Abraham Lincoln Related
Abraham Lincoln 1864 Imprint Titled: "Message from the President of the United States" Regarding the French Ship "La Manche" which was Illegally Captured by the U.S. Navy, in 1862
February 16, 1864-Dated Civil War Period, 38th Congress, Executive Document No. 19, a "Message from the President of the United States," Signed in the printed type by Abraham Lincoln, Complete, Extremely Fine.
38th Congress, Executive Document No. 19 titled, "Message from the President of the United States", Signed in type by "Abraham Lincoln" and also by Secretary of State "William H. Seward". Measures about 5.75" x 8.75", 16 pages, Official Imprint very clean with only some faint humidity tone at the front page bottom edge.
In this Imprint document, President Lincoln transmits to Congress "a report from the Secretary of State, with the accompanying papers, relative to the law case filed claim on this government of the owners of the French ship La Manche, and recommend an appropriation for the satisfaction of the claim, pursuant to the award of the arbitrators".
The French ship La Manche was illegally captured by a U.S. Naval Vessel, in 1862, under the erroneous conclusion that she had running the blockade, and here Lincoln and Seward ask Congress to award the owners of the ship, as well as the crew and officers, the amount awarded by arbitrators for damages. Contents are tight. A scarce historic naval related Imprint.
SEE: The La Manche, 14 F. Cas. 965, 25 Law Rep. 585, 2 Spr. 207 (1863)
June 1863 United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
14 F. Cas. 965, 25 Law Rep. 585, 2 Spr. 207 - https://cite.case.law/f-cas/14/965/
Damages " Prize"Action against Captor" Probable Cause for Capture.
1. Captors are not liable for damages in a case where the vessel captured presents probable cause for the capture, even though she was led into the predicament in which she is found, involuntarily, and by the mistakes of the revenue officers of the captors' own government.
2. What constitutes probable cause, which will justify a capture.
This ship was taken on the high seas by the United States ship-of-war Ino, commanded by Captain Dev-ens, and sent in for adjudication upon the supposition that she had come from a Confederate port in violation of the blockade. She arrived at this port on the 28th day of August, 1862. The cargo was so far unladen as to exhibit the character of the whole; and it having been ascertained, by due inquiry, that the vessel had sailed from New Orleans with this cargo on board, as set forth in her documents, the vessel and cargo were, on the 27th day of September, 1S62, restored to the claimants with the consent of the captors. The respective owners of the vessel and cargo duly interposed claims for costs and damages, consequent upon the arrest and detention of their property. Upon this claim, evidence has been taken and fully heard, and able and elaborate arguments have been presented by the counsel on both sides. It appears that this was a French ship, owned by the claimants. Messrs. Lerou Frres & Co., of Havre, and that her officers and crew were Frenchmen. In the month of June, 1862, she was at St. Jago de Cuba. She there learned that New Orleans had been opened to foreign trade, by proclamation of the president of the United States, and sailed for that port, where she arrived on the 7th day of July, and soon afterwards discharged her cargo, and subse*966quently took on board a cargo consisting of 2S6 hogsheads of tobacco and 20,000 staves, which were shipped and owned by the claimant. Simon Jos Campo, of Valencia, in Spain.
To judge Captain Devens' conduct rightly, we must see how the circumstances were presented to his mind, without the information which has since been acquired. The document called the manifest, particularly in the printed declaration and oath, not only contained that startling clause against re-landing the cargo in the Confederate States, but was, in its general form and construction, quite different from any used at the Boston custom house, and also, it is believed, from those used in other ports of the United States. The document bears upon it marks of a Confederate origin, warranting not only a strong suspicion, but an actual belief, that it came from a Confederate custom house. Indeed, that theory has been adopted by the counsel on both sides. They suppose that all the printed part of this document was of Confederate origin; that it was a form adopted and used by the rebels while they were in possession of New Orleans, and was by them left there, and was made use of for this vessel, without erasing the clause respecting the Confederate States, or making any addition or alteration substituting or naming the United States. This theory is adopted after it has been ascertained that this document was actually obtained at New Orleans, and it is certainly extraordinary that an officer of the customs should furnish or authenticate a Confederate blank without erasing the part which marked it as a Confederate document, or adding any thing to show that it was issued in the name of the United States. But the doubt presented to Captain Devens was, whether this document had been actually furnished by the United States custom house at New Orleans.
To this condition of the papers were added *968the other circumstances already referred to, viz., the disproportion between the cargo and the apparent carrying capacity of the vessel, the length of her passage, and that, too, without having seen an American man-of-war, the changing her course, and making additional sail. These were untoward circumstances, calculated to strengthen the unfavorable impression which the condition of the documents had created. These circumstances, thus combined, not only warrant the belief that Captain Devens, in sending the La Manche in for further investigation, acted with honest intentions and from a sense of duty; but they go further, and relieve him from any imputation of negligence, or rashness, or other culpability.
On the other hand, there is now no doubt that the La Manche was engaged in a lawful voyage, with the most innocent intentions; that her whole cargo was taken on board at New Orleans, and that she sailed from that port directly to the place where she was captured. On being boarded, Captain Bourhis promptly produced all his papers, and, on doubts arising, voluntarily accompanied the boarding-officer to the Ino, and there fairly and frankly answered all questions put to him, as far as they could be understood, and he could render his answers intelligible. All his French documents were perfectly correct, and there is no reason to doubt tnat he verily believed that those in English were equally so.
In U. S. v. Riddle, 5 Cranch [9 U. S.] 311, the supreme court of the United States held, that a doubt as to the law justified the seizure, and refused to award damages to the claimants, although the doubt was by no means a grave one. But there is another decision by the same high tribunal, which wears a different aspect, " The Charming Betsy, 2 Cranch [6 U. S.] 64. This vessel was seized on the ocean for an alleged violation of a statute of the United States. The supreme court held that the circumstances presented by the vessel did not constitute probable cause, and that the captor was liable in damages, although his orders were such as might well have led him to believe that there was probable cause. They further speak of him as the victim of a mistake, which he had committed. That decision is of the highest authority, and absolutely binding on this court, except so far as it may be modified by the subsequent case of the U. S. v. Riddle, above referred to. But, taken in its utmost extent, it falls far short of sustaining the present claim. There, the vessel presented no reasonable cause for capture, and, in supposing that she did so. the captor made a mistake of the law. In the present case, the La Manche did present reasonable cause, and Captain Devens made no mistake of the law.
It thus appears, upon examination of the authorities, that there are numerous cases in which the captured vessel was in no fault, and had not, under a true construction of the law, presented even ground of suspicion, and yet the captor was exonerated because he acted under an honest mistake of the law. But not a single case has been found in which the captor has been held liable, when, upon a true construction of the law, the vessel herself presented reasonable cause for the capture; and such is the case of the La Manche.
I am thus brought to the conclusion that this claim for costs and damages against the captors cannot be sustained ...