Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-28
ADDRESS BY JUDGE TAYLOR
Career Reviewed of the Commander
of the Alabama.
ANECDOTES OF MANY BATTLES
Men Who Saw Service With Daring
Confederate Sea Fighter Present
at Memorial Meeting.

Southerners all over the country cele-
brated yesterday the Tooth anniversary
of the birth of Raphael Semnes. COM
mander Of the Ala bama, the man who is
said to have caused the federal navy
more trouble in the civil war than all the
rest of the southern navy put together.
and the conditions of whose final capture
raised storm of contention over the ap-
plication Of the principles of international
law.
In the Confederate Memorial Hall last
night southerners in Washington paid
their tribute to the memory of Semmes.
Men who knew him intimately and who
saw service with him in the Confederate
navy were prominent among those who
participated in the exercises.
The principal address was delivered by
Judge Hannis Taylor of the Spanish
treaty claims commission. an Alabamian
and a law partner of Semmes. Capt.
James NJ. Morgan. who served as master
on board the Confederate cruiser Georgia.
which frequently cruised with the Ala
bama told number of anecdotes of
SemmeS.
Luck in Naval Battle.
An interesting incident of the battle
between the Kearsarge and the Alabama.
which resulted in the sinking of the
sometimes. was told by Capt. Morgan.
You can go down to the navy yard
now he said. land see the stern post
of the Kearsarge, with shell imbedded
in it. That shell never exploded. It is
a strange coincidence that twenty min
utes after the shell furrowed it's way
into the Kearsarge a shell struck the
Alabama in exactly the same place. The
she'll in the Alabama exploded, opened
h4 cite 0f chit
the luck in the exploding of those two
shells had been in the other direction
the story of that fight and of the naval
events of the war would have been very
different
The program of exercises was opened
with prayer by the Rev. w. M. Pettis,
after which Maryland. My Maryland"
was sung by choir led by Ernest H.
The Dream of Alabama" were recited
by NJ. E. Kahn. Miss Schade recited
'Semmes' Sword
Judge Taylor. in his address, said that
contradictions. He was an odd mixture
Of the recluse and the man of intense ac-
ton.
AT the outbreak of the civil war;"
headship Of the United States navy was
vested In two southerners. two men of
science. whose fame is now as wide as
the world.
Maury and Semmes.
THE first was Matthew Fountaine
Maury of Virginia, out of whose observa-
tons as to the winds and currents grew
the United States naval observatory and
photographic ONCE. The second was
Raphael Semmes Of Maryland, three years
younger than Maury, who was appointed
a midshipman in the navy by President
John Quincy Adams in 1928. No man
ever united in his person more contra
dictory qualities. BY nature a dreamer.
who loved best to work In the 'unvexed
silence of students CELL the undertone
Of the man was meditatiye. philosophic.
He had passion not only for physical
science, but for jurisprudence.
The important outcome of the career
OF Admiral Semmes was an international
controversy between the two great
branches Of the English-speaking peoples
that eliminated in the making of a new
and vitality important rule of information
al law. When a Confederate cruiser,
propelled by steam, was turned against
commerce new problem was presented
with which the laws of neutrality, as
they then existed were not competent to
deal. AS a trained international lawyer.
Semmes knew perfectly the infirmities of
the British foreign enlistment act Of 1919.
whose prohibitions he was called upon
TO evade. He knew that the trainers of
that act had not possessed sufficient fore
sight to provide for the prevention of
warlike expeditions organized outside Of
neutral territory by the combination of
elements issuing separately from it.
The Responsibility Fixed.
Because there was no existing law to
cover the case, Great Britain and the
United States agreeds in advance, upon
the famous three rules. providing in SUBJ
stance. first the degree Of due diligence