{"id":"01KG8AMJG8JF9M5C9NXPJW406V","cid":"bafkreidpqlvxmq2c3gphhttmeazxkivfektyn2knphvoamrqe527x4ytme","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11305,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":11237,"text":"hangest round our necks, when all the rest of this world are against\r\nus—tell us, hangman, what punishment is this, horribly hinted at as\r\nbeing worse than death? Is it, upon an empty stomach, to read the\r\nArticles of War every morning, for the term of one’s natural life? Or\r\nis it to be imprisoned in a cell, with its walls papered from floor to\r\nceiling with printed copies, in italics, of these Articles of War?\r\n\r\nBut it needs not to dilate upon the pure, bubbling milk of human\r\nkindness, and Christian charity, and forgiveness of injuries which\r\npervade this charming document, so thoroughly imbued, as a Christian\r\ncode, with the benignant spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. But as it\r\nis very nearly alike in the foremost states of Christendom, and as it\r\nis nationally set forth by those states, it indirectly becomes an index\r\nto the true condition of the present civilization of the world.\r\n\r\nAs, month after month, I would stand bareheaded among my shipmates, and\r\nhear this document read, I have thought to myself, Well, well,\r\nWhite-Jacket, you are in a sad box, indeed. But prick your ears, there\r\ngoes another minute-gun. It admonishes you to take all bad usage in\r\ngood part, and never to join in any public meeting that may be held on\r\nthe gun-deck for a redress of grievances. Listen:\r\n\r\nArt. XIII. “If any person in the navy shall make, or attempt to make,\r\nany mutinous assembly, he shall, on conviction thereof by a court\r\nmartial, suffer death.”\r\n\r\nBless me, White-Jacket, are you a great gun yourself, that you so\r\nrecoil, to the extremity of your breechings, at that discharge?\r\n\r\nBut give ear again. Here goes another minute-gun. It indirectly\r\nadmonishes you to receive the grossest insult, and stand still under\r\nit:\r\n\r\nArt. XIV. “No private in the navy shall disobey the lawful orders of\r\nhis superior officer, or strike him, or draw, or offer to draw, or\r\nraise any weapon against him, while in the execution of the duties of\r\nhis office, on pain of death.”\r\n\r\nDo not hang back there by the bulwarks, White-Jacket; come up to the\r\nmark once more; for here goes still another minute-gun, which\r\nadmonishes you never to be caught napping:\r\n\r\nPart of Art. XX. “If any person in the navy shall sleep upon his watch,\r\nhe shall suffer death.”\r\n\r\nMurderous! But then, in time of peace, they do not enforce these\r\nblood-thirsty laws? Do they not, indeed? What happened to those three\r\nsailors on board an American armed vessel a few years ago, quite within\r\nyour memory, White-Jacket; yea, while you yourself were yet serving on\r\nboard this very frigate, the Neversink? What happened to those three\r\nAmericans, White-Jacket—those three sailors, even as you, who once were\r\nalive, but now are dead? “_Shall suffer death!_” those were the three\r\nwords that hung those three sailors.\r\n\r\nHave a care, then, have a care, lest you come to a sad end, even the\r\nend of a rope; lest, with a black-and-blue throat, you turn a dumb\r\ndiver after pearl-shells; put to bed for ever, and tucked in, in your\r\nown hammock, at the bottom of the sea. And there you will lie,\r\nWhite-Jacket, while hostile navies are playing cannon-ball billiards\r\nover your grave.\r\n\r\nBy the main-mast! then, in a time of profound peace, I am subject to\r\nthe cut-throat martial law. And when my own brother, who happens to be\r\ndwelling ashore, and does not serve his country as I am now doing—when\r\n_he_ is at liberty to call personally upon the President of the United\r\nStates, and express his disapprobation of the whole national\r\nadministration, here am I, liable at any time to be run up at the\r\nyard-arm, with a necklace, made by no jeweler, round my neck!\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTJYG42KGH7X4DHPS9V9","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJGBRX4NTQ7MDD8RX8A1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJG8X04C7WX9XA3KK6K1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:41.480Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.278Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}