Title: Walt Whitman to the Editors of The Daily Crescent, 22 September 1848
Date: September 22, 1848
Whitman Archive ID: med.00969
Source: The location of the original manuscript is unknown. Whitman's letters to Alexander Hamilton Hayes (1806–1866) and John Eliot McClure (ca. 1809–1869)—the editors of The Daily Crescent (New Orleans, Louisiana)—were published in that newspaper. The transcription presented here is derived from The Daily Crescent (2 October 1848): [2]. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schoeberlein, Zachary Turpin, Stephanie Blalock, Jeff Hill, and Amanda J. Axley
NEW YORK,
September 22.
While so much sympathy is exhausted on all kinds of suffering, upon land, it is often forgotten that there exists an unreaped field for the exercise of the philanthropic spirit, at sea. At sea, there is still no republicanism; absolute power prevails. Leaving the yet mooted point whether official despotism is requisite to safety on shipboard, I think few will refuse to agree that cruelty and oppression are not; it is undeniable, however, that an immense amount of such cruelty continues to be exercised from officers to their crews. The proportion of good officers, manly, and well-liked by their men, to those who are always dictatorial and brutal is perhaps great, the latter being in a considerable minority. But this minority have it in their power to cause much suffering, and do cause it in a way the heart revolts at.
When a case comes before our courts involving the relation between officers and their men, I have noticed that the court generally takes it for granted that the officers are right and the men wrong, unless plainly proved to the contrary. This probably arises from the conservatism which is in the very nature of law and lawyers. So poor Jack, opposed to wealth, cunning and rank, does not often get the best side of the argument, even when he deserves it.
Yesterday there came up in this city, before the U. S. District Court, a case where the crime charged is of so revolting a nature that public indignation could hardly be too severely visited upon the offender, if proved guilty. It involves a vessel which sailed lately from your port, (for Antwerp, but it seems has put in here,) and whose officers and men are doubtless known in New Orleans. Charles A. Bertrand,1 master of the ship Alhambra, and Henry Watson,2 mate, were arraigned for the murder of Albert Burgess,3 one of their crew. The first witness examined was Edward Murphy,4 who testified as follows:
No attempt was made to invalidate this testimony. The principal facts were corroborated, indeed, by the second mate, who was brought on for the defence. This being a preliminary arrangement, the judge committed both Bertrand and Watson for manslaughter, telling them that they might apply to him in the morning in relation to bail—that from the captain he should require heavy bail, but with the mate he would deal more leniently.
It is time Congress passed an explicit law to prohibit this disgusting practice of whipping naked men on board ship, at the pleasure of masters. One is tempted to inquire, when hearing repeatedly of these whippings, whether we are really in advance of the bambooing Turks, and knouting Russians, in many points. Of a truth we are not. Do you recollect that a short cruise of the U. S. brig Somers, (manned by young apprentices from the U. S. Naval School,) under command of Slidell Mackenzie,5 a few summers since, was signalized by the bestowal of some twenty-five hundred lasheson the bare skin of those "free born" American youths?
MANHATTAN.
1. Charles A. Bertrand was the master of the ship Alhambra, which left New Orleans for Antwerp on August 29, 1848. A few days later Bertrand gave the order for the second mate to flog a sailor named Alfred Davoy (he was also referred to as David Cooper and Albert Burgess in newspapers of the period) for not performing his duties to the Captain's satisfaction (see "Law Intelligence," New York Daily Herald, September 22, 1848, 4). Davoy died as a result of his injuries, and Bertrand was tried for Davoy's murder in New York in August of 1848. According to a November 18, 1848, article, Bertrand was not convicted of the crime (see [In the Case of Captain Charles A. Bertrand], Alexandria Gazette, November 18, 1848, 2). [back]
2. Henry Watson was the second mate on the ship Alhambra. [back]
3. Albert Burgess, as Whitman calls him here, was also known as Alfred Davoy and David Cooper in 1848 newspapers. He is described as a Scottish sailor on the Alhambra, who was flogged so severely that he died as a result of his injuries. [back]
4. Little is known about Edward Murphy, who was an Irish sailor, and member of the crew of the Alhambra. He testified at the trial of Charles A. Bertrand and Henry Watson for the murder by flogging of the sailor Alfred Davoy. [back]
5. Alexander Slidell Mackenzie (1803–1867) was an officer in the United States Navy, where he served for more than thirty years. He served as Captain of the USS Somers, and his crew on at least some voyages was made up primariliy of naval apprentices. He was captaining the Somers in 1842, when a mutiny occurred, and Mackenzie ordered the three suspected mutineers executed. Although Mackenzie was later exonerated from any wrongdoing, the controversial incident would shape the remainder of his career. [back]