The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-01-12
From the Southern Literary Messenger.
REORGANIZING THE NAVY.
[ooNTINuGD.l

ltEOhGANlLi>G 1 III NAN1.
coNTNuED.
II has been stated in the public prints, and the
statement has not been contradicted-the report
too is current among Navy officers, and general
ly believed by them--that the commander OF
another public vessel, in mere wantonness, tar
red and feathered one Of his crew. The sailor
has learned, by painful experience, that there Is
no law under the present system 10 protect his
person from violence, or his rights from outrage;
for justice has not been allowed to put forth her
hand upon this officer. | do not know that the
proper authorities have received official repre-
sensations of this transactions Il is probable
they have not: for those who witnessed the act
were young officers, and they had too much rea-
son 10 believe that representations by them, IN
this, as they had done IN other cases, would
prove worse than useless. Respectable public
Journals have assayed to call the attention of the
proper authorities to the offences of this officer.
And are statements, coming from such a source,
nothing2 DO not the well-beng Of the commu-
nifty in which you live, and the wholesome adj
ministration ofyour municipal laws, require the
constituted authorities to take cogniZance of
outrage and crime, through what channel soever
the preparation OF them Is brought to their know
ledge? With you, the offender is apprehended
and brought TO punishment, both as an example
and terror to evil doors. Not so with us in
The grounds were boldly taken, and openly
maintained, years ago, in Naval court, that
laws were not made to be held as rods over Cap
tains in the Navy. What was then dogma has
since become doctrine with some and bids fair
to be engratted upon the naval code as fixed
principle of law. We have fallen upon evil
tmes--tor we have come 10 that pass in the Ma
Wy when its statutes are looked upon as mere
savings, and the law has ceased to consider those
of high and of low degree with its boasted inn
Partially The difficulty of bringing officers Of
rank in the Navy TO trial, has passed into pro-
verb. And IN this fact is TO be found an expana-
ton for the frequency of trials by courts martial
held Of late in the Navy.
Under this much abused and faulty system,
young officers are arragned and brought to trial
upon charges, in some instances, altogether fri
roious and perati0us. Officers of rank, who
are notorious offenders, but cannot be brought to
trial, are to be found bringing in their bills Of in
dictment against their Juniors for the most petty
and trivial offences AT their instance, courts
martial are unhestatingly ordered The officer
who IS said to have tarred and feathered one Of
his crew., has brought two young officers to trial
in the course of few months.t Change the
case, and let a young officer accuse one Of this
favored class; and a trial is out Of the question:
or hedged about with difficulties which only pub
lie opinion oft expressed can break down. The
proceedings Of the court-martial that is freshest
in the minds Of your readers afford cases in point
for II is not necessary to go far back in search
of examples. Before that court junior officer
was tried upon charges preferred by an officer of
rank-and an officer of rank was tried upon
charges alleged by young officers. The last had
been endeavoring for years to bring their supe-
rior officer to trial-frst, through the regularly
constituted authorities-then through Congress
and, as last resort, through the force of pub
lie opinion, operated upon by statements in the
newspapers. After so much difficulty enough
but for the extraordinary character of the perso-
nalities involved, to have insured for the accused
perpetual immunity from the lava tardy and
reluctant trial was granted; charges and specif-
cations were Proved the accused was found
guilty, and sentenced accordingly
Now turn we to the other case before the same
court. An officer Of rank imagines that his dig
nifty is insulted by junior. He arrests the lat
ter on the spot, and instantly demands that he
shall be arraigned before a court-martial, and
there be made TO answer for the offence. A trial
is forthwith granted. Not charge or speciiica-,
ton is proved and the accused is honoraby
acquitted by the court. His accuser, at the very
time that he Is arraigning this young officer for
tancied infraction of law, has, himself, charges
of grave character floating against him. His
offences have come to the knowledge of the
proper authorities. But he is of the favored
class and the law proves q dead letter in his
case. His accusers are not actuatedby motives
of personal hostility as the accusers in the other
case were. They have made known his offences
to the authorities whose duty it is TO take cogni-
zance of them. In this they have done their du-
ty, and there the matter rests. Although this
officer has added 10 his other offences the guilt of
arraigning before a military tribunal brother
officer on false charges, he still goes unwhipped
of justice.
Do not these facts Indicate that the laws of
the Navy are kept in two phials-one Of which
is closely sealed and seldom permitted to be
opened-the other, largemouthed and convent
ent, ready at all times with its wrath to be empti-
ed out upon the younger, and therefore the
weaker and more frail, members Of the corps
Within the last five or six years, but Two off
GERS OF rank have been brought to trial in the
Navy. In both cases, their offences were Off
ciay represented to the proper authorities, who
declined to take cognizance of them-in both
cases, young officers were the accusers-n both |
cases, trials were obtained only through the force
Of public opinion, to which the parties aggrieved
appealed as derner resort-and, in both cases,
the accused were found guilty and punishmen,s |
were awarded. But in both cases, such were
the difficulties Of opening the sealed phial, that,
had not personal insults and injuries of an ex-
traordinary character inlamed the minds Of the |
accuseIs, and impelled them on to leave no
stone unturned' in their efforts to be avenged,
the outraged laws would have remained sealed
up as a dead letter to this day; and their ven
geance would never have been let loose upon the
guilty heads of the offenders.
Allusion has been made to these cases, not
from any ungenerous motive or unkind feeling
towards the officers concerned, but for the pur-
pose Of properly illustrating the defects of sys-
TEN, under which we, they, and the Navy, are
aborng Under an imperfect and defective /
system Of jurisprudence reason teaches US to
expect an imperfect and defective adminstra-
ton of law and the history OF the recent courts
martial exempfes still further the defective |
.,,annnr In n, hich the laws Of the navy are adnni-