{"id":"01KG8AMJGMHQM2BW3Q9G8CR49R","cid":"bafkreicccmqpom3rinztphakf5cjbupttlvqtu723zweau5hvq4cns5vme","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11633,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":11569,"text":"No! for his having had the insolence to appeal from an authority, in\r\nmaintaining which the men who tried and condemned him had so strong a\r\nsympathetic interest.\r\n\r\nWhether this story be wholly true or not, or whether the particular law\r\ninvolved prevails, or ever did prevail, in the English Navy, the thing,\r\nnevertheless, illustrates the ideas that man-of-war’s-men themselves\r\nhave touching the tribunals in question.\r\n\r\nWhat can be expected from a court whose deeds are done in the darkness\r\nof the recluse courts of the Spanish Inquisition? when that darkness is\r\nsolemnised by an oath on the Bible? when an oligarchy of epaulets sits\r\nupon the bench, and a plebeian top-man, without a jury, stands\r\njudicially naked at the bar?\r\n\r\nIn view of these things, and especially in view of the fact that, in\r\nseveral cases, the degree of punishment inflicted upon a\r\nman-of-war’s-man is absolutely left to the discretion of the court,\r\nwhat shame should American legislators take to themselves, that with\r\nperfect truth we may apply to the entire body of the American\r\nman-of-war’s-men that infallible principle of Sir Edward Coke: “It is\r\none of the genuine marks of servitude to have the law either concealed\r\nor precarious.” But still better may we subscribe to the saying of Sir\r\nMatthew Hale in his History of the Common Law, that “the Martial Law,\r\nbeing based upon no settled principles, is, in truth and reality, no\r\nlaw, but something indulged rather than allowed as a law.”\r\n\r\nI know it may be said that the whole nature of this naval code is\r\npurposely adapted to the war exigencies of the Navy. But waiving the\r\ngrave question that might be raised concerning the moral, not judicial,\r\nlawfulness of this arbitrary code, even in time of war; be it asked,\r\nwhy it is in force during a time of peace? The United States has now\r\nexisted as a nation upward of seventy years, and in all that time the\r\nalleged necessity for the operation of the naval code—in cases deemed\r\ncapital—has only existed during a period of two or three years at most.\r\n\r\nSome may urge that the severest operations of the code are tacitly made\r\nnull in time of peace. But though with respect to several of the\r\nArticles this holds true, yet at any time any and all of them may be\r\nlegally enforced. Nor have there been wanting recent instances,\r\nillustrating the spirit of this code, even in cases where the letter of\r\nthe code was not altogether observed. The well-known case of a United\r\nStates brig furnishes a memorable example, which at any moment may be\r\nrepeated. Three men, in a time of peace, were then hung at the\r\nyard-arm, merely because, in the Captain’s judgment, it became\r\nnecessary to hang them. To this day the question of their complete\r\nguilt is socially discussed.\r\n\r\nHow shall we characterise such a deed? Says Blackstone, “If any one\r\nthat hath commission of martial authority doth, in time of peace, hang,\r\nor otherwise execute any man by colour of martial law, this is murder;\r\nfor it is against Magna Charta.”* [* Commentaries, b. i., c. xiii.]\r\n\r\nMagna Charta! We moderns, who may be landsmen, may justly boast of\r\ncivil immunities not possessed by our forefathers; but our remoter\r\nforefathers who happened to be mariners may straighten themselves even\r\nin their ashes to think that their lawgivers were wiser and more humane\r\nin their generation than our lawgivers in ours. Compare the sea-laws of\r\nour Navy with the Roman and Rhodian ocean ordinances; compare them with\r\nthe “Consulate of the Sea;” compare them with the Laws of the Hanse\r\nTowns; compare them with the ancient Wisbury laws. In the last we find\r\nthat they were ocean democrats in those days. “If he strikes, he ought\r\nto receive blow for blow.” Thus speak out the Wisbury laws concerning a\r\nGothland sea-captain.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVA5SMZ8S3QW279SSFPM","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJGM6BBWE326D5F8TPE0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMK3JP53Z3JSZAZTWJH4P","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:41.492Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.686Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}