He Knows That Upon Such Men, And Their
Good Opinion Of Him, He Depends For His Bread.
So far from their
testimony being of any value in determining what his conduct would
be at sea, one would expect that the master who would abuse and
impose upon a man under his power, would be the most compliant
and deferential to his employers at home.
As to the appeal made in the captain's behalf on the ground of
his being poor and having persons depending upon his labor for
support, the main and fatal objection to it is, that it will
cover every case of the kind, and exempt nearly the whole body
of masters and officers from the punishment the law has provided
for them. There are very few, if any masters or other officers of
merchantmen in our country, who are not poor men, and having either
parents, wives, children, or other relatives, depending mainly or
wholly upon their exertions for support in life. Few others follow
the sea for subsistence. Now if this appeal is to have weight with
courts in diminishing the penalty the law would otherwise inflict,
is not the whole class under a privilege which will, in a degree,
protect it in wrong-doing? It is not a thing that happens now and
then. It is the invariable appeal, the last resort, of counsel,
when everything else has failed. I have known cases of the most
flagrant nature, where after every effort has been made for the
captain, and yet a verdict rendered against him, and all other
hope failed, this appeal has been urged, and with such success
that the punishment has been reduced to something little more
than nominal, the court not seeming to consider that it might be
made in almost every such case that could come before them.
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