The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-02-09
Letter from Admiral Semmcs to the
President.
Mr.. Semmes has written long let

ACSAuChts
MIR. Semmes has written long let
ter to President johnson, setting
forth the grounds upon which he
claims discharge from arrest. The
pith of it is in the concluding para
graphs, which are as follows:
Gone more remark, Mr.. President,
and will forbear to trespass farther
on your time and patience. The act
of war for which I was arrested was
we'll known to the department of the
Government making the arrest, ten
months before the convention was
entered into at Greensboro 1t was
well known to the same departme Mt
that about the middle of Februa ",
1865, I was assigned to the command
Of the James River Squadron, near
Richmond, with the rank of q Rear
Admiral; being thus promoted and en-
ployed by my Government after the
alleged illegal escape off Cherbourg.
Ii the Government then entertained
the design, which it has since devel-
oped, of arresting and trying me for
this alleged breach of tholaws of war,
was it not its duty, both to itself and
me, to have made me an exception to
any military terms it might have been
disposed to grant to our armies? /
put 1t to you, Mr.. President, as man
and magistrate, to say-and / will
rest my case on your answer-whe-
ther 1t was consistent with honor and
fair dealing, for this Government first
to entrap me by means of u military
convention, and then, having me in
It's power, to arrest me and declare
that convention null and void, for
the course recommended to you by
Mr.. Speed comes to this-nothing
more, nothing less.
81 have thus laid before you, te
diously, 1 fear, and yet as concisely
as was consistent with elearness, the
grounds upon which ] claim at your
hands, who are the guardian of the
honor of a great nation, my discharge
from arrest and imprisonment [
have spoken freely and frankly, as it
became an American citizen to speak
to the Chief Magistrate of the Ameri-
can Republic. We live in times of
high party excitement, when men,
unfortunately, are but too prone to
take counsel of their passions; but
passions die, and men die with them;
and after death comes history. In
the future, Mr.. President, when Ame-
RIGA shall have history, my record
and that of the gallant Southern peo-
pie will be engrafted upon, and be-
come a part Of, your history, tne
pages of which You are now acting;
and the prayer Of this petition is,
that you will not permit the honor Of
the American name to be tarnished
by perfidy on those pages. In this
prayer, I have stood strictly upon
legal defences; but should those bar
rlers be beaten down, conscious of
the rectitude of my conduct through
out chequered and eventful career,
when the commerce of half a world
was at my mercy, and when the pas
slons Of men, North and South, were
tossed into whirlpool by the current
events Of themost bloody and terrific
war that the human race had ever
seen, l shall hope to Justify and de-
fend myself against any and all
charges affecting the honor and reTu-
tation of man and soldier. What
ever else may be said of me, I have,
at least, brought no discredit upon
the American name and character. L
am, very respectfully, ETC.,
''RAPHAEL SENIAIES.
'WAsHINGToN CRY, Jan. IS, 1866. "