The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1873-11-21
The Law of the Case.

At a great Cuban demonstration in New
York, on Monday night, Hon. VIM NJ. Ev-
arts explained the law relating to the seizure
| of the Virginius by the Spaniards He said:
Now, what pretense of justification of this
cruelty, of this bloodthirstiness, Is made 2
War this an armed ship an instrument of
war, as had she offered battle, and did she Of
fer battle on the seasg BY nomeans? Was
it ship furnished with an expedition which
was TO make a predatory descent on the Is.
land of Cuba, and after burning and destroy.
ing, make way with what booty could be
gathercdy By no means. There's no pre-
tencc ofeither. Was this extremity of de-
struction of life visited upon persons engaged
in resistance, and, however savage, was it ex-
cused by the hot blood of combat, and by the
carnestness of sclf-detensc? By no means
These men were in their power. They
were within the dominion ola civilized ma
ton. If they had violated its laws, and if its
laws, and if its authorities had jurisdiction
over them, they had power to try and CON
vict and to fuanish the appropriate punish
mcnt. We had an absolute treaty with Spain.
and for every offence committed within lier
jurisdiction every citizens of ours should be
entitled to trial according to the orderly pro-
cess oflaw, and should be accorded the right
ofhaving his luwyers, his attorneys, his no.
taries, his advocates, to defend him before
the tribunal. Was, then, this war? And if
there were war, then these were prisoners
of war, unarmed and without resistance, and
what laws of war are there that permit the
visitations Of vengeance upon prisoners of
war? Now, we must understand that to the
public law there are only two situations
which are reconized, and which have their
al int n nj md adj
authorities.
One is q state of peace, the other is state
of war, and there is no intermediate state
that the public law deals with, or that nations
tolerate as being set up as against them, to
excuse, to justify, to account for the dealing
ola nation that has brought itself into ac-
countability with another nation. If there
were peace, whatever the crimes of these
men, meditated or perpetrated, then there
was no power in Spain, no right in Spain,
under the public law of nations, under her
solemn treaty with us, under the civilization
that binds the system ofintercourse together
among the nations making up the circle of
our cosmopolitan community, except judicial,
by trial on evidence, with proper opportuni-
ties of Defense to establish the guilt, search
in their laws for the appropriate punishment,
and inflict it by a record that could prove
how and why it was done, and which should
furnish their justification when called to &C.
count by the Government whose citizens or
subjects had suffered. Ifthere were war, and
citizens, ships, or property of foreign nations
were engaged aiding one of the belligerents
by the carriage of arms or by the carriage of
troops, whatever might be the rights of pow
er on the sea, except in the struggles which
war justifes then against prisoners of war,
liberation of modern civilization admits no
severity except that of coercion and repres-
sion, and not of vengeance.