The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-11-28
Legal Points i'm the shenandoah Case.

Legal Points I'm the Shenandoah Case. |
The unconditional release of Captain |
Waddell and the crew of the shenan-
doah will unqIestiouably form another
in our British relations,
which the inconsiderate accepting of
the pirate ship by the American Consul
at Liverpool will not at all help. What
ever the end which diplomacy will reach
may be, the case constitutes another of
the important preeedents which British
interpretation of international law is
establishing-pre which are
destined, in the long run, to afford us
quite as much satisfaction as anything
England could render now in the shape
of paying for damages. OF the legal
points involved in the discharge of the
officers and crew of the Shenandoah,
correspondent of the London Daily
NelCS writes as follows:
'"The question is, whether Captain
Waddell speaks the truth when he says
that he had no earlier intelligence of
the close of the war than the beginning
of August. Is the thing credible in
itself? The American papers have
printed dispositions of masters of yes
sells boarded by Captain Waddle, to the
effect that they brought the surrender Of
General Dec and the close OF the war TO
his knowledge, and that he replied he
did not care, and went on his career of
destruction Notwithstanding. Is it pos
sible that the American Minister has
failed TO bring to the notice of the Brit
ish Government the dispositions made
blythe masters of whaling vessels which
were destroyed by the Shenandoah,
after the war had closed? Is it possible
that any reasonable man could have
doubted the evidence of that fact
brought before him in so many shapes :?
Is II to be endured that Captain Wad-
dell, notwithstanding the weight of ev-
idence before him, should be permitted
TO destroy ships without taking the
trouble to clear up his doubts by max
ing the necessary inquiries2 The man
who continues TO exercise the rights of
his commission, after his commission
has become wastepaper, ought to suffer
the penalty of his neglect. / suppose
no man living believes that Captain
Waddle might not have satisfied him
self as to the fnct that the war-WRs over
weeks before he did satisfy himself;
and If he chose to shut his eyes, 1 de-
sire to know whether he has incurred
any penalty, and why 1t should not be
enforced against him?
| but perhaps the law officers have dis
| covered some technical difficulty. No
doubt, if Captain Waddell has commit
/ ted any crime, IL IL that of piracy. As
soon as the civil war was over, every
act of burning or destroying whalers
done by him on the high seas was an
net of piracy, and il is well known that
the person who commits any such act
of piracy may be tried in any country
| where he happens to be. If, therefore
the law officers of the Crown considered
that Capt. Wnddell had been guilty of
| pirncy, they might have indicted and
tried him in this country. Is it, then,
bscause these learned persons deny that
| Capt. Waddell has been guilty of this
crime that they have refused to put HIM
on his trial? But, beside Capt. wad-
dell, there were the men of his crew.
What of them? Were they all Ameri-
| can subjects-were there no English
citizens among them? Have the Off
GERS of the government assured them
selves on this point2 If there were any
Englishmen, they, like the Captain,
might be pirates but evenifnot pirates,
they had exposed themselves to the
penalties of the Foreign Enlistment
Act, and might be indicted under that
statute.'t a aT- --rrT