Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-08-11

alleged injustice! The question is not
now triable by this court, whether !
were well grounded in my complaint.
but whether it were urged in indecent
or abusive language. The manner Of
Commodore Porter's recall, and the
circumstances that followed it, were
adverted to, in detail, as demonstrate
ing very sufficient cause ofcomplaint.
Specifications Cd. 1t was asked what
law or what usage prohibited public
report of the proceedings of any court,
after the judicial function, or that sub
iect had been executed, and the court
dissolved? The only possible mode in
which an offence can be committed by
the publication, in detail, of judicial
proceedings, is whilst they are pend
ing, and may be prejudiced by the pub
licalion; and in that case the character
and degree of the offence is contempt
ofCourt, punishable as a contempt by
the identical tribunal whose authority
is insulted, and punishable in no other
way. The proceedings Of the court
were necessarily public, but it is allow
ed that the printing Of detailed state
ments Of them, pending the trial, is
improper, because it operates practical
mischief on that identical proceeding.
But when the trial is finished, the mis-
chief ceases; and upon the dissolution
Of the court, the only authority that
could have taken cognizance of the Of
fence, had ceased.
SPECIFICATION Sd. The argument up
on these specifications turned so much
upon minute and critical examination
of documents, and with view to ac-
count for minute verbal differences be-
tween the printed proceedings given in
Commodore Porter's pamphlet, and
the official records transmitted to the
Nav, Department, by the Judge Advo-
cate, that it would be impossible to
to make any ineligible statement of
the matter, without having she docu-
ments themselves before us. The de-
fence in general insisted that the vari-
ance between the printed report and
the record were, with single excep-
ton, merely verbal and frivolous; and,
in the instance excepted, the printed
copy was justified by an express order
OF the Court, which had directed the
record to be amended precisely as it
stood in the printed copy. In numer-
Gus other instances it was contcnded
to be clear, from the force of docu-
ments, that the differences had been
produced by changes in The phraseolo-
gy of the original. record, without no.
tice to Commodore Porter, after the
copy, from which the pamphlet was
printed, had been given Out: and in O.
Their instances, that he was most unreS-
sonably charged with incorrectness for
omissions of certain parts Of the pro-
ceedings, which he applied for and was
refused by the Judge Advocate; and
for which omission he so accounts on
the face Of the pamphlet.
1t was further said that this charge
was frivolous in its terms, still more
so in the proof, that if every variance
between the printed report and the re-
cord, could justly be charged as the
mistakes ofthe former, they were Who'll
ly immaterial, and il was too favorable
a representation of them to say they
were merely verbal; for they even de-
scended into the minutia of punctuation
and photography, and even of empha-
sis, if such may be understood by the
term itakcising. The only circumstan-
ces that could have given any legal or
moral effect TO this specification, would
have been to charge substantial errors
in the printed report, materially vary
ing the sense, and to have charged
the proceeding from corrupt or ma
licious motive.
SPECIFICATION 4. What IS unwar-
ranted by fact, or what disrespeetful to
the Secretary Of the Navy, in any of
the remarks, statements, or insinaa-
tons here complained Of, has never, to
this day, been explained; that COM
plants are made to the Secretary of the
Navy, of acts to which he was a
party or of which he was the organ, is
true; it is equally true, that certain
proceedings of the Court of Inquiry are
remarked upon, and freely criticised,
but in terms wholly unexcepionable.
The defence then goes into a compari-
son between the degree of Difference
and respect due from an officer to a
Court of Inquiry, when he conceives it
to have acted enormously and unjuslly
towards him; and what is expected
from military commander to legis-
lative body: and comparison is made
between the language of Commodore
Porter's pamphlet and General Jack
sons memorial to the Senate, in which
the motives and the reasoning of a
Committee OF Inquiry were very freely
canvassed and censured. Yet the Sem
ate, after debate and full elaboration,
voted the memorial unexceptionable,
and ordered it to be printed. Ana &C.
neral Jackson lives in the hearts of the
nation: an honored member of the ve-
ry Senate which had so magnanimous-