The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 3, Volume 2. Page: 260
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CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.
that is in the hands of a third party or of an agent of the claimants,
who is out of the Tightful jurisdiction of the United States. In no
sense can the third bill be esteemed its representative. It is, on the
contrary, worth no more than the paper on which it was drawn. If,
therefore, the right in this case to seize as forfeited the outward cargo
was limited to a seizure on the outward voyage, or of the proceeds
coming into the country on the return voyage, then, with all the con-
fidence that I am at liberty to feel when differing from so enlightened
a jurist as yourself, I repeat that the third bill is not " to be esteemed
the proceeds of the shipment and liable to seizure."
Second. But you suppose that my application of the rule of national
law, if I am right in the other particular, "turns upon a non-appreci-
ation of the law, as to what is the effect of a blockade," and that, " as
applied to this transaction, the citations and arguments derived from
elementary writers upon the laws of nations are of no avail." Your
reasons for this repudiation of the authorities which, in my simplicity,
I cited, are that in this case "a traitorous commercial house directly
engages in the treasonable work of aiding a rebellion against the
Government, by entering into a trade, the direct effect of which is to
furnish the rebels with arms and ammunition. To do this they inten-
tionally violate the revenue laws, the postal laws of their country, as
well as the laws prohibiting trade with foreign countries from this
port, and are caught in the act, and fined only the amount of the pro-
ceeds of their illegal treasonable transaction."
First. I have already endeavored to correct the error of fact in the
first part of this quotation. There was no evidence before me when
my decision was given, nor is there now, that the house of the claim-
ants was a "traitorous commercial house," entering into a trade, the
direct " effect of which is to furnish the rebels with arms and ammu-
nition." On the contrary, the proof-the legal proof-is the other
way.
1. No such proof was or has been produced in support of the
charge.
2. It does not appear that the claimants ever made any other ship-
ment than the particular one.
3. They deny, and denied in your presence and in mine, that they
entered, in making the shipment, into an agreement to return a part
of the proceeds in arms, &c., for the rebels.
4. It affirmatively appears that the entire proceeds were invested in
sterling and remitted to London, to be passed also in their entirety to
the credit of the house.
No treason, therefore, was perpetrated unless the running the
blockade with cotton to be sold, and proceeds to be passed to the
shippers' credit, and to be used in the payment of their loyal creditors
residing in the loyal State of Massachusetts, was treason. Treason
under the Constitution of the United States can "consist only in
levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them
aid and comfort." It would be a strange commentary on this clear
and precise definition to hold that a citizen of the United States, by
shipping his cotton abroad for sale, even in violation of a blockade,
with directions to his correspondents to pass proceeds to his credit
to be used in the discharge of honest debts due to loyal men, either
levies war upon the Government or gives aid and comfort to its
enemies. In times like the present every patriotic citizen, acting at
moments without due reflection, seizes upon any means which he may
think will tend in any way to suppress the existing unjustifiable and260
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The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Additions and Corrections to Series 3, Volume 2. (Pamphlet)
Errata sheets for the Records of the War of the Rebellion include additions and corrections to the text and the index for Series 3, Volume 2.
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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/m1/269/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.