Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-05-03
\ GREAT TRAGEDY RECALLED
Some of the Particulars of an Old-Time
National Sensation.
s.. L0Uis Republican,

kHCttcttft.
! The death. as reported by telegraph ON
! Saturday, Of Mrs. Alexander Slidell Mac
kenZie. at the residence of her son. Briga-
dier General Il. :. Mackenzie. United
States army, Santa Fe, y. NJ. will recall
to mind the excitement created some forty
years ago by the hanging of Spencer.
/ Cromwell and Small on board the
| brig Somers, commanded by her
/ distinguished husband. Commodore
Alex. Slidell Mackenzie. The Com
mOdOre had achieved quite a literary
reputation, and his name was familiar to
American readers. He was the author of
"a Year in Spain. by a Young Ameri-
can and Spain Revisited" He was
also author of a popular life of Capt Paul
Jones and some other works which were
fIYOrably received, besides being a
valued contributor to the hRickerb0cker
and other periodicals of that dav. The
SOmers went out in 1872 with crew of
l20 men and SO apprentice boys under
age, and on the return from the coast of
Africa, While approaching the Isle of
Pines, n mutiny was suspected, which
demanded severe measures, as the officers
believed, to secure the safety of the shin.
After an investigation the young men
above mentioned were hung to the yard
arm. 1t was believed that the con
spiratOrs intended to murder the
officers and divert the vessel INTO
piratical cruiser. Commodore
Mackenzie on reaching New York
marched with his crew to the nearest
church and returned thanks to Almighty
God for their safe deliverance. He also
sent on to Washington a sealed dispatch.
conveying the first news of the tragedy
that had been enacted. The intelligence.
as spread through the country, caused
sensation, and what added to the interest
was the fact that Spencer, the ring
leader in the suspected mutinY.
was son of John G. Spen-
Ger, the then Secretary Of War under
President Tyler's administration. AS was
natural, Secretary Spencer wrote a letter,
which was extensively published, de-
nOuncing the act of Mackenzie as illegal
and unnecessary, and saying that if there
were any grounds for believing that mu-
tiny was contemplated the prisoners,
after their arrest and confinement in
irons, should and could have been
brought with safety to the United
States, where they could then undergo a
legal trial. The Commodore was tried by
a Court of Inquiry, and also by court
martial, the trial lasting two months, and
he wassacquitted. Complaint was made
during the trial because Benjamin f.
Butler and Charles O'COnor, employed by
the father of young Spencer, were not al
lowed to sit by dput questions approved
by the court. Whatever may be thought
of the character and necessity of the exc
cutiOn at this late day, the
act Of Mackenzie was cOmplimented by
the merchants of New York and applaud
ed by the press at the time, and the pub
lie voice generally was in his favor.
Regarding the further history of COmmO-
dOre Mackenzie, it may be stated that five
years after the tragedy on the big SOmers
the Mexican war broke out, and
towards its close Mackenzie was
sent on a secret mission by President
Polk cat the instance of the late Sena-
tor Slidell, brother of Alexander !
Slidell Mackenzie, whose name was
changed to meet some bequest, to Santa
Anna, then at Havana), with a scheme to
restore that eX-dictatOr to Mexico, upon
some agreement advantageous to the
United States; but the conference did not
succeed. Mackenzie, a few years later.
was killed by fall from horse, and the |
brig SOmers went down to the bottom of
the sea with all on board.