Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

460 ABRIDGMENT OF THE IH. OF L] Relief of Mrs. Susan Decatur. [APRIL, 1834. the Philadelphia and subsequent events pro- tended; it was the order of the agent of the duced to our country. While that vessel was Government which alone prevented the Philain the possession of the Pacha and his court, delphia, after her capture, from being again nothing less than a million of dollars could attached to our navy. purchase the ransom of her crew. By the The right had vested when the flag of the treaty of June, 1805, he gave up all for the enemy was struck. Suppose the captors had sum of sixty thousand dollars, and agreed run the Philadelphia out of the harbor, and that there shall be, from the conclusion of the attached her to the American squadron, contreaty, a firm, inviolable, and universal peace, trary to the orders of the commodore; suppose and a sincere friendship between the President that they had safely brought her into port, and the citizens of the United States of would not the vessel have been adjudged in America on the one part, and tile Bashaw, our courts of admiralty as good prize, and Bey, and subjects of the regency of Tripoli, in would not her value have been distributed as Barbary, on the other, made by the free con- prize money among the captors according to sent of both parties, and on the terms of the the provisions of the prize act? I think there most favored nations. Stipulations which could be no doubt of the fact-and why so? have been inviolably observed: our commerce Not from the circumstance of running the has been, from that time, undisturbed; our Philadelphia from Tripoli to Syracuse. Not trade has remained uninterrupted; and the from the circumstance of bringing her into an name of an American citizen has never failed American port. Those circumstances could since to command respect in that State in not add to or take from the title of the captors. Barbary. No tribute in money or in stores If the captors had not received orders to burn, has been exacted. The memorable successes but Decatur himself, (in the exercise of sound and events of 1804 gave us an influence and a discretion,) after he had acquired the entire character with that and every other Barbary control of the vessel, to prevent her recapture, Power, which has, since that period, been felt had burnt and destroyed her, there could be and acknowledged. no doubt, in that case, that the instant the I have already adverted to some of the cir- torch was applied the right and title was in cumstances which attended the capture of the the captors. Philadelphia, and which of itself produced If the captors had brought the Philadelphia such a revolution in the temper and mind of out of the harbor, and on her homeward the Bashaw of Tripoli. I have already passage had effected an insurance of the adverted to the circumstances under which vessel, and the same had been lost, could any the enterprise was carried on, by whom the doubt exist as to the right of the captors to plan was conceived, and by whom it was exe- claim the benefit of the policy? Certainly cuted. not. What gave the right? The capture. If Regarding the taking of the Philadelphia as the captors had violated any of the revenue a legal capture, I will proceed to show what laws of a neutral power, in the management of rights the captors thereby acquired. For I the vessel captured, and she had been concontend that the subsequent destruction of demned, the original owners could set up no the vessel, by order of Commodore Preble, claim to her-all their right and interest had cannot impair any right which was vested by been divested by the capture. the capture itself. And as it respects the It will be remembered that, at the time of captors, it is. wholly immaterial whether the her capture, the United States were at war order was given for the destruction anterior with Tripoli, and that up to June, 1805, hostilto the engagement, or during the engagement, ities existed between the two nations. It will or after the capture had been achieved. We also be remembered that, in 1813, and in 1814, were at war with Tripoli; the great end and we were at war with England. And the first aim of every battle was to annoy the enemy to case to which I would call the attention of the the greatest possible extent. The question, committee, will be found in the third volume and the only question, is, was the enemy of the laws, p. 590. An act of Congress was deprived of so much of her naval force, by the passed in March, 1804, for the relief of the cappower of our arms: was the Philadelphia tors of the Moorish armed ships Meshouda and captured? No one who reads the evidence can Mirboha. Those vessels had been captured by doubt the fact. The moment when the flag of the John Adams, under the command of Comthe enemy was struck, that moment the right modore Rodgers, and of the Philadelphia, then to the capture vested in the captors. The under the command of Commodore Bainbridge. moment the stripes were raised above the The vessels captured were in force inferior to crescent, that moment the interest of the the vessels making the capture. And the act Bashaw ceased, and the interest of the captors provides that the sum of $8,594 50, being one commenced. moiety of the value of the armed ship Meshouda, To the captors, then, belonged the value of captured by the frigate John Adams, and rethe Philadelphia, at the time and place of her turned to the Emperor of Morocco, be appropricapture, unless there had been subsequent acts ated for the expense of prize money due to the on their part, amounting to a voluntary captors; and that the sum of $5,000 be approabandonment of the prize. This is not con- priated for defraying the expense of prize money

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Title: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
Author: United States. Congress.
Canvas: Page 460
Publication: New York, [etc.]: D. Appleton and company [etc.]; 1857-61.
Subject terms: United States -- Politics and government

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Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

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