Sharp County record., 1880-07-01
II. r., NO. 2,262.

Thirty-one Years-The Legislative Aiie
and Adventures of the Bark Mary Teresa
OK the 18th of December, 1879, the
House of Representatives passed the
following private bill:
BE it enacted, etc., That the sum Of $4,000 be,
anG the same is hereby, appropriated, out OF
any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise ap-
propriated, for indemnity and compensation
to Juliet Leef, widow, and the heirs OF Henry
Leef, deceased, to be paid to them, or to their
legal representative, in full for losses ana
damages sustained by the said Henry Leet IN
his lifetime in consequence of the illegal selz-
ure of the bark Mary Teresa by Alexander II,
Tyler, Consul o, the United States at Bahia'
Brazil.
This bill has strange history and
points q useful moral. Let us, for
convenience and greater elearneSs,
consider it by divisions.
First, the nature of the claim. In
1847, or thirty-two years ago, Mr..
Henry Leef a shipping merchant OF
Baltimore, bought the wreck OF a
French bark, the Mary Teresa, which
had been lost on the coasts of Chesa-
peake Bay. Under our Navigation
laws, prohibiting the giving of an
American registry to foreign-built ships,
the hulk was of no use to anybody, save
for frewood or for sale in foreign mar
kets. Mr.. Leef, himself shipbuilder,
had the wreck repaired and reitted,
and then, after complying with what
legal formalities were necessary, loaded
her with cargo of flour and dispatched
her to Brazil under care Of super
cargo, who had authority to dispose OF
the vessel and freight to the best ad-
vantage. This was very common
practice in those days. Merchants
would buy foreign wreck, patch it
up, load it with ballast or with cargo
and send it to the coasts OF South
America or Africa as a speculation.
Here they were not vexed by prohlbl-
tory Navigation laws, especially if, as
was often the case, they drifted into
the slave trade--a department OF mari
time industry in which ships paperS.o OF
any sort were not insisted upon as IN
dispensably necessary.
Prosperous gales waited the Mary
Teresa to PernambucO, where she dis
charged a part of her cargo, and thence
to Bahia, where her troubles began
AGAIN. 1t has been said of some men
that it had been better they had never
been born, and similarly we may say OF
the Mary Teresa; it would have been an
advantage to all concerned had she
been quietly allowed to rot on the
beaches of the Chesapeake. At Bahia
the United States Consul, either through
stupidity or rascality, made what was
clearly, as is admitted, an Illegal seiz-
ure of the vessel. l shall not dwell on
the legal aspects of the case, because 1t
is unnecessary. As Representative
Beale, of Virginia, remarked to me in
conversation about the claim, any jury
anywhere, and at any time during the
last thirty wears, would have given the
plaintiff damages. We will admit then,
if the reader pleases, that the seizure
was illegal and unwarranted. shall
simply say that both the United States
Minister to Brazil and the Secretary of
the Treasury so understood it, and that
consequently in due time the vessel was
returned to Mr.. Leef.
This being so, the reader may be
prompted to ask, as Representative
Price did at this point in the debate,
"What, then. constitutes The damage?"
This consisted in the loss consequent to
a forced sale of ship and cargo at an
out-of-the-way port, the wages of the
crew due to detentiOnS, ETC., and The
local expenses-the whole amounting,
according to the original statement OF
the claimant, to $500
To speak in legal terms the Govern
ment is not legally responsible for the
torts of its officers. 1.-The law allows
it and the court awards it." as MIR.
Smith, of Pennsylvania, was exceedingly
anxious that the House of Representa-
tives should be instructed. Strictly,
therefore, the damaged man should
have pursued the Consul of the United
States. Perhaps he did, and there is
no telling how far the pursuit has gone,
for both are dead long ago-but that is
anticipating another chapter. How
ever. for good and sufficient reasons
Mr.. Leef did not, legally, pursue Mr..
Tyler, the Consul, but applied with
due regard to time and form, to Con-
gress for relief. 4ee appealed to the the
grace, as it is called, or in other words
to the honor of the Government.
II.
We will next see how this appeal was
met, and this, may advise the reader
in advance, is particularly interesting
chapter of the narrative.
No fault could be or is found with
"the diligence used by Mr.. Leef, D"
His first appeal to Congress was on the