Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1872-08-10

ADMIRAL. SEMMEs-Why He Uds mol
Puni,hed-TestimOny of His Ensmirs.
In the last number of the Atlantic
Monthly John A. Bolles, naval solicitor,
concludes his answer to the question
"Why Semmes, of the Alabama, was
not tried" Speaking Of the discharge
ofthe prisoner without trial, the writer
says:
This determination was reached af-
terpatient thought andthorQpgh iuvesti-
cation, processes that consumed several
months, during which Semmes was nat
uraly vexed aud annoyed by what SEEM
ed to him a needless and cruel delay.
But h. was the gamer by this delibera-
tiCn and delay, and the administration
was not dilatory in any of its move
lnents in his case, except in making his
arrest. Reviewing the various steps of
the investigation, we SEE that it was re-
solved not 10 try him by military court
for mere piracy or treason; not to try
him at ali, unless, upon due inquest, 1t
should appear certain that he had often
ded against the code of the laws of war;
that is violation of neutral rights should
be left for the consideration of neutral
powers; that his adoption of the 'des-
tructive plan as to his captures should
not be charged as an offense that his
treatment of captiyes had been far from
cruel or unjust; that to destroy the
lighthouses of blockaded ports is no
crime in one of the belligerents that he,
as belligerent, was entitled TO practice
all the stratagems and deceptions known
to civilized warfare, and was also emit
tied to all the protection and adyanta-
ges which the law of war conters upon
bellgerents; and that he was not charg-
able with per6dy at Cherbourg until at
ter his vessel went down. And now,
at last, it was determined that, because
his neglect to complete his surrender,
and his return to the rebel service, just
at the end of the war, had produced no
appreciable difference in the result OF
the rebellion, but were, practically, OF
no consequence to either party to the
strife, and because the leaders of the re-
bellion were still at large, and even the
most red handed raiders and bush
whackers' and jayhawkers were left
'unwhipt Of justice, he should be set at
liberty and allowed to return,if hepleas-
ed to his Southern home.
LAS soon as this conclusion was
reached Semmes was released from Gus
tody. Had he been hurried to trial as
soon as arrested, AMI brought to Wash
iugton, although nothing but his escape
in the Deerhound, his subsequent ne
glect to give himself up, and his return
to actual service in the Confederate army
and navy might have been proved
against him, and no evidence but his
own admissions might have been pro
duced upon the trial, and with the feel
ings of dislike and hatred which then
burned against him, he might have been
sentenced to death, and like Marshal
Ney, have been promptly executed.
But four months of delay diverted the
public feeling to matters more interes-
ting than his case and to persons more
important than him And during those
four months the persevering search for
proofs of his actual conduct had dispell-
ed hundred calumniOus rumors against
him, and relieved his character from
vast amount of Indeseryed obloquy, so
that, although not shown to have been
free from all violation Of the laws of
war, he was discovered to be by no
means the guilty monster of the belief
that prevailed againt him up to the close
of 1865"