Salmon P. Chase

“ The Government is waging war against organized hostile bodies of men, who assert that they act under the authority of the government of 'sovereign States,' and who are contending for an alleged right of exclusive jurisdiction and control over the whole extent of territory embraced by such States. The duty of the political power is to pursue the struggle until the rebel organization is destroyed, and the supremacy of the Government is everywhere re-established. ”

“ The rule which declares that war makes all the citizens or subjects of one belligerent enemies of the Government and of all the citizens or subjects of the other, applies equally to civil and to international wars. ”

“ Wherever the national troops have re-established order under national rule, the rights of persons and of property have been, in general, respected and enforced. When Flag-officer Farragut, in his first letter to the rebel mayor of New Orleans, demanded the surrender of the city, and promised security to persons and property, he expressed the general policy of the Government. So, also, when Major-General Butler published his proclamation and repeated the same assurance, and made a distinct pledge to neutrals, he made no declaration which was not fully warranted by that policy. ”

“ The idea of protection, considered with reference to a vessel in the situation of the Venice, involves nothing, if not ability to sail on the seas without molestation. But up to the 12th of May, 1862, the blockade of New Orleans was in full force and effectually maintained. It so remained, in fact, till June. General Butler possessed no power to license any vessel to violate the blockade; and yet, what avail was a guaranty of protection to this vessel and cargo, unless they would have been permitted to sail on any destination out of the port of New Orleans? ”

“ It results from this reasoning that the Venice and her cargo, though undoubtedly enemies' property at the time she was anchored in Lake Pontchartrain, cannot be regarded as remaining such after the 6th of May; for it is not asserted that any breach of blockade was ever thought of by the claimant, or that he was guilty of any actual hostility against the national Government.
It is hardly necessary to add that nothing, in this opinion, touches the liability of persons for crimes or of property to seizure and condemnation under any act of Congress. ”

“ The place is yours by the power of brutal force, not by any choice or consent of its inhabitants. As to hoisting any flag other than the flag of our own adoption and allegiance, let me say to you that the man lives not in our midst whose hand and heart would not be paralyzed at the mere thought of such an act ”

“ And with respect to the argument made from the expression 'freedom of trade,' he remarks:
'To this observation I can only say that nugatory as such a clause might be, it is every day's practice to seize all property afloat, and yet to allow a general 'freedom of trade,' exclusive of such particular seizure.'
3. General Butler's proclamation did, in fact, but express an intention to protect the persons named from the army of the United States, for which alone he had authority to speak. ”

“ If at any time delegated to persons in a subordinate station, it must be exercised either by those who have special commissions granted to them for the particular business, or by persons in whom such a power is vested by virtue of any situation to which it may be considered incidental.' The office of General Butler, after the reduction of the city, was to devise and execute measures for the preservation of the peace in the city. ”

“ In adjudicating the public status, at any particular point of time, of territory within a State once involved in the general hostile relation, the court will follow the acts and declarations, touching and respecting such territory, of the political department of the Government. It can do nothing else. ”

“ Transports conveying troops under General Butler reached New Orleans on the 1st of May, and the actual occupation of the city was begun. There was no armed resistance, but there were constant exhibitions of a malignant spirit and temper both by the people and the authorities. On the 2d of May, the landing of troops was completed, and on the 6th a proclamation of General Butler, which had been prepared and dated on the 1st, and printed on the 2d by some soldiers, in an office seized for the purpose, was published in the newspapers of the city. ”

“ The statute of July 13, 1861, authorizes him to interdict all trade and intercourse between all the inhabitants of States in insurrection and the rest of the United States; to subject vessels and cargo to capture and condemnation; and to direct the capture of any vessel belonging in whole or in part to any inhabitant of a State whose inhabitants are in insurrection. ”

“ The government, therefore, has not only not ratified or confirmed in any way the supposed action of General Butler, but it has, by the proclamation of May 12, 1862, repudiated whatever act of his is susceptible of the interpretation contended for by the claimant.
IV. Even if the neutral character of the claimant be sustained, the vessel and cargo must be condemned. In a blockaded port, Cooke bought from the enemy an enemy commercial vessel, and then loaded her during the blockade, with property purchased from the enemy, in the enemy country. ”

“ Vessels and their cargoes belonging to citizens of New Orleans, or neutrals residing there, and not affected by any attempts to run the blockade, or by any act of hostility against the United States after the publication of the proclamation, must be regarded as protected by its terms. ”

“ The claimant, Cooke, was a native British subject, and had resided, and been engaged in business, in New Orleans, without being naturalized as a citizen of the United States, for nearly ten years previously to the capture. About the 1st of April, 1862, he purchased, in the interior of the State of Mississippi, two hundred and five bales of cotton. This cotton, as he alleged, was bought as an investment for 'Confederate notes,' which he had become possessed of in previous employments in New Orleans ”

“ The 'line of insurgent bayonets,' as Grier, J., denominates it. [7] forced back today, may advance to-morrow. Who but the President, whose duty it is to plant the standard of the nation on this hostile soil, can know what measures of war may serve to keep that standard fixed where it may once be planted? ”