The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 3, Volume 2. Page: 243
viii, 1007 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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UNION AUTHORITIES.
vessel and cargo, exempts both from the penalty. The object of
enforcing the penalty is to guard against future violations of the
blockade, not of any that may thereafter be declared. The whole
purpose is to secure the particular blockade against violation and no
other. When, therefore, that blockade is raised the reason for for-
feiture ceases. In the language of Wheaton: "When the blockade
is raised a veil is thrown o.ver everything that has been done, and the
vessel is no longer in delicto. The deliction may be completed at one
period, but it is by subsequent events done away." (Wheaton's Law
of Nations, 3d ed., p. 550.) The same rule, as well as the others I
have stated, will be found to be well established by, among other
authorities, the case of the Saunders. (2d Gallison, p. 210 ; 1st Kent's
Commentaries, 6th ed., p. 151, and Carrington et al. versus the Mer-
chants' Insurance Co., 8th Peters' Reports, pp. 495-519.)
My opinion, therefore, is that the sum received from Messrs.
Kennedy & Co. should be returned to them.
I have the honor to be, with high regard, your obedient servant,
REVERDY JOHNSON.
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, July 22, 1862.
Hon. REVERDY JOHNSON,
Commissioner, &c.:
MY DEAR SIR: I have your decision in the matter of the money of
S. H. Kennedy & Co., and while I shall pay back the money in obe-
dience to it, if the partners take the oath of allegiance, I must dissent
from the conclusions to which you have come, toto animo.
The facts are briefly these: Kennedy & Co. were merchants, doing
business in New Orleans, the members of which were citizens of the
United States.
They shipped cotton, bought at Vicksburg and brought to New
Orleans, from a bayou on the coast, whence steamers were accus-
tomed to run the blockade to Havana, on board steamships that were
engaged in carrying goods from the neighborhood of New .Orleans to
Havana, in defiance of the laws and the President's proclamation,
and under the further agreement with the Confederate authorities
here that a given per cent. of the value of their cargoes should be
returned in arms and munitions of war for the use of the rebels.
Without such an agreement no cotton could be shipped from New
Orleans, and this was publicly known, and the fact of knowledge
that a permit for the vessel to ship cotton could only be got on such
terms was not denied at the hearing.
The cotton was sold in Havana and the net proceeds were invested
in a draft (first, second, and third of exchange) dated April 30, 1862,
payable to the London agent of the house of Kennedy & Co., and the
first and second sent forward to London, ahd the third, with account
sales and vouchers, forwarded to the firm here through an illicit mail
on board the steamer Fox, likewise engaged in carrying, unlawfully,
merchandise and an illicit mail between Havana and the rebel States.
The third of exchange and papers were captured by the army of
the United States on the 10th day of May, on board the Fox, flagrante
delicto, surrounded by rebel arms and munition, concealed in a bayou
leading out of Barataria Bay, attempting to land her contraband
mails and scarcely less destructive arms and ammunition, to be sent
through the byways and swamps to the enemy.243
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United States. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 3, Volume 2., book, 1899; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth139264/m1/252/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.