The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-02
FIGHT ON THE THREE FRIENDS.
PROCEEDINGS TO BE BEGUN ON A
CHARGE OF PIRACY.

Attorney General Harmon Sends the
Instructions to the United states
District Attorney at Jacksonville.
COnfiscatiOn of the Vessel the OBJ
iect of the Proceedings and Not
Prosecution of Her Officers and
Crew.
Washington, Feb. Attorney General
Harmon to-day instructed the United
States district attorney at Jacksonville to
proceed against the Three Friends as
pirate. The prosecution will be against
the vessel and not against her officers and
crew in accordance with section 4,291 OF
the Revised Statutes, which reads as fol-
lows: ANY vessel built, purchased, fitted
out in whole or in part or held for the
purpose of being employed in the commits
sion of any piraticai aggression, search,
restraint, depreciation, or seizure, or in
the commission of any other act of pi-
racy, as defined by the law of nations,
shall be liable 10 be captured and brought
into any port of the United States if found
upon the high seas, or TO be seized If found
in any port or place within the United
States whether the same shall have actual
ly sailed upon any piratical expedition or
not, and whether any act of piracy shall
have been committed or attempted by such
vessel or not and any slch vessel may
be adjudged and condemned, if captured
by a vessel authorized as hereinafter men
toned to the use of the United States and
to that of the captors, and if seized by
collector, surveyor or marshal, than to the
use of the United States"
The purpose of the Attorney General in
bringing the prosecution is largely to test
the opinion recently given by Judge Locke
of the United States court at Jackson
Vile, in the case of the Three Friends.
In dscharging her officers from custody
Judge Locke held that there was no state
of war in Cuba, and the Three Friends
was not, therefore, engaged in political
mission. According to the understand
ing at the department. of justice, this
opinion clearly made the Three Friends
amenable to prosecution for piracy, grant
ing that the statements made through
certain New York papers are true that
she was armed and fired upon by Span
ish vessel for if her mission was nom
political she was engaged in armed at
tack on or resistance to a friendly state.
The prosecution has an additional inter-
est from the fact that the case will be
heard before Judge Locke. No one here,
however, believes that the yarns about
tary Hotchkiss gun on a well equipped
Spanish gunboat can be sustained by the
slightest fragment of proof.
Washington, Feb. 1.-Attorney General
Harmon to-day submitted to the supreme
court.o OF the United States his petition for
a writ Of certeriorari to bring up at once
for review here the record of the United
States court in Florida in the case of the
flibustering schooner Three Friends, -
Notwithstanding the appeal of the case
| to the circuit court of appeals He cou-
pied with the petition motion to ad-
vance the case for an early hearing, de-
| spite the fact that the court was about
to- enter upon it's February recess.
The attorney general spoke of the im-
! portance of the case and the necessity
for an early decision, saying the questions
! involved were likely to arise at any time
on the Atlantic coast The rights of in
| dividuals, he said, sank into insignificance
| in comparison with the public interests
at stake. The owners of the vessel, he
| said, ought not to object to the issue of
| the writ because if their contention was
sustained early adjudication would GER
| tainly not injure them, while if the case
went against them the value of a small
| boat was all that was involved.
| w. Hallett Phillips of the counsel of
| the appellees, argued that a writ should
not issue because there was nothing in
| the record to show that the case had
| yet got into the circuit court of appeals,
| whence it was sought to bring il to the
| supreme court of the United States. At
| ter taking time for considerat ton the chief
| justice announced that petition had been
granted and that argument would be
heard on Monday the 18th inst.