officer 
 were not guilty of "scandalous conduct tending to 
 the destruction of good morals" by non-adhesion to 
 a pledge of total abstinence? Would it not be 
 deemed equally strange, if another Chief, animated 
 by a truly chivalrous spirit, should resolve to en- 
 force, through the agency of the same tribunals, 
 his code of minor morals, his principles of polite- 
 ness, and his conceptions of true courtesy? Or, 
 suppose, in the progress of intolerant perfection, 
 that it should be esteemed evidence of the "u,nbe. 
 coming and unofficerlike" to keep such or such 
 company, to form such or such intimacies, to ac- 
 knowledge such or such friendships? These are 
 questions which admit of only one series of an- 
 swers; the courses suggested would be pronounced 
 wrong, because invasive of essential and inviola- 
 ble rights. And yet are they not directly illustra- 
 tive of the case before you? Who is to teach me 
 which of my fellow beings I ought and which I 
 ought not to respect and love? Who is to teach 
 me to discriminate between the heartfelt offering 
 of the grateful tar and the glittering gift of a Pe- 
 ruvian Vice King; to reject the former as deroga- 
 tary, to accept the latter as ennobling? By what 
 compulsion am I to be instructed in the exalted 
 and mysterious delicacies of refinement which cling 
 to those who are above, and spurn those who arc 
 below? The lesson, gentlemen, however, valuable, 
 would be too dearly bought if its principle subject 
 us all, in our private relations and our moral sen- 
 timents, to perpetual question and controul. Our 
 service, instead of the gallant and generous one it 
 is, would degenerate into a corps of mutual spies, 
 and the bravest and the best would in succession 
 sink under some charge of eccentric or heedless 
 deportment, of coarse taste, or speculative error. 
 
 Is there anything in the relation that subsisted 
 between myself and the crew of the Constitution, 
 which forbade the acceptance of their present? It 
 is a serious mistake to reason and judge upon this 
 topic, with the supposition that Ameiican seamen 
 
 are personally dependent on their officers. They 
 arc not so! Their contracts, their pay, their pro* 
 tection, their discipline, and their duty are well de- 
 fined and certainly guaranteed by the laws. 
 They may be and doubtless are sometimes treat- 
 ed with capricious harshness, and sometimes cheat- 
 ed by mercenary frauds; and so are the operat.ive- 
 of every sort, on shore as at sea; but while faithful 
 ly fulfilling the stipulations of their enlistments, 
 competent to their tasks, and obedient to orders, 
 they need fear the frown or court the favor of no 
 one. 
 
 Subordination and subserviency are never to be 
 confounded; the former leaves to the humblest his 
 independence of private action and thought, the 
 latter takes it from the highest 
 
 It has fortunately been in my power conclusive, 
 ly to prove the motive which prompted the proceed- 
 ings on the part of the crew. Several of them now 
 industrious and successful mechanics, wholly un- 
 connected with myself or the Navy, have, with 
 great precision and intelligence, detailed to this 
 Court its origin and design. Springing from a 
 manly abhorrence of calumny, its impulse was not 
 flattering or fawning, but merely vindication and 
 justice. It was to disprove a base denunciation 
 that they moved, who of all human beings, were the 
 best judges of its truth or falsehood. Had the 
 libel not reached them through the merchant ves- 
 sels at Mahon, had they not seen mc, in the col- 
 umns of a paper pourtrayed as a black-hearted 
 and malicious sea tyrant, they would probably 
 never have perceived an adequate object for their 
 testimonial. And let me frankly acknowledge, 
 that when, at the lapse of some weeks, after endu- 
 ring the pain and mortification which a sense of 
 unmerited obloquy creates, I first heard of the spon- 
 taneous movement among the generous tars, I felt 
 the consoling force of such a refutation too deeply 
 not to give it a grateful welcome. 
 
 The manner in which this business is elabora- 
 ted through several accessorial specifications, its 
 inherent delicacy, and its liability to be misrepre- 
 sented by gossiping insinuations, demand from me 
 more atteution than the evidence on which it has 
 been constructed would otherwise warrant. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the Judge Advocate 
 produced but four witnesses from whom the slight- 
 est elucidation of the matter was elicited; Purser 
 Hambleton, Lieutenant Bullus, Captain Boraem, 
 and Mr. J. P. Hutchinson, American Consul at 
 Lisbon, the last gentleman having been subpoenaed 
 by myself. The evidence of Purser Hambleton 
 was altogether formal, tending only to establish 
 the authenticity of the subscription papers, upon 
 which he had paid to Captain Boraem the sum of 
 $584.50. The evidence of Mr- Hutchinson, gave 
 as to every material feature a distinct and triumph- 
 ant explanation of my conduct. So that the only 
 accusatory testimony, and that when stripped of its 
 vague and unfounded implications essentially un- 
 important, is deduced from Captain Boraem and 
 Lieutenant Bullus. I cannot help considering it 
 as singular that, reposing upon the mere light 
 presumptions to be wrung from tho statements of 
 these two, the organ of the Government was never 
 directed to resort for positive facts and unimpeach- 
 able developments to the hundred other resources 
 accessible to his summons. 
 
 As early as the 14th of December 1836, a nura- 
 
17 
 
 ber of the crew of ihe Constitution, while she was 1 ) 
 yet at anchor before Mahon, addressed a letter to 
 Captain Boraem and Lieutenant Uollus, stating 
 that they had resolved to present me a service of 
 plate, that in order to do so, they had collected 
 among: themselves a sum of money, and that they 
 wished these two gentlemen to make the purchase 
 and execute the purpose in their name. The of- 
 fice was assumed without the least hesitation : — 
 and as soon as an opportunity occurred, by our ar- 
 rival off Lisbon on the 4th January 1837, my two 
 friends entered upon its discharge. Until this 
 period, the proof is uniform and incontestible that 
 I was neither conversed with, nor consuled upon 
 the subject, and took no part or lot, directly or in- 
 directly, in the proceeding. 
 
 Captain Boraem and Lieutenant Bullus landed 
 with the known intention ol selecting or ordering a 
 suitable service of plate : and repaired at once for 
 advice and aid to a gentleman, equally upright, ex- 
 perienced and honorable. Mr. Hutchinson, who 
 has represented his country and protected its Com- 
 mercial interests at the capital of Portugal for 
 near thirty years, accompanied them promptly to 
 the storo of the artisan, and kindly intimated his 
 impressions in order to guide their choice. It was 
 impossible exactly to accommodate the prices ask- 
 ed for any preferred pieces of the silver to the 
 amount confided by the Crew to their manage- 
 ment, and Mr. Hutchinson first and frankly sug- 
 gested to Captain Boraem the propriety of speak- 
 ing to m« on the subject, with a view to ascertain 
 whether the design of the Crew might not be exe- 
 cuted conjointly with a purchase by myself, so as 
 to accomplish both more handsomely and usefully. 
 Captain Boraem deemed tho topic one on which I 
 could not be consulted with delicacy : but Mr. 
 Hutchinson thought differently, and volunteered to 
 see me. The Court will recollect how frequently 
 this gentleman repeated that I was reluctant to soy 
 or to do any thing about it: — that I insisted upon 
 considering it a matter to be arranged exclusively 
 between the Crew and their special agents ; and 
 that I finally yielded only after remonstrances and 
 representations which seemed to give to my scru- 
 pulous abstinance an air of mawkish and affected 
 modesty. 
 
 Desirous of buying, as in fact I did buy on my 
 own account and with my own means, for use in my 
 Cabin, twice the quantity of plate thai could possibly 
 have been obtained to effectuate the aim of the 
 crew, I went with Mr. Hutchinson, at his ear- 
 nest request, to Lisbon, and as he has positively 
 and accurately represented, I agreed to the plan he 
 himself devised and urged relative to the intended 
 present. Not one more word passed — not another 
 step of any kind was taken in which I participated. 
 The four pieces of plate, marked with the inscrip- 
 tion, left by the workman for a day at the house of 
 our Consul, were brought on board the Ship, plac- 
 ed upon the berth deck for inspection by tho Crew, 
 who examined them with unabated kindness of 
 feeling towards myself, and were then transferred 
 to my apartment, with the complimentary letter I 
 have cited, by Captain Boraem. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true — the fact was perfectly 
 known to every one of tho gentlemen who took 
 
 the least concern in tho transaction ; to no one bet- 
 ter than to Captain Boraem — that I had been per- 
 suaded by Mr. Hutchinson to defray from my own 
 purse whatever might be life difference between the 
 cost of the selected articles, and the sum appropria- 
 ted by the Crew, and as soon as the bill for these 
 four pieces, thus engraved, thus adopted, thus pre- 
 sented, and thus accepted, was handed in, its ag- 
 gregate was, without any discrimination whatever, 
 first paid by Captain Boraem to Mr. Hutchinson, 
 and then by Mr, Hutchinson to the manufacturer. 
 
 It has never occurred to me, until this accusa- 
 tion was shaped into form, that the appreciation of 
 a complimentary testimonial could be gradua'ed by 
 its uses, its expensiveneas, or ihe number of its 
 parts. The sword, Mr. President, which at the 
 opening of this trial, I deposited in your hands, 
 would not be less cherished were it, scabbard and 
 all, of rusty old iron, nor more, were it studded with 
 brilliant?, and perhaps I may be pardoned, at this 
 moment, for adding lhat the single medal conferred 
 upon me in 1814, by the representaiives of my 
 country, is just as inestimable to me a9 if it had 
 been accompanied by a hundred counter parts. I 
 speak to men whom I know to be capablo of un- 
 derstanding this: — to whom the sole value of such 
 a gift is in the sentiment it betokens and perpetu- 
 ates. Captain Gallagher, of the Vandalia. who 
 received in 1830 from Purser Barry the amount 
 subscribed by his ciew with which he might pur- 
 chase on his arrival in the United Stales, the me- 
 morial of their affection and respect, expended the 
 sum upon a single vase : — while the same flatter- 
 ing feelings were manifested in 1823 towards Cap- 
 tain Kobert T. Spence, of the Cyane, in the desig- 
 nation, as with me, of a sett or service of plate. 
 The compliment can hardly be considered greater 
 in the one case than in the other: — and I am quite 
 sure that to neither of these distinguished officers 
 could it make one particle of difference whether 
 the esteem indicated were attested by one or a do- 
 zen pieces. When Commodore McDonough, the 
 good, the gallant, and the glorious McDonougn, 
 permitted in 1819 the crew of the Guerriere te 
 fasten lo his side a sword to remind him of their 
 devotion, do you suppose that he paused one in- 
 stant to count its cost, or to scrutinize its orna- 
 ment ! And when Lieutenant Commandant Ken- 
 non, of the Peacock in 1C26, or Lieutenant McKin- 
 ney, of the U. States, in 1834, were similarly grac- 
 ed, I cannot presume that because lower in tho^ 
 scalo of rank, they entertained a single sentiment 
 less elevated and pure. Why then, Gentlemen, 
 should it be imagined that any other cause than 
 accident or misconception added to the two tureens 
 believed to have been especially chosen by Mr. 
 Hutchinson and Captain Boraem on behalf of 
 the crew, the pitcher and waiter 1 Assuredly 
 their presence, in no conceivable respect, augment- 
 ed the real warmth or worth of the generous trib- 
 ute ! Most assuredly, the plain and unostenta- 
 tious inscription conveyod as cheering a recol- 
 lection when indelibly alfixed but once, as if it 
 had undergone a thousand repetitions. 
 
 If, indeed, it were not in the contemplation, at 
 the lime, of Mr. Hutchinson or Captain Boraem.to 
 cmbraco the pitcher and the waiter as part of the 
 
JLO 
 
 crew's present, why were they sent unitedly 
 with the two tureens to the Consular residence 1 ? — 
 why were they sent there, as has been unequivo- 
 cally proved, with the inscription already upon 
 them? why were they thence, in the same associa- 
 tion, transferred to the deck of the Constitution, 
 and submitted to the gaze of the crew? Why, then, 
 and stdl thus, under the orders and eyes of Captain 
 Boraem himself, were they covered by his letter of 
 presentation? And why, after the whole transac- 
 tion had for some days been completed, was the 
 manufacturer's bill, coupling them with the tureens 
 and confined exclusively to those four piece?, al- 
 though I had myself bought several more, paid un- 
 distinguishingly in one round sum 1 With all this, 
 I had absolutely nothing to do: — it was left entire- 
 ly, and really without a thought, in the hands of 
 others. And permit me. Gentlemen, frankly to a9k 
 how it could possibly happen, unless both Mr- 
 Hutchinson and Captain Boraem were themselves, 
 at the period, under the impression that the pitcher 
 and waiter were intended as accompaniments of 
 the tureens, they could see them pass through all 
 the ceremonial to which I have adverted, and never 
 once, as has been unhesitatingly acknowledged, 
 hint to me in the most distant manner, the exist- 
 ence of some misconception or mistake, if in truth, 
 they deemed such a misconception or mistake wor- 
 thy of notice? Let me not be understood as in the 
 remotest degree doubting or disputing the present 
 impression as to his original intent, expressed by 
 Mr Hutchinson; but of the precise scope of that in^ 
 tent I was not apprized, and without exact know- 
 ledge, or without my attention being drawn to it, 
 the rectification of any inadvertence or error com- 
 mitted by the bilversmith, or any body else, was 
 wholly beyond my power. 
 
 Tt is proper that 1 should remark also, that in 
 preparing the inscription, unambitious and didactic 
 as the phraseology is, I took no part. Mr. Wells, 
 than whom I know no gentleman of purer integri- 
 ty or taste, held the pen, both as to this and the 
 equally unostentatious htter of Captain Boraem. 
 He has unqualifiedly attested the fact of the unas- 
 sisted, unprompted originality of his compositions, 
 and he is too calm and dispassionate a man to trifle 
 at his age with the reputation for unsullied virtue 
 he inherits from his revolutionary grandsire, and has 
 long himself illustrated. When this gentleman em- 
 phatically denied, under oath, that in any thing he 
 had written, or said, or done in respect to the plate, 
 he was urged, or prompted, or authorized by me, 1 
 regarded and still regard, the mere airy presumption 
 arising out of his having held the station of my se- 
 cretary as effectually dispelled. 
 
 I should here close my answer to these more un- 
 generous and unpleasant than important specifica- 
 tions, were I not reminded of two incidents intro- 
 duced by Lieut. Bullus, which are capable of dis- 
 tortion, and ought therefore to be noticed. I refer 
 to the circulation among the crew of a second sub- 
 scription list, and to the brief conversation said to 
 have preceded it in my cabin. 
 
 1. One of the crew who annexed his signature 
 to the second list, Nicholas Mermeir, now pursuing 
 his mechanical occupation, unconnected with, and 
 whoHy independent on tlio naval service,|ia,s staled 
 
 that it originated with the men, and that its object 
 was to make up the deficiency of the first subscrip- 
 tion, caused by the transfer of some who had signed 
 it to other vesselsof the squadron. Mr. Wells,who 
 was presumed in a spirit of morbid suspicion to 
 have started it, and in the same spirit presumed to 
 have been commissioned by his chief, has signally 
 and peremptorily repelled both branches of the im- 
 putation. He has, with a natural indignation de- 
 nied ever to have received authority or direction 
 from me for any such object — ever to have applied 
 for, or ever to have obtained a cent from any of the 
 crew — and declared his preference to quitting the 
 service at any time, rather than undertake a duty so 
 unbecoming in the one to propose, or the other to 
 execute. 
 
 2. Lieut. Bullus alleges that two or three days 
 after he had declined any farther agency about the 
 plate, in the cabin, and in the presence of Mr, 
 Wells, I suggested the idea whether, as the crew 
 might desire to carry out their intention fully, it 
 would not be proper to apprise them that their sub- 
 scription fell short in the price to be paid. Mr. 
 Wells emphatically asserts that he never heard any 
 conversation ol the sort. 
 
 Were I to be placed upon the solemnity of my 
 own oath, I am ready and willing to give it an 
 equally positive denial — not that I can speak with, 
 any recollection of the circumstance at all, but that 
 I know such a suggestion would have been utterly 
 foreign to my feelings and determination. Could 
 it possibly have dropped from my lips, while they 
 were holding no converse with either my head or 
 my heart, I chose for it a strange recipient in the 
 gentleman who had moodily withdrawn from the 
 transaction, leaving it wholly in the hands of Cap- 
 tain Boraem and the Consul! But believed or dis- 
 believed, what weight on be given to an idle and 
 casual expression, withdrawn as soon as uttered, for 
 Lieut. Bullus himself represents that I instantly 
 acceeded to his view of the subject. Had there been 
 horrid guilt in the conception, yet 
 
 Kvil into the mind of God or man 
 
 May come and go, so unapproved and leave 
 
 Wo spot or stun behind ! 
 
 In sober truth, gentlemen, all of these specifica- 
 tions, beyond the simple and acknowledged accept- 
 ance of the present, are a web of subtle suspicions, 
 which can catch no belief from unprejudiced and 
 ingenuous minds. They, and they only, who are 
 already disposed to be entangled in meshes of such 
 wcavings, who are willing to find in the highest 
 ranks of our navy the paltry and debasing motives 
 which would discredit the lowest: — who are eager 
 to distort and discolor every phrase and look, can 
 possibly grasp at th\s"unreal mockery" and hope 
 to "clutch" in its airy nothing, the substantial dis- 
 honor of an American Captain. 
 4. PASSED MIDSHIPMAN CHARLES C. 
 
 BARTON. 
 Under this head, my remarks will apply, without 
 
 more detailed analysis, to the 1st, 2d, and 3d 
 
 specifications of Charge First. 
 
 Nothing more rapidly or more justly exasperates 
 the public mind than a wanton exercise of delegated 
 power, for cruel and oppressive purposes. I should 
 not resnept rj»y countrymen as I do, were they less 
 
19 
 
 apt than they arc to sympathise with the victim of 
 persecution. Their intolerance of all malieiou.*, all 
 unnecessary inhumanity, is the pervading charac- 
 teristic of their history, their institutions, their le- 
 gislaiion, and their hahils. When, therefore, Mr. 
 President, I found, shortly after my return to the 
 United States in 18j8, that a long continued and 
 yet unwearied effort had been made during my ab- 
 8ence, through the public press, by private corres- 
 pondence, and by industrious disseminations from 
 moutu to mouth, to foreatal the truth, to stigmatize 
 me as a tyrant, and to set against me the deep 
 current of universal indignation, by monstrous and 
 redoubling misstatements respecting my treatment 
 of Passed Midshipman Barton, I should have bowed 
 to ths laic thus prepared for me, had I not believed 
 as much in the jusiiee as in the sensibility ol my 
 country. Upon this case, and upon lhat of Lieut. 
 Hunter, pushed wiih an asperity alike indefatigable 
 and bitter, overleaping the boundaries ol military 
 jurisdiction, and entering inio the heats and storm* 
 id unsparing party, I could discern no means ol jus- ' 
 tittcatiou except by soliciting a Court of Inquiry. It ' 
 is hard, gentlemen, very hard, at my time of lile, lo ; 
 bear a reputation lor cruelly. I hoped to disabuse ! 
 my fellow ciizens — to prove to them that I was i 
 not the odious and malignant monster I had been 
 depicted — and if indeed there had been Buffering* ; 
 which awoko a generous sympathy, to point out ' 
 theii rash and real author in the sufferer himself. 
 I have already done so, with a gratil) ing conscious- 
 iii me of complete success, and I will a^ain do so 
 now. 
 
 The incidents on which have been founded the 
 complaints of Passed Midshipman Barton, are re- 
 ferred to the 30th of November, 18Jj, and 5th of 
 January, 1836. At those dates, and between them, 
 Ibe frigate Constitution and the Schooner Shark 
 were trie only vessels of out Mediterranean .^quad- 
 rTm Iving at Smyrna. Portions of the Austrian,' 
 French, British, Russian and Turkish Heels, under | 
 their respective admirals, rode at anchor in the 
 sarue hat Shi r. I had, some weeks before, received 
 from Captain R dgway, in command of the Shirk, 
 a request lo be supplied with additional officers, 
 and. lor reasons which I offered to develop, but which 
 this court excluded as irrelevant, I had transferred 
 Passed Midshipman Barton to that vessel, with di- 
 rections that he should not be permitted to visit tho 
 shore. These orders wero sworn by his superior 
 officers, Captain Kidgway, and Lieut. Totten. to 
 have been communicated t» Mr Barton; how they 
 were obeyed, rather how they wero evaded and 
 violated, cannot lad to be remembered. Un the 
 3d of November, quitting his post as officer of the 
 deck, and affecting to assume a duty assigned to 
 another, he proceeded to shore in the launch, en- 
 countered his antagonist, Passed Mrdshipman 
 Wood, in a duel, and was wounded in the leg, the 
 ball from Mr Wood's pistol fracturing the bone be- 
 low the knee. The fight was public, notoiious, 
 almost ostentatious, in the presence of eight or ten 
 of the boat's crew, and of at least twenty strangers. 
 Assistant Surgeon Woodworth bandaged the limb 
 while yet upon the field, and administering a stim- 
 ulant wished to extract the ball without delay. Mr 
 Barton, however, insisted on being taken in a sail 
 
 boat on board the frigate Constitution, instead of 
 going to the Shark, which he could have reached 
 as readily, and to which ho belonged. I was 
 then absent from my ship. The first leutenant, 
 yielding to the representations of Dr BoyJ, had 
 him hoisted, in a cot, out of his sail boat, on to tho 
 deck of the frigate, ai.d the Surgeon forthwith ex- 
 ercised his skill in operating upon, adjusting, and 
 carefully bandaging the injured limb. After this 
 was completely and satisfactorily done, at the expi- 
 ration ol'about an hou r and a hall from the reception 
 of Passed Midshipman Barton, into the Constitution, 
 I returned on board, and theso events were im- 
 mediately reported to me. I ordered that he should 
 be taken to his own vessel: — Dr Boyd remanslrat- 
 ed on his behalf against the removal; I did not 
 yield to the remonstrance?, but repeating my order, 
 he was taken to the Shark, with every ciicumstanco 
 of care, gentleness and attention which biaunfortu* 
 nate and painful enndi ion required. It is this order 
 for his removal, and this order only, that conslitut 
 es the sum and substance of my alleged cruelly 
 and oppression. Let me, however, divest the case 
 of other matters, apparently only introduced into 
 it as make-weights; and I will then consider the 
 real light in which this order is to bo regarded. 
 
 On reaching his vessel. Pasted Midshipman 
 Barton, in the charge of his fellow officers, and 
 wt h mpdicil attendance, was placed in his own 
 apartment. His wound wa- unquestionably m • 
 and distressing, but from Dr Boyd and l)r Bgbert, 
 he experienced every possible profe sional aid and 
 alleviation : so much so. indeed that in the ah >rt 
 spare of three day*, Dr. 1) lyd, who had to s 1 Tenu- 
 ously opposed his being taken from the C institu- 
 tion, proposed ihsJt he should be oarrjed from tho 
 Shark to the shore; i proposition to .which I gave 
 my readv a-s nt, directing comfortable quarters to 
 be obtained for him, and ordering all the facilities 
 for his conveyance which could suggest lie mselves 
 either to my own mind or that of the physician. 
 His lodging--, selected by others, were reported lo 
 me, and have been provid to you, as in every re- 
 spect unexceptionable; he was visited by his com- 
 panions; he was faithfully nursed; and when at the 
 expiration of about four weeks, tha course of duly 
 required the American ships of war to leave that 
 harbour, on the 5th of January, 1836, ho was in the 
 language of Dr Boyd's letter to his father, Dr Wil- 
 liam P. C. Barton, "dointr well ill every respect" 
 and "left in Smyrna at hie own requssl.'' Before 
 sailing I directed the Purser of the Shark, Mr 
 Fauntleroy to make adequate pecuniary arrange- 
 ments for his maintenance and comfort. That gen- 
 tleman in execution of my orders gave him an ad- 
 vance of three months pay, and addressed a note to 
 Mr David OfBley, then our Consul, engaging to 
 honor his drafts at tho rale of his legal com- 
 pensation, or $75U per annum if he re- 
 mained ill after the first of April following. 
 It is very possible that this note might have been 
 accompanied by mere solemnities of form : — ha I 
 either ihe Purser, or Passed raiJshipman Barton, or 
 any one else deemed it insecure at the time, it could 
 have been moulded to meet all possible contingeu- 
 gences. It was, however, an act of the Purser's 
 own, by which he doubtless conceived himself car- 
 
20 
 
 rying into full effect the purposes I had indicated, I inexplicable cessation of his resources I was never 
 
 giving, in case of necessity, to Passed midshipman 
 Barton, complete command over Ms entire pay. 
 It is worthy of remark that this young gen leman, 
 in the course of his excited testimonv, could not 
 avoid the admission, that had this money arrange- 
 ment been met as it was meant by Purser Fauntle- 
 roy, and understood by himself, it would have been 
 all sufficient. The reason of its failure may now 
 be considered buried in the same grave with one 
 who maintained during a long public service as 
 American Consul at Smyrna, a high and universal 
 ly appreciated character for hospitality, amiability 
 and worth. 
 
 Passed Midshipman Barton remained disabled, 
 and necessarily unhappy at Smyrna, for nearly six 
 months beyond the period to which his pay had 
 been advanced, and the "bill of credit" which Mr. 
 Fauntleroy designed for his permanent relief pro- 
 ved unproductive. During this time I was in 
 active movement with the squadron. Certainly I 
 had hoped from the promising condition of his 
 wound in January, that he might regain the Shark 
 in the course of the Spting, or Summer; and in Au- 
 gust, while writing to Mr David Offljy, the official 
 representative of our government al Smyrna, I ob- 
 served with as much precision as could have cha- 
 racterised a direct order, that, "should Mr. Barton 
 be in a state to join his vessel, he can meet her at 
 Malta early in October." This was immediately 
 and formally communicated to him; but contrary to 
 the suggestion of Mr. Offley, he preferred a direct 
 return to the United States, and embarking on 
 board of a small private schooner in the month of 
 September, reached home belore the year expired, 
 during which his duel had withdrawn him from 
 the duties of the service. 
 
 Unreflecting, unwarrantable, and perverse as his 
 been bis conduct in the unremitting effort to make 
 his commanding officer answerable for pains and 
 privations which were the unavoidable conse- 
 quence of his own wilful disobedience, and which 
 he should have had the manliness to recognise and 
 the fortitude to bear as the very penalties which 
 his spirit braved in the combat with Passed Mid- 
 shipman Wood, I do not think it necessary for 
 my vindication to make one of the very many com- 
 ments that might be made on the inconsistent fol- 
 lies of his deportment at Smyrna and since. Let 
 them be regarded and forgotten as the natural off- 
 shoots of physical suffering and mental anxiety. It 
 can indeed be ascribed to nothing but personal, 
 and I trust transient peculiarities of behaviour and 
 temper, that in a city where Americans have long 
 been favorites, to which our naval and commercial 
 marine is constantly resorting, where the mild and 
 beneficent nature of our government is well under- 
 stood, in which such a man as Mr. David Offley 
 was the guardian, adviser, and friend of every dis- 
 tressed countryman, and especially of Mr, Bar- 
 ton, and where another of our fellow citizens, Mr. 
 Stith, was almost equally distinguished, he should 
 have experienced embarrassment or mortifiation of 
 any kind. Be this, however, as it may, 1 had left 
 him as I supposed, as the Purser supposed, and as 
 he himself supposed, amply provided against the 
 future: — the unforseen, and to me, to this day, 
 
 directly apprised of. The briefest note confided for 
 transmission to Mr. Offley would undoubtedly have 
 soon reached me at one port or another; but that 
 he confesses was not written; and, thus because 
 busily occupied in cruising, attentive to the public 
 objects of my command, and kept totally uninfor- 
 med of the straits into which the private means of 
 Passed Midshipman Barton were unexpectedly 
 thrown, in a distant quarter of the Mediterranean, 
 I am gravely arraigned for barbarous usage and 
 "casting him off" upon the "generosity and char, 
 ity of strangers!" Gentlemen you must excuse 
 me for saying that the accusation has been too 
 clearly disproved to be now esteemed other than 
 preposterous. 
 
 Let ma go back, then, to the only pointt on 
 which the slightest stress can possibly be laid, the 
 mere order that he should be removed from the 
 Constitution to his own vessel, the Shark. 
 
 I shall not pause to press upon the discriminating 
 notice of this Court the elaborated declamation 
 with which the second specification on this subject 
 is ingeniously swollen — it is probably what Dr 
 Woodworth's downright and sterling candor 
 would denominate 'figurative expression:" but, 
 why, except as a rhetorical artifice it is introduced 
 at all, I cannot comprehend. Surely it was un- 
 necessary to blazon the pistol or gun-shot wound, 
 to set forth the slinging in a cot, the array of the 
 surgeon, his operations, and the pain he inflicted 
 — the lowering over the side of the frigate, the 
 hoisting over the side of the schooner, and then 
 lowering down the hatch head foremost, with the 
 accompaniments of excruciating pain, torture, and 
 agony. I neither fractured the tibia transversely 
 nor splintered it into fragments; I knew nothing 
 whatever of the details of the injury, and had strong 
 reason to believe, as a short time proved, that Dr. 
 Boyd's feelings exaggerated the danger; and I took 
 no part in the arrangement or process to effec- 
 tuate the removal, leaving it exclusively to 
 the care and supervision of the medical officers 
 and others by whom it was conducted with 
 acknowledged gentleness and scrupulous kind- 
 ness towards the wounded man. 
 
 We may all imagine the acute pangs of a wound 
 like that given by Passed Midshipman Wood— 
 they are the terrible consequences to which the un- 
 fortunate party in a duel voluntarily exposes him- 
 self — they will extort from the hardiest and stern- 
 est their natural sighs, and groans, and screams — 
 but give them to their true and obvious cause — 
 give them to the fight and the fracture, to the skill 
 of the adversary or the chance? of battle, and do- 
 not, in momentary and unjust irritation, ascribe 
 them to him whose order, whether it were for re- 
 moval from the deck to the steerage of the Consti- 
 tution, or to the steerage of the ehark, must neces- 
 sarily, however brief the space or mild the move- 
 ment, partially disturb and afflict. 
 
 I owe it, gentleman, to myself to say, that had I 
 adopted the alarms of Dr Boyd— had I not put 
 those alarms to a test which they did not stand, 
 and which convinced me that they were in a mea- 
 sure feigned — I might have hesitated about the or- 
 der of removal. Nay, I will go further, and frankly 
 
21 
 
 Ray, that had the gloomy apprehensions of Dr t 
 Boyd been realized in the loss of Passed Midship. I 
 man Barton's limb, I might have lastingly regret- I 
 ted not havitig compromised with my strong sense | 
 of duty, and sacrificed my own judgment to the ( 
 persuasions of others. But when in a few days Dr 
 Boyd himself seemed relieved from all solicitude, 
 and now that we behold this young gentleman in 
 the full possession of his strength, suppleness, and 
 fair proportions, I can feel no other sentiment but 
 that of approving pride in trie recollection of having 
 firmly persevered in doing what my conscience 
 suggestrd to be right. 
 
 It is exceedingly easy to apply, with plausibility 
 to almost any military order, the epithets "cruel" 
 nnd ''oppressive." How many of them would real- 
 ly be so if they did not emanate from the obliga- 
 tions of duty? When, however, their source is tra- 
 ced to that — when individual malice is not merely 
 not affirmed but incontestibly negatived — when 
 the injunctions are plainly and purely acts of offi- 
 cial judgment and responsibility, they should not 
 be calumniated by harsh expletives, no matter how 
 distressing the consequences that flow from them. 
 An order which shortens a seamen's allowance to a 
 miserable pittance — an order which subjects his 
 bare back to the lash of a resolute boatswain's mate; 
 an order which consigns him to hand-cuffs and sol- 
 itude for weeks — an order which sends him amid 
 the terrors of the storm to scrutinize aloft the shiv- 
 ering spars or cracking cordage — an order which 
 compels him to receive silent and motionless, the 
 death-dealing vollies of an approaching enemy, is 
 readily styled cruel and oppressive, and certainly 
 would be so, if uncalled for, wanton and malicious. 
 But he who withholds such orders on their fitting 
 occasions, who shrinks before visionary or sub- 
 santial dangers, and surrenders all power to do 
 good by fearing to do harm, whatever may be his 
 other virtues, had, at least, better for his country 
 and himself, never assume the command of an 
 American frigate. 
 
 It is a matter of perfect notoriety that ever 
 since the memorable and melancholy duel in which 
 l.ieut. Charles G. Hunter, and several other naval 
 ■officers figured in this city, in the year 1831, the 
 government, obeying an overwhelming popular 
 impulse, has sought to discourage the practice. As 
 Commander of ihe Mediterranean Squadron, what- 
 ever might be my personal opinions, I could not 
 be insensible to the strong exhortations I received 
 upon the subject, nor could I fail lo recollect that 
 as the deadliest type of •• quarrelling" it is ex- 
 pressly prohibiied by one of the very articles under 
 the force of whose phraseology I am now myself 
 arraigned. Neither had I been so deaf nor so 
 blind, as not to have heard and seen the deplorable 
 extent to which our character as a civilized people 
 had suffered throughout all Europe, among the 
 bravest and the most chivalrous, owing to the reck- 
 less, causeless, useless, and merciless system by 
 which our controversies of honor were deter- 
 mined. When required to say how Passed Mid- 
 shipman Barton should be treated, I felt the in- 
 fluence of these considerations, and of more than 
 these. He had violated my positive orders; he had 
 abandoned his post of duty; he had conducted his 
 
 duel with flagrant publicity, and he had, without 
 the slightest warrant or necessity, avoided the 
 Shark to which he belonged, to intrude himself 
 ir.to the Constitution signalized by the broad pen- 
 dant of the Comm ander. The eyes of alt 
 the great Euiopean fleots were attracted to my 
 ship. It was impossible not to feel and perceive,, 
 that as the representative chief of our nation in 
 that quarter and at that moment, my conduct was 
 lo attest the moral sentiment of the American 
 people, the efficiency of their laws, and the disci- 
 pline of their navy. These are objects with which 
 peared not trifle, for which I have long risked and- 
 am yet ready to sacrifice my life, and to up- 
 hold which, at every hazard, the Commander who* 
 falters is recreant lo his highest and most sacred 
 trusts. 
 
 There was a time — I advert to it for illustration, 
 not for presumptuous comparison — when the best 
 man, take him for all in all, that has adorned the 
 annals of humanity, was branded with the charge 
 of cruelty — when the British press, in its count- 
 less forms and ceaseless marches, teemed with 
 clamorous invective against the inexorable chief, 
 who, deaf even to the prayer which begged a 
 soldier's death, sent the accomplished Major Andre, 
 as a couvicted spy, to an ignominious halter. Pe- 
 titions, entreaties, remonstrances, public and pri- 
 vate influence, were accumulated in vain; they 
 wasted their power, unheeded by him who saw 
 the safety of his country in a signal example. 
 And who then in America, or who now in the 
 world, dare impeach the character of thnt dreadful 
 sentence! And yet, where is its justification ex- 
 cept in the paramount obligation of patriotic 
 duty? 
 
 No! gentlemen, the fundamental principles of 
 military action are not to be slighted or abandoned. 
 I he order for the removal of Mr. Barton to the 
 Shark was cruel in no aspect in which it can 
 possibly be viewed compatibly with the evidence- 
 Its propriety beams to me more palpable at every 
 additional moment which the differing opinions of 
 others afforded for reflection. I gave it, and re- 
 newed it, as i now approve it, under the profound 
 conviction that all the circumstances imperiously 
 demanded it fiom the Commander of the American 
 Squadron. 
 
 5. LIEUTENANT CHARLES G. HUNTER. 
 [Under this head my remarks will apply without 
 ' more detailed analysis, to the 1st and 2d specifi- 
 cations of Charge Second.] 
 He can have paid but slight attention to the 
 American Navy, who has failed to observe in the 
 ranks of its inferior officers, an alarming progress 
 of insubordination. From whatever causes it 
 may arise, the fact is conspicuous and undeniable. 
 There may exist some defect in the system which 
 itweuld be wise to detect and remedy, or there may 
 be required some united and energetic recurrence 
 to first and essential principles, in order to arrest 
 the mischiefs of novel pretension. We are fast 
 losing the compact and steady and solid character 
 of former times. The habits and usages which 
 preceded the war of 1812, are endangered by 
 notions and practices that sap the foundation of 
 military discipline. Age, experience, length of 
 
22 
 
 service, rank, command, are all too apt to be deem- 
 ed and dealt with as old-fashioned and exploded. 
 A hardy and reckless self-sufficiency perpetually 
 starts up to confront, controvert, and embroil. As 
 I solemnly believe that this is the spirit which has 
 brought me to your bar, and that the complaint of 
 Lieut. Charles G. Hunter, idle, frivolous and vex- 
 atious in every aspect, is one of its most character- 
 istic demonstrations, your decision must cany with 
 it, foi good or evil, an importance alike permanent 
 and general. 
 
 My deportment towards Lieut. Hunter on the 
 race-course at Mahon, on the 14th of April, 1837, 
 is charged to have been " provoking and reproach- 
 Jul." It is often, gentlemen, very "provoking" to 
 be manifestly in the wrong, and no reproof is so 
 galling as the one which is deserved. When 
 Lieut. Hunter, excited as he confesses by the race, 
 loudly and impetuously contradicted the assertion 
 of his brother officer, — when he repeated with an 
 oath hi* contradiction — and when, as if to remove 
 all doubt of his inflamed feelings, he proclaimed 
 his readiness to say it as well elsewhere and at 
 any time, as then and there, who that heard his 
 vehemence, his imprecation, his unequivocal de- 
 fiance, could avoid fearing that without prompt 
 and authoritative interference, he would rashly for- 
 get what was due to his country, her uniform, and 
 her character, as he seemed already to have for- 
 gotten himself. Here were two young gentlemen 
 of my Squadron, on the eve of reaching that point 
 of personal altercation, at which another advance 
 between men of irascible caurage becomes irrevo- 
 cable: — who were surrounded by some thousands 
 of strangers, amongst them General Obregon, the 
 Governor of the Island, and groups of military or 
 civil representative agents from all parts of Europe: 
 who by a single additional false step or hot word, 
 might convert a scene of amusement into one of 
 turbulence, mortification and shame — who were in 
 the presence and wi'hin the hearing of their naval 
 chief; and yet that chief is seriously arraigned lor 
 suddenly and effectually enforcing sile> ce, for 
 suddenly and effectually doing that which his 
 omitting to do would have shown him to be un- 
 worthy of his station and trust ! 
 
 At the distance of eight or ten or twelve feet, with 
 n crowd of persons interposed between mysplf and 
 him, necessarily preventing my rapidly reaching him 
 for solter remonstrance. I called to Iveut. Hunter, ab- 
 ruptly if you will, hastily if you will, loudly if you 
 will, to "be silent, and not to separate the gentleman 
 from the officer." I was mounted — I held in my 
 hand the small stick customarily used as a substitute 
 for the spur — I stretched iorth my arm as well to in- 
 dicate with certainty which of the J ieutenants Hun- 
 ter, (for they two were the disputants) I addressed, as 
 to give impressiveness 10 my language: — and how was 
 I answered? — by the immedhte acquiescence and 
 composure which the occasion demanded? No! siys 
 my accuser himself, 1 turned round to my command- 
 ing officer, and in the face of thousands, conspicuous 
 an he was, advanced towards him and "repelled" the 
 charge "firmly!" No! says Lieut. Rhodes, he repelled 
 the charge '-positively," with the same unaltered man- 
 ner in which he had spiken to Lieut. Bushrod W. 
 Hunter! No! says Lieut. Davis, he repelled the charge 
 "forbearingly!'' No! says Lieut. Johnston, he repelled 
 the charge "quite respectfully under the circumstan 
 ces!" I replied to him that his attitude, words, lone, 
 and manner towards myself were a repetition of the 
 
 very thing he was disclaiming — "you are doing it 
 now, sir!" — but the spirit of denial was up and rile — 
 the spirit which the poor sailor cannot be mastered 
 by for an instant without incurring a mutineer's pen- 
 alty, and I was again mpt with a flat contradiction— 
 "I am not, Sir!" I peremptorily ordered him to his 
 vessel, and ihen he obeyed. 
 
 Gentlemen, in this short scene you have vividly 
 depicted, as in the presence of each other, the oppos- 
 ing principles of action now struggling for ascendan- 
 cy in the Navy of the United S ales. Lieutenants- 
 Charles G Hunter, Davis, Rhodes and Johnston, for 
 whom, as individual gentlemen, I entertain not the 
 shadow of ill-will, and as to whom, if energetically 
 arrested in their suicidal course of repugnance lr> 
 control and discipline, I might foresee the highest 
 honors and purest rewards of their profe smn — have 
 unfolded, in a way not to be mistaken, the cancerous 
 disease which is eating out the strength and vitality 
 of the corp*. It is not my cause alono that I am ad- 
 vocating — it is that of the proud flag, whose stars can 
 never be dimmed while vveifemain true to the exam- 
 ples and lessons of the past — it is that of the country 
 which looks to our cemented force for glory and pro- 
 tection — it is that of my accusers themselves, who 
 hive only to keep down th air feverish impatience, 
 to abide their time, in order to enjoy the fruit of pro- 
 motion — a fruit unattainable except through prolong- 
 ed subordination, and at last, turni ig to ashes, unen- 
 viable and distasteful without it. 
 
 6. CHAPLAIN THOMAS R.LAMBERT. 
 
 Under this head my remarks will apply, without 
 more detailed analysis, to the 1st and 2d specifica- 
 tions of Charge the Eighth.] 
 
 While at anchor with the Constitution and Shark 
 in the harbour of Soda, in the island of Can iia, on 
 the 28th of July, 1837, I addressed the Rev. Thomas 
 R. Lambsrt the following note: — "Sir. as you were re- 
 ceived on board this ship for temporary service, and 
 as the squadron may avail itself of the advant g-s of 
 your spiritual instructions, you will please repair on 
 biard the United States schr Shirk, and report for 
 duty, until you rafet with the frigate United States, 
 to which vessel you were originally attached. I am 
 induced to this transfer in the wish that lb.- squad- 
 ron in the.se seas may share equally the aid which, as 
 Chaplain in the Navy, you may render our service 
 abroad." 
 
 This order was handed to Mr. Lambert, while at 
 dinner in the Ward-room, either shortly before, or 
 shortly alter, 3 o'clock- - — a: d was cornformable to a 
 suggestion I had made in the course ot the morning 
 to Lieut. Pearson, ihen in command of the Shark. 
 
 During that whole day, the communication between 
 the two vessels was constant — thev lay in sight, 
 though apart about lhree miles — provisions, in consi- 
 derable quantities, were sent from one to the oiher 
 — and officers and seamen were coming and going 
 without interruption or difficulty of any sort. There 
 were at that time on board ol the Constitution, as 
 travelleis, whom I was specially directed to receive. 
 His Excellency Lewis (\ass, the ladies of his family, 
 aad some of his diplomatic sui'e. 
 
 Mr. Lambert made his preparations for departure: 
 and the gig of the Shark, the same commodious, 
 vvell-coudiiioned and well-manned boat in which 
 Lieut. Pearson had twice come to the frigate and 
 twice left her, was waiting at the side to convey 
 him. In the mean while, the expediency of getting 
 under weigh, and of stretching through the mouth of 
 the harbour, before night, had occurred to me, and 
 suitable directions were given. That amiable, as 
 well as discerning and judicious officer, Lieut. Har- 
 wood, was on duty on deck — Lieut. Watson was sta- 
 tioned ow the forecastle — the American Minister and 
 his Secretary took leave of Mr. Lambert— his com- 
 panions, collecting at the gangway, did the same; and 
 he shoved off from the Constitution at about 5, or half 
 
23 
 
 past 5 o'clock in the nfternoon. Not a human being 
 oi all who witnossed the proceeding, entertained or 
 expressed the remotest suspicion, i hut the slightest 
 .1 inger lurked in any one circoroa«ance <>l' sea. wind, 
 skirt or sky. Though incumbered by his unusually: 
 largo and heavy efa ■-', interfering with her convent- 
 ■out management, and subjecting thoae ia hei io oc- 
 casional splashes ol water, iho 1>< >;i t bore bun safely, 
 though tardily, to the Shark; and oa tlio (o lowing 
 morning I received by letter trie very Qralintimajfronol 
 h i discontent w Ui aiJiar bis transfer or its fncidents 
 
 Such are Ibe lict.s— :he whole of the facU— upon 
 wlneli hive been framed two specifications ol "am- 
 becoming and unnffictrlikfConiuetT' 
 
 There ia a clasa ol men whose calling, indepen- 
 dent of any other eons deration, cluiins for them a 
 scrapulona respect. I uilmit the claim, broadly mid 
 unreservedly:— and shall withhold every stricture, 
 however obvious, by which it might even seem to be 
 forgotten. 
 
 But, gentlemen, do yoa think it <juito rea«onablo, 
 or (|iute fair, that tiio lirst of the two specifications, 
 founded exclusively upon my official note, should al- 
 lege that Its civiiiiy w;n "falte prt tenet," and Its ob- 
 ject ••prniite piijui-'" I am utterly unaware that a 
 partii le "i prooli beyond 'he lace of the note itself, 
 has been adduced Io sustain the allegation; and 
 though like other complimentary formularies, the sin- 
 i iniy of my language nig it be douiited by a modea) 
 recipient, yet the poaaibiLiy of us real truth should 
 lie it from ao harah an interpretation. However 
 polite I might feel myself uullursed, if not bound, 
 to be towards Mr Lambert* nothing required a resort 
 1 1 degenerate hypocrisy Efis transfer could have 
 baen as brief and trenchant as thai of Midshipman 
 Muee or Midshipman Kmggold. Its milder aspect is 
 easily referred t>its true cuu e, nnd can readily be 
 appreci 1 1 - ■ il - Aral is it more reasonable, or nor i i i . 
 • .io r iho clear and consiateni course of testimony 
 w iii-li v on have h id reapecting this transaction, 
 that I should be said in the second ape* ific nion, to 
 have "obliged" him to leave the ship, ' i 
 way," "in a ttnall boat " ' unnecessarily and unpro- 
 ji r if exposing hit htdtUand tqfetyV Certainly the 
 ordt r I em mated Irora me: — nssureuly it 
 
 wis an order revocable by me: — hut did Mr Lam- 
 berr, directly or indirectly, upprise me ol bis reluc- 
 i to change bia quarters! Did he intimate to the 
 offi it of the deck that ihe arrangements for his leav- 
 ing the frigate were unsatisfactory! Did il occur to 
 Lieutenant Harwood, or to any other ol hia numer- 
 ous and ardent fneiiu's, that additional meana for hia 
 security and comfort in his transit to theSh irk should 
 or could be provided! And how is it that I can pos- 
 sibly be anawerable, not merely for the over 
 and neglects of ih we » ithin » ho e province of duty 
 nil the details of i v < uti n I y, I ul als i for every tri- 
 lling accident which t ie cumbersome character of his 
 luggage or the hurry of the moment produced! I do 
 not ihmk th, re is a just measure ol chu-iian charity 
 aded >0 me in th — and it is to be 
 
 feared that the reverend complain u t has unconsci- 
 ously and without appropriate self-examination, per- 
 mitted something — I know not what — uni nunected 
 with the staled accusations and uurevealed in the 
 evidence", to rankle in hia bosom, einln tcr his senti- 
 ments, and wnrp his judgment. God grant neverthe- 
 less, gentlemen, th>t on a stricter review of his acts 
 ami motives, in the tenacious and protracted pursuit, 
 of hia fellow man, upon which ho entered three years 
 ago. as io matters so utterly unimportant, he m y be 
 ablo to obtain his own forgiveness as unqualifiedly 
 as 1 accord him mine. 
 
 VII. EXTRA-PUNISHMENT. 
 
 Under this head my remarks will apply to the 1st 
 2d, and 3d specifications of Charge Fifth. 
 It may be considered, Mr President, us among the 
 
 most curious and eloquent trails oi this prosecution, 
 
 that although I have been charged with cruelty and 
 opprtsiion. and glowingly delineated as a malignant 
 tyrant — alili'iuli the wide range of a four years" 
 cruise has been thrown open to be homed by keeii- 
 scen'.ed and banded pursuers — yet but three, aye, 
 three only, paltry inflictions of alleged illegal punish- 
 ment, upon as many out of the thousand seamen in 
 my squadron, lire even pretended to be directly or in- 
 directly imputable to me. Am I mistaken when I 
 say to the experienced captains whom I address, that 
 in practice such departures from Ihe exact words of 
 navul regulations, few and far between, and spring- 
 ir l' I rout peculiar and tritisietil ciicummniicps, are 
 unworthy of their attention? Ami mistaken whea I 
 
 aaaeri that they constitute, it admitted to be proved, 
 not the shadow Dl a foundation upon which my court. 
 try or my government!- hi iImti in mile in its jinlEUicn* 
 between myself and my prede c essors in command! If 
 it has ci en intended by their introduction among lite 
 eh irges 10 appeal to aid arouse against me, the pop- 
 ular repagnance lo corporal punishment, in any sens* 
 
 or to the mii illest extent lei me foil so illegitimate an 
 nun by remarking that not a solitary one of my crew 
 has here, or elaevt here, or ever, taxed me w ith harsh- 
 ness or severity — that the accusation comes irorn 
 those very inferior officers who are, by their own 
 avowed and covert prac ii is, |i asleit uaable in ir ak- 
 ing it — and that lo no IhjiIv of men on earth would I 
 more confidently submit the decision as to my habit- 
 ual lenity and lawfulness ol correction, than to the 
 host of American mariner* whom it has been my 
 lot. throughout a career of untiring activity, to dis- 
 cipline and govern. 
 
 The three men said each to have received two 
 dozen lashes, m-tend of the authorised one doxen, 
 m , ■ Francisco Lasano, Richard Lnscelles, and Da- 
 vid Floyd. 'The two first were natives of ihe Island 
 of Minorca, were accustomed to ship for the short 
 i rinses performed up the Mediterranean from Mahon 
 and back, ami to be employed on hoard the Innate II. 
 State* as the servants ol Lieutenants Hunter and I>a- 
 vi-; the other on board the Shark, also ns a servant. 
 These Milion.se, always unruly and quarrelaonMa 
 "ii oneoci aaion, while on shore, attacked the hospi- 
 tal BteVI ird, beat him with as little mercy ns innnll- 
 
 i d loll hi ra dangerously wounded in the head. 
 The police of the town, exasperated by their mis- 
 conduct, appealed to me lor their punishment, and I 
 sent word to Captain Wilkinson ol nie 1'ii'ted Stales, 
 and O plain Pearson of the Shark, to have them 
 whipped and dismissed ihe service. This was done, 
 as I prea imed, in the usual manner, and without any 
 other than the ordinary results. 
 
 l>i\id Floyd waa on American seaman, who. dur- 
 ing my absence Ir >m the ship, being guilty of riotous 
 and mutinous behavior, was ordered by Captain Bo- 
 raem to be punished with two dozen lashes. Lieu- 
 tenant Harwood interposed, had bun remanded, and 
 deeming the oll'ence more than commonly serious, re- 
 solved that he should be formally tried by a Court 
 Martial, to whicb he proposed preferring ihe proper 
 charges The necessary result ol such a proceed ng 
 would have henn, aside Hook of Punishment can at- 
 test, nnd this Court well knows, iho mllicton of se\- 
 enty-five or a hundred ljshes, by judicial sentence. — 
 While the matter was thu» pending, I returned to 
 Ue; root, where the frigate laid, and on receiving from 
 Captain Bornem the assurance that Floyd was an ex- 
 cellent hand, and that his culpability was ihe conse- 
 quence of an only and occasii nal irregulsrity. I 
 thought it better to rescue hun from hisotherwise un- 
 avoidable fate, without at the same lime sanctioning 
 a had example, and advised that he should be pun- 
 ished as originally directed, and restored to his duty. 
 My advice was adopted, and perhaps no one under- 
 stood belter than did David Flo)d, what he had es- 
 caped by my intervention. 
 
 I have reviewed these three i uses upon the pre- 
 sumption Ol my being legally answerable lor ihcm, 
 
24 
 
 but'thst might well be controverted both in law and 
 in fact. Captain Boraem, as flag captain of the Con- 
 stitution, with the entire dibcretion vested in his 
 hands, had himself determined upon thequantum of 
 punishment in Floyd's case— it was neither altered 
 nor witnessed by me. Captains Wilkinson and Pear- 
 son, with precisely the same power in reference to 
 the frigate United Slates and schooner Shark, can 
 alone, in slriciness, be held responsible for "Ike whole 
 conduct and goad government" of their respective 
 vessels. Neither of them, on the receipt of a mes- 
 sage from me through Lieutenant Totten or Midship- 
 man Maffit, respecting Lasano and Lascelles, sent to 
 myself to ascertain whether it was inadvertently 
 given or mistakingly delivered, and it is impos- 
 sible not to see haw easily, either in the issuing or 
 transmission of the order in that particular case, a 
 mistake may have occurred by the mere insertion or 
 omission of one short word. Had I directed Lieu- 
 ienant Totten that the offenders, the two Mahonese 
 servants, should receive two dozen lashes, theimpli- 
 tion would naturally and legally conform to the re- 
 gulation — its unlawfulness arises by superadding the 
 monosyllable •'each." On both the culprits the cor- 
 rection was "injlicted?' with the authority and in the 
 actual presence of their own immediate commanding 
 uffieers. 
 
 Gentlemen, ray defence, necessarily extended to a 
 itedious length, is now eloskd. I have purpjsely 
 avoided several topics which, though really uncon- 
 nected with my own innocence or guilt, may possi- 
 ibly be esteemed .entitled ito .notice. The copious ma- 
 
 terials on your record with which I might overwhelm* 
 ingly have retaliated upon my detractors, remain 
 scarcely touched Think you I could not have de- 
 veloped a carefully concocted and closely veiled 
 system of persecution? Think you I have been blind 
 and insensiblo to the extraordinary incidents which 
 preceded my being arraigned in person at your bar? 
 Think you I do not feel with what resistless force trie- 
 conduct of the chief prosecuting witnesses armed 
 me, especially by their wanton, merciless, and abor- 
 tive attack upon a virtuous, intelligent, plain, and 
 unoffending citizen, whose grand- demerit seemed af- 
 ter all to consist in the mildness of feis manners, and 
 his lack of epaulette or tinsel? But I forbore, and : 
 still forbear, under an inextinguishable and zealous- 
 attachment to our noble service: For that my pow- 
 ers of endurance are exhaustless, rry readiness to 
 make any sacrifice constant and unabated. Uphold 
 that, gentlemeRvvigoronsly, sternly, uncompromising- 
 ly, and I am content. Let not its yet glittering escut- 
 cheon be dimmed and sullied by a deed of dark pre- 
 judice or foul injustice — let not its- true and tranquil 
 honor be displaced by a counterfeit and clamorous 
 substitute— let not the solid fruits of tried and trium- 
 phant discipline be exchanged for the vapid promises 
 of new principles of order and of action — let the Na- 
 vy of the United States remain unshaken at its base, 
 resting firmly on its past and settled usages, adorned 
 by the fadeless laurels *of its founders, living or dead, 
 and lifting its doric column to the confiding gaze of a 
 generous people. Act thus— as act thus you will — 
 and I am fearless of your judgment! 
 
 JESSE DUNCAN ELLIOTT.. 
 
25 
 
 We have been obligingly favoured with a number of original letters address- 
 ed to Commodore Elliott, by the Presidents of our leading Seminaries of learn- 
 ing, and by other persons, acknowledging the receipt of interesting and valuable 
 donations of coins, antiques, medals, &c, which were brought from the Medi- 
 terranean on board the Constitution, at the close of the cruize so recently and 
 thoroughly investigated. It appears to us mere justice, in reference to tbo 
 character and motives of Commodore Elliott, that some of these leticrs should 
 be made public, and we have therefore selected the subjoined as accompaniments 
 to his defence. 
 
 We also add a general list of the articles he distributed almost as soon as he 
 returned to the United States, and a statement of the manner in which th ani- 
 mals he brought with him have been disposed of. 
 
 Philadelphia, November 5, I 
 Sir, — It gives us great pleusure to perform tho 
 July assigned to us, of informing you that your 
 valuable present to the city of Philadelphia, of an 
 oncient and beautiful sarcophagus, has been accept- 
 ed and will bo disposed of in the manner you pro- 
 posed. 
 
 In tendering to you the si icere thanks of Coun- 
 cils for having selected the Girard College as tho 
 depositary of this rare and interesting relic of an- 
 cient art, wo beg leave to express our own sense of 
 tho important and happy effects on the taste and 
 refinement of our own country, produced by the in- 
 troduction of such objects from abroad. 
 
 We have tho honor to be, with great respect, 
 your obedient servants, 
 
 W. M. MEREDITH, 
 
 President Select Council. 
 WM RAWLE, 
 President Common Council. 
 
 Board of Trustees of the Girard College 
 for Orphans, Dec. 17,1838. 
 Dear Sir, — I execute a very ogreeable duty in 
 presenting to you the enclosed copy of a vote of 
 thanks adopted at the last meeting of this Board for 
 your highly acceptable donation to the College. To 
 this testimonial by my colleagues, I beg leave to 
 add tho expression of my own sense of the enlight- 
 ened curiosity which collected so many valuable 
 objects, and the very liberal spirit with which you 
 havo disposed of them. 
 
 With great respect, yours, 
 
 N. DIDDLE, President. 
 Com. Jesse D. Elliott, U. S. Navy, 
 
 Board of Trustees of the Girard Collego 
 for Orphans, Dec. G, 1838. 
 At a meeting of tho Board of Trustees of the 
 Girard College for Orphans, held last evening, it 
 was 
 
 Resolved, That tho President of this Board be 
 requested to Under the thanks of tho Board to 
 
 4 
 
 Commodore Elliott for the articles presented by him 
 to the Girard College. 
 
 Prom the minutes. 
 
 .IAS. BAYARD, Nccretary. 
 
 Senate Chamber, May 18th, 1S3'J. 
 
 Dear Sir, — In reply to your request of this fore- 
 noon, that I would communicate such information 
 as I possessed in relation to certain presents made 
 by CoramoJore Elliott to the Legislature of Penn- 
 sylvania, I stato — they consist of two paintings in 
 oil, tho one purporting to bo a copy of a likeness of 
 Christopher Columbus, and tho other of Americua 
 Vespuccius, fromjoriginals in the Florentine Galle- 
 ry of Paintings, together with tho figure of an 
 American Eagle, carved by an American citizen, in 
 marble from Alexandria Troas. 
 
 Tho Senate charged tho Joint Committee of the 
 Stato Library with tho disposition of these pre- 
 sents, and they directed me, as the Chairman of 
 that Committee, to place them in tho Chamber of 
 tho Senate, where they now ore. 
 
 Tho pictures are, (judging by the eye,) eighteen 
 to twenty inches in longth, by twelve to fourteen 
 in breadth. They are enclosed in frames of wood, 
 kind unknown to me, naturally of a light yellow 
 colour, without ornament or even mouldings, and 
 coated on the face with varnish. 
 
 The figure of the Eagle might in my opinion, 
 be enclosed in a box of nine or ten inches square. 
 
 I received them from the present Governor of 
 tho Commonwealth in the state in which they now 
 are — that is, not enclosed in a box or envelope of 
 any kind. 
 
 I am, sir, very respectfully, your most obedient 
 servant, 
 
 ABM. MILLER, 
 Chairman of Joint Committee on tho Libraiy. 
 
 HonCALVIN Blitue. 
 
 Sydenham, near Philadelphia, 
 October Z, 1838. 
 My deat Sir,— Reluming lust week from Wain- 
 
26 
 
 tngton, I found your favour of the 11th of Sep- 
 tember, but it was only yesterday that I received 
 the drawings and coins to which it refers. 
 
 I scarcely know how at present to aid the wish 
 you cherish for putting our government in posses 
 sion of the interesting memorials spoken of in your 
 letter as subservient to the Smithsonian Institution. 
 It being uncertain when or how that Institution is 
 io be called into being, the whole depending on the 
 future legislation of Congress, I should be at a loss 
 under present circumstances what step to take. If 
 I might venture a suggestion it would be, that the 
 memorials in question be retained until it be seen 
 what courso Congress seems likely to take, whenJ 
 would at all times be happy to join oihers better 
 qualified, and with more opportunities than myself. 
 in any efforts that circumstances might render 
 practicable to give effect to your very laudable de- 
 sign. 
 
 With great respect and esteem> I am yours very 
 faithfully, 
 
 RICHARD RUSH. 
 
 Treasury Department, March 30, 1839. 
 Sir,— 1 have the honor to enclose herewith to 
 you a copy of a letter, received this morning, from 
 President Lord, of Dartmouth College, returning 
 thanks for the donation of ancient coins, which 
 your liberality furnished me an opportunity of 
 presenting to that institution in your behalf. 
 I am resDectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 LEVI WOODBURY. 
 Jesse D.Elliott, Esq. 
 Captain U. S. Navy. 
 
 Dartmouth College, March 26, 1839. 
 To the Hon. Levi Woodbury, 
 Secretary of the Treasury, 
 Sir, — It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge 
 the receipt of your favour of December last, which 
 arrived in my absence from College, with the ac- 
 companying and very acceptable donation of an- 
 cient coins for the cabinet of the institution. 
 
 This direction which you have given to the libe- 
 rality of Commodore Elliott, is particularly gratify- 
 ing in view of recent resolutions of the Trustees to 
 increase their historical and other collections. 
 
 With very respectful considera.ion, I am, dear 
 sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 N. LORD. 
 
 Kenyon College, Oct. 2, 1838. 
 Dear Sir, — I have just returned from a long ab- 
 sence from home, and received your kind favour of 
 August 13th, mentioning your having deposited 
 with the agent of the Ohio Rail Rjad Company, 
 certain specimens of antiquities for the cabinet of 
 
 this College, I beg you, sir, to receive my cordial 
 acknowledgments in behalf of this institution for 
 so kind a consideration, and believe me to be, with 
 sentiments of high consideration, your obliged 
 friend and servant, 
 
 CHAS. P. MCILVAINE. 
 Commodore J. D. Elliott. 
 
 Antiquarian Hall, 
 Worcester, Mass. March 28, 1839. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have the honor, in behalf of the 
 American Antiquarian Society, to express their 
 thanks for the present of rare and interesting coins 
 maJe by you to the society through Governor 
 Lincoln. They constitute a valued addition to our 
 collection, and like all o;her matters appertaining 
 to our Library, will, so far as practicable, be made 
 of public use. The number of coins now in our 
 possession is small but select, and those which we 
 have the pleasure to receive from you, will not b e 
 without some companions appropriate to their own 
 age and dignity. 
 
 I am sir, very respectfully your obedient ser- 
 vant, 
 
 SAML. F. HAVEN, Lib. A. A. S. 
 
 Commodore J, D. Elliott. 
 
 Williams College, Nov. 26, 1838. 
 Com. J. D. Elliott, 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have recently received for the be- 
 nefit of the Museum of this College fifteen anci- 
 ent coins with descriptions, and a fragment of the 
 ruins of an ancient city, for which, as I understand 
 from Mr. Porter of Boston, we are indebted to 
 your liberality and public spirit. It gives me much 
 pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of this very 
 handsome donation and to assure you that the ar- 
 ticles shall be 60 disposed of as t>i promote the ob- 
 ject for which they were given. If any thing could 
 add to the popularity of our Navy, I think it would 
 be an imitation on the part of its officers of the 
 example you have so honourably set of promoting 
 the objects of curious and scientific research. 
 Most respectfully yours, 
 
 M. HOPKINS", Prest. of College, 
 
 P. S. The fragment is supposed to be of Mem- 
 phis, but no description canoe with it. 
 
 Jefferson College, Canonsburg, 
 
 Jan. 28, 1839. 
 Dear Sir — I must bog you to accept an apology 
 for not answering sooner your favour of the 8th 
 of November last, accompanied with a valuable do- 
 nation of coins for the use of the college. The 
 coins were presented to the lyceum of the college 
 and your generosity noted. I would have imme- 
 diately written and acknowledged the receipt of 
 
27 
 
 the donation, for whioh we are sincerely grateful, 
 but I was at a loss at that time as to the place 
 where to direct a lefer, whether to Washington 
 City or Norfolk. 1 observed your letter da'eJ at 
 Carlisle, and have since learned that thin is the 
 place of the residence of your family. You refer 
 to my being a graduate of Carlisle, which BUg 
 ed to my mind the pleasant recollection of my fellow 
 students, among whom was a Mr. Elliott, as I be- 
 lieve your brother. 
 
 You are kind enough to mention that you hadjat 
 Norfolk a marble culumu brought from Syria, pla- 
 ced in tho bauds of Dr. Miller, subject to our or- 
 der. Will you bo kind enough to suggest in what 
 way we could most convenienely have it trans- 
 mitted, as wo have tio direct communication with 
 Norfolk. If it were sent round to Philadelphia, 
 wo could readily receive it in that direction. We 
 have a Lyceum in the College, under its direc- 
 tion, containing many valuablo collections. Your 
 favor will be deposited hero and marked to your 
 liberality. 
 
 Very respectfully, yours, &e. 
 
 M. BROWN. 
 
 Washington, Pa., Nov. 15, 1638. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I had the pleasure of receiving your 
 favour of last month, kindly and patriotically of- 
 fering to the college here a choice selection of an- 
 cient coins. Many things requiring my immedi- 
 ate attention caused me to defer a reply. 
 
 The Trustees and Faculty were immediately 
 made acquainted with your proffer, which was 
 thankfully accepted, and I was directed to present 
 to you their thanks. This I did immediately in our 
 town papers. Be pleased to retain them and wo 
 will send for them by tho earliest opportunity, 
 
 I am with respect and esteem, dear sir, your 
 friend and servant, 
 
 RICHARD HENRY LEE. 
 
 University of Virginia, Sept. 26th, 1S38. 
 Sir: — Towards the end of August I had the 
 gratification to receive your letter of the (jlh of 
 that month, bestowing on the University the curi- 
 am specimens of antiquity therein mentioned. A 
 part of those only has come to hand, viz : an An- 
 tii/w Vase found in the < 'ha inel of l lorfu ; an Ea- 
 gle of Marble from Alexandria of Troas, 
 lured by an Am rican artist ; a fragment fro 
 Temple of Bacchu atanci atTyi Small Vase 
 taken from a Tomb on the It ■ rigo. The 
 
 other two speei nuns, owing to the very great diffi- 
 culty which has existed lor some time in Iran 
 ing packages, especially of any considerable weight, 
 from Richmond to this place, have Dot | 
 ceived — we may expect them however in a short 
 time.* I have for a very long time delayed ac- 
 knowledging your lett.i and donation, in hi 
 that the whole might bo, mentioned as received — 
 but the delay has boon so great that I was unwill- 
 
 ing longer to withhold the respectful acknowledge- 
 ments which are due to your liberality, and which 
 our feelings require. 
 
 I have great pleasure in performing the agreea- 
 ble task of conveying to you the thanks of the 
 I 'nivi rsity for the valuable contributions which 
 von have kindly made to the collection contained 
 
 in our museum. And 1 may assure you that the 
 remains of antiquity which yon have presented 
 
 to us will not only be preserved on their own ac- 
 count, liu* that tiny will he continually associated 
 with the kindi st feeling i of reg ird for the distin- 
 guished Naval Commander, lO whose liberal 
 . and sympathy with the glory and art of 
 other (1 iys, we owe them. 
 
 I am. Sir, with considerations of the highest 
 respect, your obedient Servant, 
 
 GESSNEE HARRISON, Chairman ofiaculty. 
 
 Articles presented by Commodore Elliott, to 
 
 1. The Girard ' 
 
 \ Roman Sarcophagus, weighing about 3,500 
 pounds. — A cabinet of gold, ailver, and other met- 
 allic coins. — Four boxesof Antiquities collected in 
 Palestine and Syria. — A limb of one of the cedars 
 of I.' bi 
 
 9, Dickinson College: 
 
 A cabinet of ancient coins. — Other antiquities 
 from Palestine and Syria, Corinth, Athens, Crete, 
 
 Cv e : 
 
 3. Washington CoIL g 
 
 A collection of ancient coins. 
 
 I. Jefferson College : 
 
 A capital of .i column obtained in ( IsMariSi 
 
 .'i. Prinet '■"( ( 'allege : 
 
 A collection of ancient coins. — A s|>ccimen of 
 the marble from Alexandria Troas,Jand Cojsaria 
 Palestine. 
 
 6. Cambridge College ■. 
 
 Some specimens of marble from CsBSaria Tales- 
 tine, and Alexandria Troas. 
 
 7. milium*' College: 
 
 A capital of a column from Caesaria Palestine. 
 
 8. Darimott ( 
 
 A collection of ancii at coi 
 
 9. Kenyon I 
 
 A collection of coins and a piece of a column 
 from Alexandria Troas and Csesaria Palestine. 
 
 10. College in Missouri : 
 
 A Collection ot , 
 
 I I. The Transylvani i I 
 
 A coll i tion of ancienl coins. 
 
 12. 1 Baltimore ! 
 
 A Mummy, disinterred at Memphis, Egypt — A 
 curbstone of a well, from Goesaria Palestine. \ 
 marble sill from the Temple of Minerva on tin- 
 plains of Troy, and a column from CeBsaria, Pal- 
 estine. 
 
 13, The Charlottesville University, 
 
 Two marble balls obtained at the Dardanelles, 
 about eight feet in circumf r< nee. — \ marble head 
 of Bacchus from Tyre, Syria. — a Vase fished up 
 at the point where the battle ofActiumwaa fought 
 between Cesser and Pompey, — A large marble 
 column, removed from Alexandria Troas. — An 
 

 28 
 
 Eagle made from a piece of marble removed from 
 Minerva Somnes, Greece. 
 
 14. William and Mary College: 
 
 An Ibis. — A column removed from plains of 
 Troy. 
 
 15. The Baltimore Cathedral: 
 
 A painting representing' the Illumination at St. 
 Peter's and St. Angela. 
 
 16. The College at Georgetown : 
 Casts of the Popes. 
 
 18. Prospect Hill, N. Carolina : 
 A column from Marathon. 
 
 18. The Literary and Philosophical Society at 
 Charleston, S. C. 
 
 A collection of ancient coins. 
 
 19. To the Navy Department or Government : 
 Two colosal balls from the Dardanalles. — A Sar- 
 cophagus from Beyroot, Syria. 
 
 20. American Antiquarian Society of Worcester 
 Massachusetts : 
 
 A parcel of ancient coins. 
 
 21. The Legislature of Pennsylvania : 
 
 A copy of an original painting of Columbus and 
 Vespuccius. — An Eagle made from marble remov- 
 ed from Alexandria Troas. 
 
 The Animals brought home were disposed of as 
 follows : 
 
 1. A Jack : — in possession of the Honorable , 
 
 John Forsyth, 6ent to Georgia, to propagate, on 
 shares. 
 
 2. A Maltese Jenny: — Sent to Mr. Hubbs' plan- 
 tation, Tennessee. 
 
 3. A Jack : — Sent to Elizabeth city, Virginia, to 
 propagate, on shares. 
 
 4. A Jack : — Sent to Dauphin county, Pa. to 
 Charles Carson and John C. M'Allister — owned 
 jointly by Com. Elliott and Thomas B.Jacobs. 
 
 5. A Malta Jack and a large bay Arabian 
 Horse : — Sent to James A. Gallagher, to propagate 
 in the [Counties of Cumberland, Franklin and 
 Dauphin, Pennsylvania, and belonging to Com. 
 Elliott. 
 
 6. Three Andalusian Hogs. — Two bread-tailed 
 Syrian Sheep — Minorca Chickens, Grain, Grass and 
 Garden seeds : — Sent to Mr. T. B. Jacobs, Lancas- 
 ter county, Penn. 
 
 7. One Minorca Jack: — Sent to propagate in 
 Lancaster county, Penn'a., and belonging to Com. 
 Elliott and T. B. Jacobs. 
 
 8. One Superior Arabian Mare : — Presented to 
 Mrs. Jacobs. 
 
 9. Four Arabian Mares, One Andalusian and 
 Three Arabian Colts : — Sent to Mr. John T. Barr, 
 State of Missouri, belonging to Com. Elliott, and 
 propagating on shares. 
 
 Published by MIFFLIN & PARRY, No. 99 South Second Street, Philada. 
 
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