The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-07-15
THE COMPETITOR CASE
And Hawaiian Annexation Reported
,1.> to the Senate by ...-,.
FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE.
The Repol DenOunces the Trial of tho
Competitor Prisoners, and Urges
That ThcIr Release Be Demanded.
Tho Annexation of Hawaii Favored.


That Their Release Be Demanded.
The Annexation of Hawaii Favored.
Washington, July 15.-The senate was
in deadlock for several hours yester-
day. with business at standstill.
while calls Of the senate, roll calls and
other parliamentary expedients were
resOrted to. 1t was due to the effort
to secure action on the resolution Of
Mr.. Harris, of Kansas, designed to
prevent the disposal of the government
lien on the Union Pacific railroad under
the terms of an alleged agreement.
There were many roll calls on Mr..
Harris nation to consider the reso-
luton. quorums appearing and disap-
pearing, and from IL to O'Clock no
final vote on the motion was secured.
1t finally went over until today.
Senator Davis, chairman Of the COM
mlttee on foreign relations, late yester-
day afternoon reported a resolution
favoring the ratification of the Haw.
allan annexation treaty. There was no
reference to the report beyond an in
quiry by Senator White as to whether
there would be an effort to take up the
treaty at the present session. To this
Mr.. Davis replied that he was not now
prepared to say.
Senator Davis also reported from the
committee the following joint resolu-
ton
That the president be empowered to
take such measures as in his judgment
may be necessary to obtain the release
from the Spanish government of ona
Melton, Alfred A. Laborde and William
Gildea and the restoration of the
schooner Competitor to her owner, and
tc secure this he is authorized and re-
quested to employ such means or eX-
ercise such power as may be necessary.
The report reCites all the facts that
have been brought out in the Com
petitor case, her ownership, capture
and the citizenship of the three men
named in the resolution, together with
the proceedings thus far had by the
Spanish authorities, the trial, sentence.
etc. The report charaCteriZes 1t
"mockery of trial" The af1idavits Of
the parties are cited to show that they
We're coerced into Spanish waters, in
which case they were not amenable to
IL spanish JullSGlClloIl. HtS "eIe Hut
subject to piracy and intended no act
of depreciation on the high seas, nor
were they subject to the Spanish au-
thorities on account of alleged rebel
lion.
The report then says:
Irrespective of any of the foregoing
considerations, the conduct of Spain
constitutes such delay and denial OF JUS
tice and such an actual inhiction of in.
justice upon these men as to make 1t the
duty of this government to demand rep
araton therefor irrespective of any act
which these prisoners may have COM
mitted up to the date of their capture.
Among the acts of reparations which
ought to be demanded should be the
release of these captives.'
The report declares that the rights
of the men have been violated, and con-
tinues: '"They have been tried and
sentenced to death by summary naval
court martial, in proceeding which
has been annulled by the appellate
courts of Madrid, upon the ground
that such court martial had no juris-
diction whatever over them. Ten
months have elapsed since this death
sentence was annulled, and they have
not again been brought to trial In the
meantime they have been subject to
protractcd preliminary examinations
preparatory to their trial by another
court martial, which differs from the
first only in the fact that it is less
summary and more formal in its char
acter than the first
ha n
first trial did not know until after the
testimony for the prosecution was in
that an interpreter was present, and
the only translation made to them was
at the close of the sanguinary pro-
ceedings, when they were asked If
they had anything to say, and neces-
sarly they could have little to say,
yet one of them protested that he had
never understood one word of the pro-
ceedings against him, by which his life
was adjudged forfeited.
with these protests" continues the
report, "the trial ended and the de-
PENDANTS were Immediately sentenced
to death. 1t is now IA months since
they were arrested, during all of which
time they have been held in the Ca
and Laborde are unqestionably citizens
of the United States, Gildea is a Brit
ish subject. but he was sailor upon
an American vessel when taken, was
acting as its mate, and it is the opln-
ion of your committee that he is en-
titled to be protected by this govern
ment He was serving under the flag,
and he is entitled to be protected by It.
IN our opinion these acts of delay
and denial of Justice, and of the in
Fiction of injustice, vitiate and make
void any right which Spain had in the
beginning Of this transaction to pro-
ceed criminally against any of these
men. This government should demand
that they be set at liberty, and that
the Competitor be restored to the
owner, as there is no evidence that the
owner knew anything about the di-
vergence of the vessel from its regular
voyage to Lemon City, Fla"