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Speaker 1: You are listening to History on Trial, a production of

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Speaker 1: iHeart podcasts. Listener Discretion advised the prisoners had to die.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't an easy conclusion to reach. Seven officers of

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Speaker 1: the USS Summers had spent all of November thirtieth, eighteen

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Speaker 1: forty two locked in the wardroom of the ship, questioning witnesses,

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Speaker 1: gathering the full story. The next day, December first, they

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Speaker 1: presented their findings to their captain, Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie.

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Speaker 1: After as dispassionate and deliberate a consideration of the case

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Speaker 1: as the exigencies of the time would admit, the officers wrote,

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Speaker 1: we have come to a cool, decided, and unanimous opinion

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Speaker 1: that the prisoners have been guilty of a full and

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Speaker 1: determined intention to commit a mutiny on board of this

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Speaker 1: vessel of a most atrocious nature. What was more, the

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Speaker 1: letter continued, there was no way to keep the prisoners

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Speaker 1: safely away from the rest of the crew and transport

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Speaker 1: them back to the United States for court martial. The

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Speaker 1: safety of the public property, the lives of ourselves and

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Speaker 1: of those committed to our charge, the officers concluded, require

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Speaker 1: that the prisoners should be put to death. Who were

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Speaker 1: these prisoners? There were three of them. One of them

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Speaker 1: was an officer himself, Midshipman Philip Spencer, age eighteen. He

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Speaker 1: was alleged to be the ringleader of the mutiny plot.

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Speaker 1: His two accomplices were a mismatched pair, the tallest man

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Speaker 1: on the ship, Chief Bosun's mate, Samuel Cromwell, and the

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Speaker 1: shortest seamen, Elisious Mall. After learning about the mutiny plot,

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Speaker 1: Commander Mackenzie had arrested the men, Spencer first on November

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Speaker 1: twenty sixth, and then Cromwell and Small on the twenty seventh.

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Speaker 1: Even after these arrests, it seemed that the ship was

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Speaker 1: not safe. The prisoners were being kept on the quarter deck,

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Speaker 1: a raised deck behind the main mast, from which they

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Speaker 1: could see the crew at work, and the crew could

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Speaker 1: see them. Two Mackenzie and his officers had seen meaningful

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Speaker 1: looks and maybe even hand gestures exchanged between the prisoners

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Speaker 1: and the crew. How many conspirators did the plot have?

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Speaker 1: At any minute, Mackenzie feared some signal would trigger the

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Speaker 1: crew to rise up and rebel. That could mean dozens

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Speaker 1: of deaths. There were one hundred and twenty Navy sailors

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Speaker 1: on board the USS Summers, Commander Mackenzie stealed his resolve.

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Speaker 1: Executing prisoners was a grave matter, and it was technically

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Speaker 1: outside of his legal rights as a captain, but he

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Speaker 1: was convinced that it was the only path forward. Mackenzie

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Speaker 1: ordered that Spencer, Cromwell and Small be put to death.

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Speaker 1: He called the crew to the deck. If there were

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Speaker 1: indeed more conspirators amongst their ranks, Mackenzie wanted them to

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Speaker 1: see the consequences of crime. The crew of the US

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Speaker 1: Summers watched silently as the three prisoners were informed of

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Speaker 1: their fates, and then hung from the yard arm, slowly

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Speaker 1: suffocating to death. When the USS Summers arrived back in

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Speaker 1: New York two weeks later, bringing news of the attempted

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Speaker 1: mutiny and the subsequent executions, the public was horrified about

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Speaker 1: the mutiny, that is, not about the hangings. These were

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Speaker 1: seen as a difficult but necessary choice made by a

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Speaker 1: courageous captain in a terrible situation. But as the Navy

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Speaker 1: probed into the events aboard the USS Summers, troubling questions

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Speaker 1: began to emerge. Had Mackenzie's actions been justified even worse,

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Speaker 1: had this threatened mutiny even been real On December twentieth,

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Speaker 1: an anonymous letter published in a washing In, DC newspaper

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Speaker 1: alleged that the inquiry conducted by the officers into the

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Speaker 1: mutiny had been biased and had denied the prisoner's basic

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Speaker 1: civil rights. The letter claimed that the three men had

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Speaker 1: been hanged on the basis of extremely thin evidence. The

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Speaker 1: letter was only signed s, but many people knew right

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Speaker 1: away who had written it. It was Philip Spencer's father,

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Speaker 1: John Canfield Spencer, and that meant trouble for Commander Mackenzie.

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Speaker 1: Because John Spencer was not just any grieving father. He

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Speaker 1: was the United States Secretary of War, and he was

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Speaker 1: determined to get justice for his dead son. But could

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Speaker 1: the Navy administer justice to one of its own. That

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Speaker 1: question would be tested at the court martial of Commander

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Speaker 1: Mackenzie in early eighteen forty three, a trial that sparked

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Speaker 1: debates over just how far military discipline could go. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to history on trial, I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This

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Speaker 1: week the court martial of Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie. Philip

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Speaker 1: Spencer had always dreamed of going to sea, but not

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Speaker 1: with the Navy. No, Philip Spencer wanted to be a pirate.

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Speaker 1: Born in eighteen twenty four in Canadagua, New York, Philip

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Speaker 1: missed the peak of piracy, a period in the seventeen

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Speaker 1: tens and twenties during which some two thousand pirates roamed

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Speaker 1: the Atlantic and Caribbean, by a century, but the legend

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Speaker 1: of pirates lived on long after their numbers were decimated

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Speaker 1: by European naval forces. In eighteen thirty seven, when Philip

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Speaker 1: was thirteen, Charles Elms published The Pirate's Own Book, a

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Speaker 1: four hundred and thirty two page epic filled with swashbuckling

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Speaker 1: tales from the High Seas. The book was so popular

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Speaker 1: that it ran for eight editions. It was one of

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Speaker 1: Philip Spencer's favorite books. Philip's pirate fantasies were met with

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Speaker 1: disapproval by his father, John Canfield Spencer. A brilliant, combative,

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Speaker 1: ambitious man. John Spencer wanted great things for his children. Philip,

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Speaker 1: the sixth of John Elizabeth Spencer's seven children, always struggled

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Speaker 1: to meet his father's expectations. Philip was undeniably bright. He

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Speaker 1: had a facility for languages. He quickly picked up Latin

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Speaker 1: and Greek, and would later become fluent in Spanish, he

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Speaker 1: could give a speech better than almost any of his

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Speaker 1: classmates at Geneva College, where he studied in the late

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Speaker 1: eighteen thirties, and he was brave in an era before anesthesia.

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Speaker 1: Classmates remembered with awe how Philip had refused the traditional

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Speaker 1: restraints during surgery to try to correct his wandering eye,

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Speaker 1: holding himself still through the agonizing procedure through sheer force

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Speaker 1: of will. But the discipline he showed in enduring pain

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Speaker 1: did not translate to other areas of his life. He

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Speaker 1: neglected his schoolwork, He snuck off campus and into town.

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Speaker 1: He drank. In November eighteen forty, when he was sixteen,

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Speaker 1: the school cited Philip for participating in what they called,

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Speaker 1: hilariously a cider disturbance. We'd probably call it a door party.

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Speaker 1: In the spring of eighteen forty one, hoping that a

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Speaker 1: change of scenery might do Philip some good, John Spencer

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Speaker 1: made his son transfer to Union College. Before he left Geneva,

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Speaker 1: Philip gave the school a copy of the Pirate's own book.

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Speaker 1: At Union, Philip did not take advantage of his fresh start.

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Speaker 1: Instead of focusing on his studies, he devoted himself to

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Speaker 1: founding a fraternity, the perfect place to host more cider

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Speaker 1: disturbances and to create secret handshakes and codes and rituals,

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Speaker 1: the kind of thing that Philip loved. The fraternity Philip

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Speaker 1: helped found Kai Sai today has chapters at thirty four

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Speaker 1: colleges and universities. John Spencer, however, was not impressed by

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Speaker 1: Philip's activities. During the eighteen thirties, the elder Spencer's political

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Speaker 1: star had risen. In October eighteen forty one, President John

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Speaker 1: Tyler chose John Spencer to be his Secretary of War.

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Speaker 1: Managing the military might have seemed easy in comparison to

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Speaker 1: managing Philip Spencer. At his wits end with his son,

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Speaker 1: Secretary Spencer decided that maybe the Navy could instill some discipline.

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Speaker 1: In November eighteen forty one, Philip was appointed as a midshipman,

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Speaker 1: the lowest rank of officer in the United States Navy.

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Speaker 1: But even the Navy could not tame Philip's energies. He drank,

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Speaker 1: fought with senior officers, and, on an official trip to Brazil,

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Speaker 1: brawled in the streets every time he got in trouble.

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Speaker 1: Though his father put in a good word with Abel Upscher,

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Speaker 1: the Secretary of the Navy, and Philip got another chance,

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Speaker 1: But by the summer of eighteen forty two, Secretary Upsher's

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Speaker 1: patients was wearing thin. He told Philip that he would

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Speaker 1: be watching carefully and gave him one last assignment on

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Speaker 1: which to prove himself. On August thirteenth, eighteen forty two,

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Speaker 1: Philip Spencer received orders to report to the USS Summers

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Speaker 1: in New York. Upon boarding, he met the man who

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Speaker 1: would one day order his death, Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie.

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Speaker 1: The Commander was born Alexander Slidell on April sixth, eighteen

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Speaker 1: o three, to John and Marjorie Slidell. In his thirties,

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Speaker 1: he would adopt his mother's maiden name Mackenzie, as a

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Speaker 1: condition of receiving an inheritance from a maternal uncle. The

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Speaker 1: Slydells were a wealthy, well connected family. One of Mackenzie's

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Speaker 1: brothers would become a US Senator and another would become

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Speaker 1: Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, but it was

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Speaker 1: his sister, Jane who would most influence Mackenzie's life. In

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Speaker 1: eighteen fourteen, Jane married Matthew Perry, a member of a

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Speaker 1: naval dynasty. Matthew's older brother, Oliver hazard Perry, was an

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Speaker 1: American hero for his victory at the Battle of Lake

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Speaker 1: Erie during the War of eighteen twelve. Matthew Perry too

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Speaker 1: would become a naval hero, eventually leading the mission that

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Speaker 1: opened trade with Japan. In the eighteen fifties. The Perry

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Speaker 1: family encouraged young Mackenzie to join the Navy, and he

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Speaker 1: became a midshipman at age eleven, sailing around the world

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Speaker 1: throughout his teenage years. The Navy was a good fit

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Speaker 1: for the boy. Unlike Philip Spencer, Mackenzie liked discipline. He

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Speaker 1: liked rules and laws, making them and following them. In

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Speaker 1: his early days in the Navy, he saw what happened

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Speaker 1: when the laws were broken. Assigned to anti pirate duty

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Speaker 1: in the West Indies, he witnessed the devastation pirate's pillaging

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Speaker 1: left in its wake, not nearly so glamorous in real

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Speaker 1: life as it was in the pirate's own book. In

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Speaker 1: eighteen twenty four, Mackenzie contracted yellow fever and took a

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Speaker 1: leave of absence from the Navy to recover. While on leave,

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Speaker 1: he traveled to Spain and began to work on a

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Speaker 1: book about his experiences abroad. He befriended the writer Washington

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Speaker 1: Irving while in Madrid, and Irving would help Mackenzie publish

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Speaker 1: his first book, called A Year in Spain. The publication

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Speaker 1: made Mackenzie a minor celebrity, and he would continue writing

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Speaker 1: even after returning from leave, though his later books received

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Speaker 1: cooler receptions. Journalist and historian Richard Snow argues in his

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Speaker 1: book Sailing the Graveyard Sea that Mackenzie's writings reveal quote

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Speaker 1: an opacity about common human feelings. They also depict a

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Speaker 1: man full of contradictions, both moralistic and prudish. Mackenzie also

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Speaker 1: displays a taste for violence. He describes both crimes and

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Speaker 1: public executions, which, despite professing to dislike, he somehow couldn't

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Speaker 1: seem to stop attending while abroad in gruesome detail. In

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Speaker 1: eighteen thirty six, Mackenzie married Kate Robinson. Soon after, he

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Speaker 1: adopted Mackenzie as his surname in order to receive the

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Speaker 1: family bequest. Using this money, he bought a farm in

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Speaker 1: New York's Hudson River Valley, near his friend Washington Irving.

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Speaker 1: He also began thinking seriously along with his brother in law,

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Speaker 1: Matthew Perry, about how to reform America's navy. The Navy

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Speaker 1: at this point was struggling to attract, train, and retain

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Speaker 1: good men. The pay was low, the training programs were haphazard,

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Speaker 1: and promotions were difficult to obtain. In eighteen thirty seven,

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Speaker 1: Mackenzie and Perry wrote about the need for naval education

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Speaker 1: in the Naval Magazine, calling for the establishment of an

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Speaker 1: apprenticeship program. Congress agreed with their recommendations and provided funding

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Speaker 1: to recruit and train boys aged thirteen to eighteen. Congress

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Speaker 1: also agreed to create a schoolship, a floating naval school

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Speaker 1: with on the job training for the young apprentices. The

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Speaker 1: USS Summers, a beautiful new ship designed in part by

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Speaker 1: Matthew Perry, was chosen for the job. In eighteen forty one,

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Speaker 1: Alexander Mackenzie was promoted to the rank of commander. The

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Speaker 1: next year, he was assigned to the schoolship that he

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Speaker 1: and Perry had dreamed of. The stakes for this voyage

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Speaker 1: were high. If it went well, the Navy might be

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Speaker 1: willing to produce more schoolships, Congress might agree to fund

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Speaker 1: more apprentices, and Mackenzie's beloved navy would flourish. To ensure success,

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Speaker 1: Mackenzie and Perry carefully selected the ship's officers. The first Lieutenant,

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Speaker 1: Mackenzie's second in command, was thirty year old Garrett Gansvoort,

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Speaker 1: a member of a prominent New York family and a

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Speaker 1: skilled sailor who had risen quickly through the ranks of

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Speaker 1: the Navy. For the midshipmen, the lowest ranking officers, Perry

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Speaker 1: and Mackenzie filled the ranks with their relatives and their

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Speaker 1: friend's sons. Two of Perry's own sons were serving on board.

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Speaker 1: Into this tightly knit crowd appeared the disruptive Philip Spencer.

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Speaker 1: Mackenzie took an immediate dislike to dists Spencer. He had

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Speaker 1: heard about Spencer's record and wanted him off the ship.

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Speaker 1: Mackenzie recommended that Spencer ask for a transfer. Spencer did so,

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Speaker 1: but Matthew Perry refused the request. Philip Spencer needed discipline,

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Speaker 1: and Perry may have hoped the strict Mackenzie might be

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Speaker 1: just the one to provide a firm hand. Little did

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Speaker 1: anyone know just how firm that hand would be. The

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Speaker 1: voyage of the USS Summers began smoothly enough, departing New

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Speaker 1: York on September thirteenth, eighteen forty two, the ship sailed east.

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Speaker 1: Its mission, an easy assignment fitting for a school ship,

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Speaker 1: was to deliver dispatches from America to another Navy ship,

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Speaker 1: the Vandalia, which was assisting the British Navy in intercepting

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Speaker 1: slave ships off the west coast of Africa. Quarters on

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Speaker 1: the ship were tight, at one hundred feet long and

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Speaker 1: twenty feet wide at the thickest point. The Summers was

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Speaker 1: only meant to carry ninety men, but in an attempt

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Speaker 1: to squeeze as many apprentices in as possible, the Summers

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Speaker 1: had a crew of one hundred and twenty for this trip.

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Speaker 1: Of these one hundred and twenty, only thirty were older

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Speaker 1: than nineteen. A third of the crew was between thirteen

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Speaker 1: and sixteen years old. Life at sea must have been

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Speaker 1: bewildering for these boys, many of whom had no sailing experience.

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Speaker 1: Time was measured in watches and bells. Sunday mornings were

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Speaker 1: spent mustard on deck. The sailors stood on deck while

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Speaker 1: their uniforms were inspected. Attendance was taken, and the Articles

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Speaker 1: of War, a list of prohibited actions and resulting punishments

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Speaker 1: were read. Aloud. The one form of punishment was flogging,

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Speaker 1: lashing either with the Cat nine tails, a whip with

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Speaker 1: nine eighteen inch braided cords, or the Colt, a three

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Speaker 1: foot long single strand whip. Both instruments could rip a

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Speaker 1: sailor's back. Open. Floggings were usually done in front of

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Speaker 1: the whole crew. Congress would ban flogging in eighteen fifty,

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Speaker 1: and some captains had already abandoned the practice, believing it

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Speaker 1: to be too cruel, but not Commander Mackenzie. He had

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Speaker 1: a reputation as being quick to order floggings, and the

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Speaker 1: reputation was well earned. The boys of the Summers soon learned.

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Speaker 1: The first flogging happened only three days into the voyage,

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Speaker 1: six lashes each of the Colt for three crewmen accused

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Speaker 1: of avoiding work on the Summers, Sailors of all ages,

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Speaker 1: even those as young as thirteen, were whipped frequently for

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Speaker 1: offenses as minor as borrowing someone else's shirts, smoking after

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Speaker 1: ten PM, or being impertinent. One fourteen year old apprentice,

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Speaker 1: Dennis Manning, received a total of one hundred and one

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Speaker 1: lashes during the ship's two month journey. Despite the frequent punishments,

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Speaker 1: morale aboard the summers was high, at least for the

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Speaker 1: first few weeks. Part of the crew's good attitude might

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Speaker 1: have been due to Philip Spencer. Spencer had quickly found

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Speaker 1: himself the odd man out amongst the other officers, who

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Speaker 1: had all taken their commander's queue and shunned Spencer. He

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Speaker 1: decided to search for friends amongst the crew instead. Spencer

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00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:53,240
Speaker 1: amused the younger boys with a strange talent he had,

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00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:59,080
Speaker 1: rhythmically dislocating his jaw to create eerie music. He won

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Speaker 1: the older sailors over with small gifts of smuggled brandy

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Speaker 1: or tobacco for money. Spencer especially concentrated his attention on

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Speaker 1: two other misfits, Samuel Cromwell and Elisha Small. Cromwell was

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Speaker 1: widely disliked, and perhaps for good reason. As the chief

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Speaker 1: bosun's mate, Cromwell was in charge of administering the floggings.

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Speaker 1: An enormous man in his thirties, heavily muscled and scarred,

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Speaker 1: Cromwell had a fierce temper and a filthy mouth. Crewman

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Speaker 1: whispered that he had once sailed with slavers or pirates.

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Speaker 1: Elishah Small, thirty years old, was a good sailor with

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Speaker 1: a bad drinking problem. He begun the voyage as the Summers' quartermaster,

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Speaker 1: responsible for navigation, but had been quickly demoted for drunkenness. Small, Cromwell,

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Speaker 1: and Spencer soon formed trio. Spencer provided the men with

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Speaker 1: alcohol and tobacco. In return, Cromwell and Small told Spencer

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Speaker 1: wild stories from their lives at sea. The other officers

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00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:15,120
Speaker 1: judged Spencer for his friendship with lowly crewmen and got

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Speaker 1: annoyed by his laziness and tasteless jokes. Commander Mackenzie's dislike

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Speaker 1: for Spencer had also increased, but he largely ignored the

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Speaker 1: eighteen year old. By mid November, the Summers had reached Liberia,

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Speaker 1: but they hadn't managed to catch up with the Vandalia,

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Speaker 1: which always seemed to be one port ahead of them.

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Speaker 1: Mackenzie decided that it was time to head home. Despite

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Speaker 1: this incomplete mission, everything was well aboard the Summers until Saturday,

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Speaker 1: November twenty sixth, that is, shortly after eight am, First

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Speaker 1: Lieutenant Ganzifort burst into the Captain's cabin with shocking news

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Speaker 1: a mutiny was afoot. Kenzie was stunned. Gansafort laid out

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Speaker 1: the details for him that morning, Purser Stewart James Wales

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00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:12,800
Speaker 1: had approached his superior purser, Horace High School, with a

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Speaker 1: troubling story. The night before, Wales said he had been

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Speaker 1: approached by Philip Spencer. After swearing Wales to secrecy, Spencer

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00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 1: told him that he was planning to seize the ship.

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Speaker 1: Spencer said he had a number of the crew signed

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00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:35,760
Speaker 1: up for his plan, which involved murdering the ship's officers

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Speaker 1: and any uncooperative crewmen, sailing the Summers to the Caribbean,

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Speaker 1: and turning it into a pirate ship. While Spencer laid

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Speaker 1: out the details for Wales's Elisha Small approach, Spencer told

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Speaker 1: Small that he had enlisted Wales, and Small said he

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Speaker 1: was glad to hear it. When Spencer finished, he asked

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00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,639
Speaker 1: for his thoughts. Whales said he liked the idea, but

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00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 1: inside he was horrified. Wales resolved to report Spencer to

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Speaker 1: Commander Mackenzie as soon as possible. The next morning, and

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Speaker 1: able to easily get to Mackenzie, Wales had reported to

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00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 1: high school high school to ganzi Ort, and now ganzi

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00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:27,000
Speaker 1: Ort was telling Mackenzie. At first, the captain could not

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Speaker 1: believe it. It seemed to me so monstrous, so improbable, that

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00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:36,680
Speaker 1: I could not forbear treating it with ridicule. Mackenzie later wrote,

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Speaker 1: I was under the impression that mister Spencer had been

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Speaker 1: reading some piratical stories and had amused himself with mister Wales.

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00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:48,480
Speaker 1: But improbable or not, Mackenzie felt he had a duty

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Speaker 1: to investigate. He told ganzi Ort to watch Spencer closely.

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00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:58,440
Speaker 1: Ganza Ort followed Spencer all day, and what he saw

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00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:03,880
Speaker 1: concerned him. I had observed, Gansibort reported to Mackenzie that

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Speaker 1: he was exceedingly intimate with the crew. I had noticed

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00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 1: as individuals passed him by a strange flashing of the eye.

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00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:18,040
Speaker 1: When Spencer had caught Ganzibart watching him, he had looked

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Speaker 1: at the lieutenant, in Ganshwort's words, with the most infernal

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00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:28,280
Speaker 1: expression I have ever seen upon a human face. Moreover,

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00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,040
Speaker 1: gans of Ort had seen Spencer pouring over a map

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00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:36,280
Speaker 1: of the Caribbean and asking the ship's surgeon, Richard Leacock,

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00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:42,560
Speaker 1: about the Isle of Pine's, a notorious pirates haunt. It

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00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 1: wasn't much to go on, but Ganzibort and Mackenzie were

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00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:50,639
Speaker 1: now convinced that Spencer was up to something. They couldn't

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00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:55,120
Speaker 1: risk a mutiny. Mackenzie decided that Spencer should be detained.

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Speaker 1: When he approached Spencer and asked him about the plan,

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00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:03,399
Speaker 1: Spencer replied that it was just a joke. This joke,

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00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:09,160
Speaker 1: Mackenzie told Spencer, may cost you your life. He ordered

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00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,640
Speaker 1: that Spencer be shackled, and, because the Summers had little

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00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:15,920
Speaker 1: free space below deck, be taken to the quarter deck

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00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:21,200
Speaker 1: and kept under observation. The next day, the investigation into

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00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 1: the mutiny continued. Lieutenant Ganziwort and Midship in Henry Rogers

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00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:31,680
Speaker 1: searched Spencer's belongings. Inside his razor case. They found several

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Speaker 1: pieces of paper. Two of these were written in Greek letters. Rogers,

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00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:41,200
Speaker 1: who could read Greek, translated the words. It turned out,

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00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:45,400
Speaker 1: were just English words spelled out with Greek characters. On

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00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:50,879
Speaker 1: one page, a paragraph read those marked X will probably

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Speaker 1: be induced to join before the project is carried into execution.

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Speaker 1: The remainder of the doubtful will probably join when the

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Speaker 1: thing is done. If not, they must be forced. If

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00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 1: any not marked down wish to join after it is done,

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Speaker 1: we will pick out the best and dispose of the rest. Below,

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00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 1: a list of names was sorted into three categories, certain, doubtful,

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00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 1: and to be kept Nolan's Volan's willingly or not. It

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00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:31,359
Speaker 1: was a damning document, to be sure, but also a

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00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:35,560
Speaker 1: confusing one. The list of crew members who were certain

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00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 1: was small and included the name E Andrews, which did

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00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:44,680
Speaker 1: not match anyone on board. Elisha Small's name was not

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00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:48,199
Speaker 1: on the certain list, but per Wales's story, he was

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00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 1: indeed involved. Despite these discrepancies, Mackenzie was now sure that

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00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 1: Spencer had been plotting a mutiny, and the captain had

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00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 1: concerns about Samuel Cromwell too. Spencer had not mentioned to

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00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:06,359
Speaker 1: Cromwell to Wales, and Cromwell's name was not anywhere on

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00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:11,200
Speaker 1: Spencer's list, but Cromwell was known to be close to Spencer.

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Speaker 1: That afternoon, Mackenzie's suspicions seemed to be confirmed. One of

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00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:21,439
Speaker 1: the ship's top masts suddenly collapsed, causing a number of

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00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,800
Speaker 1: sails to fall. In the chaos that followed, Mackenzie noticed

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Speaker 1: that Cromwell and Small were first on the scene. Had

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Speaker 1: they caused the mast collapse? He wondered, It was just

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Speaker 1: the type of distraction that mutineers could use to their advantage.

355
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Speaker 1: It was true that no uprising had begun. The masts

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Speaker 1: and sales were repaired, but Mackenzie believed that the crisis

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Speaker 1: had only narrowly been averted. He ordered Cromwell and then

358
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:55,040
Speaker 1: Small arrested and stowed on the quarter deck. Cromwell denied

359
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:58,360
Speaker 1: any involvement in the plot, and Spencer also said that

360
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 1: the man was innocent. Small, on the other hand, said

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00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 1: that he had heard of plans. Mackenzie informed the three

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00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 1: men that they would be kept under lock and key

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00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 1: until the ship arrived back in America, where they would

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00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:15,840
Speaker 1: be tried for the crimes. Over the next three days,

365
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 1: tensions on the ship reached a fever pitch. Mackenzie ordered

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00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:24,240
Speaker 1: his officers to arm themselves and patrol the ship. He

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00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:27,640
Speaker 1: informed the crew about the mutiny plot and warned them

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00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:32,320
Speaker 1: to abandon any schemes to free the prisoners. He arrested

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00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:35,600
Speaker 1: three more men believed to be connected with Spencer and

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00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:40,320
Speaker 1: put them on the quarter deck. These further arrests brought

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00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 1: new concerns. The Summers was a small ship, Surely it

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00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 1: could not hold many prisoners, and Mackenzie was convinced that

373
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: the existing prisoners were plotting an escape with their uncaptured

374
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:57,360
Speaker 1: co conspirators. Maybe the leaders of the mutiny needed to

375
00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:03,800
Speaker 1: be removed permanently. Mackenzie had always seen his ships as

376
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 1: quote little worlds, self contained environments in which discipline meant harmony.

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00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 1: One bad apple could spoil the whole bunch, But he

378
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:19,240
Speaker 1: didn't want to make such a serious decision alone. On Wednesday,

379
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:23,800
Speaker 1: November thirtieth, Mackenzie wrote a letter to his officers asking

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00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:26,960
Speaker 1: them to investigate the situation on board and come to

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00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:31,320
Speaker 1: a conclusion about the best path forward. The seven officers

382
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 1: moved swiftly. They took over the wardroom, the officer's mess hall,

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00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 1: and brought in crew members for questioning. Many of the

384
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 1: crewmen claimed that Spencer had spoken to them about dreaming

385
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:44,480
Speaker 1: of being a pirate and of hoping to have a

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00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 1: ship of his own. They all agreed that Spencer, Small

387
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:52,200
Speaker 1: and Cromwell were the ringleaders. Many of the sailors spoke

388
00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:57,120
Speaker 1: especially harshly about Samuel Cromwell. The questioning continued throughout the

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00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:03,000
Speaker 1: day and into the next morning. The officers reached a decision.

390
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 1: They wrote to Mackenzie and told him that they believed

391
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 1: the prisoners should be executed. Mackenzie wasted no time in

392
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: carrying out the sentence. Summoning the crew to the deck,

393
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 1: McKenzie donned his full dress uniform and told his officers

394
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 1: to arm themselves. Then he told the prisoners their fate.

395
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:30,680
Speaker 1: Elishah Small took the news calmly. Philip Spencer began to weep.

396
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:35,760
Speaker 1: Samuel Cromwell fell to his knees and yelled, God of

397
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 1: the Universe, looked down upon my poor wife. I am innocent.

398
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 1: Spencer regained his composure and told Mackenzie quote, as these

399
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 1: are the last words I have to say, I trust

400
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:55,480
Speaker 1: they will be believed. Cromwell is innocent. Mackenzie was unsettled.

401
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,840
Speaker 1: Seeking reassurance, he questioned his officers if they were certain

402
00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:03,880
Speaker 1: of Cromwell's guilt. They said they were, and this was

403
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 1: enough for the captain. Returning to Spencer, mackenzie began a

404
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 1: strange conversation with the eighteen year old. When Spencer said

405
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:15,680
Speaker 1: that he felt bad for wronging his parents, Mackenzie told

406
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 1: Spencer that his father was part of the reason for

407
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 1: his death sentence. If mackenzie had taken Spencer back to

408
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 1: the United States for court martial, the captain said, John

409
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 1: Spencer likely would have interfered in the trial for those

410
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 1: who have friends or money in America, Mackenzie said there

411
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 1: was no punishment for the worst of crimes. He spoke

412
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 1: to Spencer for nearly an hour. He asked his steward

413
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:44,400
Speaker 1: to bring paper and ink so that Spencer could write

414
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,600
Speaker 1: a letter to his parents. When Spencer said he could

415
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 1: not write with his hand shackled, Mackenzie wrote for him,

416
00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 1: and then finally the terrible moment arrived. The execution itself

417
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:05,320
Speaker 1: was gruesome and painful. The prisoners, faces covered, hands and

418
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:10,840
Speaker 1: feet still shackled, had nooses fastened around their necks. The

419
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:14,080
Speaker 1: ropes trailing from these nooses hung over the yard arm

420
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:18,600
Speaker 1: of the ship, the large beam running perpendicular to the mainmast.

421
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,960
Speaker 1: Groups of men held the other side of the rope.

422
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:25,720
Speaker 1: On a signal the firing of a gun, the men

423
00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 1: pulled the ropes, dragging the prisoner's twenty feet in the air,

424
00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 1: where they slowly strangled to death, their bodies spinning in

425
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:39,960
Speaker 1: the wind. Mackenzie, with the bodies still hanging above the deck,

426
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 1: gave his crew a speech about the dangers of disobedience.

427
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:48,440
Speaker 1: The rest of the journey held a tenor of muted fear.

428
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:51,800
Speaker 1: The summers made it back to New York Harbor two

429
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 1: weeks after the executions, and a messenger was quickly dispatched

430
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:00,680
Speaker 1: to Secretary of the Navy, Able Upsher. Soon news of

431
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,960
Speaker 1: the shocking events on board the Summers had spread across

432
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:09,160
Speaker 1: the country. Most people praised Captain Mackenzie. The New York

433
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:13,319
Speaker 1: Tribune wrote, quote, by the prompt and fearless decision of

434
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:17,480
Speaker 1: Captain Mackenzie, one of the most bold and daring conspiracies

435
00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:22,360
Speaker 1: ever formed. Was frustrated and crushed. But six days later,

436
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:27,520
Speaker 1: on December twentieth, John Canfield Spencer published his anonymous rebuttal

437
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:32,000
Speaker 1: of Mackenzie's accounts of the events on board. Spencer questioned

438
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,360
Speaker 1: the legality of Mackenzie's impromptue on board court martial and

439
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:39,880
Speaker 1: questioned whether the threat of a mutiny was even real.

440
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:45,640
Speaker 1: The Navy promised a full investigation, but would an investigation

441
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 1: be enough for John Spencer? Pending an investigation into the mutiny,

442
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:56,960
Speaker 1: no one was allowed to leave the USS Summers once

443
00:34:56,960 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 1: it docked in New York. No one except Mackenzie, that was,

444
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:05,719
Speaker 1: who went to visit his brother in law, Matthew Perry Commodore.

445
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 1: Perry was now the commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

446
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:12,840
Speaker 1: Before leaving the Summers, Mackenzie ordered the arrest of eight

447
00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:15,760
Speaker 1: more men who he believed to be involved in the mutiny.

448
00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:21,719
Speaker 1: Criticism of Mackenzie was growing louder, both within and outside

449
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:26,160
Speaker 1: of the Navy. Captain Francis Gregory, commander of the USS

450
00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:31,040
Speaker 1: North Carolina, visited the Summers after it docked. He was

451
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:35,560
Speaker 1: horrified by conditions on board. I have never known the

452
00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:39,040
Speaker 1: crew of an American man of war so dirty and

453
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:42,319
Speaker 1: dejected in their personal appearance as hers were at the

454
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 1: time of her arrival here, he wrote a colleague. Gregory

455
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 1: was also shocked by the number of floggings Mackenzie had ordered,

456
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 1: a number Gregory said that was quote beyond all precedent

457
00:35:56,440 --> 00:36:01,280
Speaker 1: within my knowledge. News of Gregory's discoveries quickly became public.

458
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:07,799
Speaker 1: On December twenty eighth, the Navy convened a Court of Inquiry.

459
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:12,399
Speaker 1: This court could only investigate, it could not punish, and

460
00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 1: unlike in a traditional trial, the person being investigated did

461
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:21,240
Speaker 1: not need to appear in person. Mackenzie could instead submit

462
00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 1: his statement in writing. In writing his narrative of events,

463
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:30,400
Speaker 1: Mackenzie brought his authorial experience to bear to ill effect

464
00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 1: the document was bloated full of tangents and philosophical musings.

465
00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:41,040
Speaker 1: Mackenzie's own legal counselor despaired of the narrative, calling it

466
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 1: quote a diabolical document. People wondered if, given the document's

467
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:52,600
Speaker 1: excessive length, the captain was protesting a little too hard,

468
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:57,759
Speaker 1: but the testimony of Mackenzie's officers supported their captain. Their

469
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:02,400
Speaker 1: stories were consistent with Mackenzie's narrati of On January twenty eighth,

470
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:06,280
Speaker 1: the day that would have been Philip Spencer's nineteenth birthday,

471
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:11,520
Speaker 1: the Court of Inquiry announced their findings. They concluded that

472
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:15,719
Speaker 1: quote the immediate execution of the prisoners was demanded by

473
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:21,080
Speaker 1: duty and justified by necessity. It was a victory for McKenzie,

474
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 1: but this was just the first battle. John Spencer, along

475
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:31,359
Speaker 1: with Samuel Cromwell's widow Margaret, were pushing to have Mackenzie

476
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 1: tried for murder in a civilian court, but a judge

477
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:37,799
Speaker 1: ruled that a civilian court did not have jurisdiction over

478
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:42,360
Speaker 1: the case. Only a military court did. That meant a

479
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:47,560
Speaker 1: court martial. Mackenzie himself had requested a court martial, believing

480
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:50,799
Speaker 1: that it would clear his name and believing that a

481
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: civilian jury might not understand what he called his quote

482
00:37:55,480 --> 00:38:01,040
Speaker 1: conscientious performance of my duty. Secretary Upsher agreed, and on

483
00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:05,680
Speaker 1: February second, eighteen forty three, Commander Mackenzie's court marcial began.

484
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: It took place at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, first Aboardisteship,

485
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:15,480
Speaker 1: and then when the audience grew too large, in the chapel.

486
00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 1: The Navy charged Mackenzie with five crimes murder for the

487
00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:24,880
Speaker 1: killing of Philip Spencer, oppression for the killing of Samuel

488
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:29,360
Speaker 1: Cromwell without sufficient cause, illegal punishment for the killing of

489
00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:34,400
Speaker 1: Elishah Small, conduct unbecoming an officer for his treatment of

490
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:39,200
Speaker 1: Philip Spencer before his execution, and cruelty, and oppression for

491
00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:44,760
Speaker 1: his excessive punishment of his entire crew throughout the voyage.

492
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:49,120
Speaker 1: Eleven high ranking naval officers served as jurors on the case,

493
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:53,279
Speaker 1: serving in the prosecutor's role called in this context. The

494
00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:58,040
Speaker 1: judge advocate was William M. Norris, a lawyer from Baltimore.

495
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:01,760
Speaker 1: Little is known about Dorris or how he was chosen

496
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:06,160
Speaker 1: for this role. It was a difficult job. Norris had

497
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:10,000
Speaker 1: to go into the trial completely unprepared because none of

498
00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:13,280
Speaker 1: the Summers's officers would speak to him before the trial,

499
00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:19,200
Speaker 1: but Norris was tireless and determined. Over the next five weeks,

500
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:24,560
Speaker 1: he relentlessly questioned the witnesses. The testimony could be repetitive

501
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 1: and tedious. Norris did not know who had valuable information

502
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 1: until he managed to uncover it. But uncover it he did, slowly, steadily,

503
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,280
Speaker 1: Norris began to poke holes in the rock solid story

504
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:45,080
Speaker 1: of impending mutiny. One of Norris's main themes was how

505
00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:49,719
Speaker 1: little evidence the captain and officers actually had. During his

506
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:54,839
Speaker 1: examination of First Lieutenant Gansuwort, Norris asked if ganzi Ort,

507
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,520
Speaker 1: in all the hours he spent guarding Spencer on deck,

508
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:03,319
Speaker 1: had ever tried to question Spencer about the plan. If

509
00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:07,319
Speaker 1: you made no inquiries of Spencer, Norris asked, what did

510
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 1: you do in pursuance of the Commander's instructions to find

511
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:13,360
Speaker 1: out from mister Spencer what you could as to the mutiny?

512
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:18,400
Speaker 1: Ganzi Ort could only answer, I inquired among the crew.

513
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:24,360
Speaker 1: Ganzi Ort had, also, on Mackenzie's orders, followed Philip Spencer

514
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:29,480
Speaker 1: around on November twenty sixth. His observations, he testified, had

515
00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:32,520
Speaker 1: convinced him that Philip Spencer was up to no good.

516
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 1: But Norris revealed how flimsy these observations really were. He

517
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:42,200
Speaker 1: asked gans of Ort, quote, was mister Spencer till the

518
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 1: time of his arrest engaged in the usual duties of

519
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:49,640
Speaker 1: an officer of his station? Ganzi Ort admitted that Spencer

520
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:53,120
Speaker 1: had been, with the exception of getting a tattoo from

521
00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:57,920
Speaker 1: a crew member. Sailor getting a tattoo was hardly unusual.

522
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:02,360
Speaker 1: Ganza Ort also claim that Spencer had given him quote

523
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:08,360
Speaker 1: a menacing look and displayed, quote, the most infernal expression

524
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:11,880
Speaker 1: I have ever beheld on a human face. Was this

525
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:16,279
Speaker 1: the kind of evidence that justified executing a man? And

526
00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:21,080
Speaker 1: what about proof of Cromwell's involvement? Norris got Ganziwort to

527
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:25,239
Speaker 1: admit that Cromwell's name never appeared on Spencer's alleged list

528
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:31,240
Speaker 1: of conspirators. Not only had the investigation been shoddy, Norris implied,

529
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:34,760
Speaker 1: but it had also trampled on the prisoner's civil rights.

530
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:38,799
Speaker 1: From the time of Spencer's arrest to the time of

531
00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:43,640
Speaker 1: his execution, did any officer explain to mister Spencer his

532
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:48,320
Speaker 1: situation and what was contemplated in respect to him? Norris

533
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:54,000
Speaker 1: asked ganz of Ort. Ganza Ort said no, neither had

534
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:58,360
Speaker 1: Cromwell nor Small been warned that they were on trial

535
00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:02,960
Speaker 1: for their lives until the sentence had already been passed.

536
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:07,319
Speaker 1: Norris pushed the officers as to why they had not

537
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:11,720
Speaker 1: sought a solution other than execution. Had the officers ever

538
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:15,560
Speaker 1: considered just trying to reach a port they were in

539
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:18,400
Speaker 1: the West Indies when they first learned of the mutiny

540
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 1: nearby islands abounded. Norris asked Acting Master Matthew Perry, the

541
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:28,600
Speaker 1: twenty one year old son of Commodore Perry, why they

542
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:31,160
Speaker 1: had not tried to take the ship into harbor and

543
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:35,399
Speaker 1: get help in suppressing the alleged mutiny. Was discussed as

544
00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 1: to whether she could be taken into Saint Thomas. Matthew

545
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:42,480
Speaker 1: replied Saint Thomas at this time was a Danish colony,

546
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 1: but the officers did not want to go to Saint

547
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:49,800
Speaker 1: Thomas for help or any other foreign island, because, Matthew

548
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 1: explained quote, it would be a disgrace to the United States,

549
00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:58,960
Speaker 1: the Navy, and particularly to the officers if an American

550
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:02,880
Speaker 1: man of war could not protect herself. A few men's

551
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:06,640
Speaker 1: lives were a small price to pay to save face.

552
00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:11,520
Speaker 1: It seemed many in the public believed that fear had

553
00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:14,799
Speaker 1: been a motivator in the officer's decision, fear for their

554
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:18,640
Speaker 1: lives and for the lives of the crew, But Norris

555
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:21,520
Speaker 1: pointed out that some of their behavior before the execution

556
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:26,480
Speaker 1: did not hint a true fear. All the officers cited

557
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:29,800
Speaker 1: the incident of the collapsing mast as proof that danger

558
00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:35,160
Speaker 1: was imminent. Norris asked Matthew Perry about the event. Matthew

559
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:37,720
Speaker 1: had been below deck when he heard the ruckus above

560
00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:40,880
Speaker 1: and ran up to see what the matter was, but

561
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:45,400
Speaker 1: he didn't arm himself before running up, and Norris reminded

562
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:48,960
Speaker 1: Matthew for his testimony at the Court of Inquiry. After

563
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:53,440
Speaker 1: seeing the situation, Matthew quote went below because he found

564
00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:57,480
Speaker 1: nothing to do if he really thought mutiny was imminent,

565
00:43:57,719 --> 00:44:01,120
Speaker 1: Norris asked Matthew Perry, would it not have been your

566
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 1: duty to remain on deck. There were also troubling inconsistencies

567
00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:11,160
Speaker 1: in the officer's stories. While investigating the case, Norris had

568
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:15,200
Speaker 1: learned that before the execution, Mackenzie had transcribed a letter

569
00:44:15,239 --> 00:44:20,319
Speaker 1: from Spencer to his family, but in his narrative, Mackenzie

570
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:24,000
Speaker 1: claimed that this had never happened, that Spencer had declined

571
00:44:24,040 --> 00:44:27,720
Speaker 1: to write a letter, and the Spencer family had never

572
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:32,759
Speaker 1: received a letter. Initially, the officers had backed up their

573
00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:38,279
Speaker 1: captain's claims, but Norris, armed with his discoveries, pushed the

574
00:44:38,360 --> 00:44:42,839
Speaker 1: officers for the truth. Oliver Perry, the seventeen year old

575
00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:47,880
Speaker 1: commander's clerk and another son of Matthew Perry, initially testified

576
00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:51,600
Speaker 1: that he had not seen any writing, but under pressure

577
00:44:52,200 --> 00:44:56,000
Speaker 1: he admitted that he actually had. In the face of

578
00:44:56,040 --> 00:45:00,360
Speaker 1: Oliver's testimony, Mackenzie now admitted that he had helped Spencer

579
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:04,920
Speaker 1: write a letter. Two more men, Edbert Thompson and Daniel McKinley,

580
00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:08,840
Speaker 1: confirmed that they had seen the pair writing something. Where

581
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:15,360
Speaker 1: was this letter? The letter would appear under strange circumstances

582
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:20,279
Speaker 1: Almost a week later, on March fourteenth, Mackenzie said he

583
00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:23,160
Speaker 1: was too ill to come to court and the court

584
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:27,839
Speaker 1: martial was adjourned. This continued for three days. The court

585
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:31,800
Speaker 1: would assemble only to receive a note excusing Mackenzie from appearing.

586
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:36,240
Speaker 1: These notes were all signed by the Summers surgeon, Richard

587
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:42,520
Speaker 1: Lee Cock. Eventually, on March seventeenth, Mackenzie showed up, bringing

588
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:45,080
Speaker 1: with him a document that he claimed was the one

589
00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:48,120
Speaker 1: he had written with Spencer on the day of the execution.

590
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:54,280
Speaker 1: This document is baffling, to say the least. It reads

591
00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:57,480
Speaker 1: like a stream of consciousness of the hours leading up

592
00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:02,160
Speaker 1: to the execution. Occasionally the narrator seems to be Philip Spencer,

593
00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:08,439
Speaker 1: but Mackenzie's voice dominates. The writing is nearly illegible, many

594
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:12,920
Speaker 1: sentences are fragmented, and there is no reference to Spencer's family.

595
00:46:14,040 --> 00:46:17,440
Speaker 1: Was this really the letter that Philip Spencer had dictated

596
00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:22,440
Speaker 1: in his final hour? William Norris did not think so.

597
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:26,920
Speaker 1: He thought that Mackenzie, caught in a lie, had called

598
00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:29,720
Speaker 1: in sick and used the time to write a letter.

599
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:35,240
Speaker 1: If Mackenzie was lying about this, Norris wondered what else

600
00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:39,840
Speaker 1: was he lying about, but time to find out was limited.

601
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:43,680
Speaker 1: The patience of the court, after nearly two months of

602
00:46:43,719 --> 00:46:48,560
Speaker 1: repetitive testimony, was running out. On March twenty first, Norris

603
00:46:48,560 --> 00:46:52,359
Speaker 1: told the court that he was resting his case. The

604
00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:56,040
Speaker 1: next day, Mackenzie's lawyer, George Griffin, presented the case for

605
00:46:56,080 --> 00:47:00,279
Speaker 1: the defense. He would not be calling more witnesses, viewing

606
00:47:00,360 --> 00:47:04,520
Speaker 1: the evidence, and arguing his client's position. Griffin was a

607
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:08,319
Speaker 1: skilled lawyer and a passionate speaker. He spoke for an

608
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:13,040
Speaker 1: hour and a half, enthralling his audience, taking them on

609
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:16,239
Speaker 1: to the Summers. In those trying days before the execution,

610
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:20,600
Speaker 1: a nation's honor was at stake. Griffin told the court,

611
00:47:21,640 --> 00:47:24,880
Speaker 1: a vessel which had been consecrated as a defender of

612
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:28,399
Speaker 1: her country's glory and one of the protectors of the

613
00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:33,160
Speaker 1: great commonwealth of civilized man, was about to be torn

614
00:47:33,239 --> 00:47:37,800
Speaker 1: from her sphere and let loose a lawless wanderer upon

615
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:42,399
Speaker 1: the deep, carrying along in her devious course like a

616
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:48,360
Speaker 1: comet loosened from its orbit, devastation and terror and death.

617
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:53,759
Speaker 1: In the face of such a grave threat, what could

618
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:59,000
Speaker 1: Mackenzie do but take immediate action? Griffin asked the court

619
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:04,520
Speaker 1: not to punish Mackenzie, but to commend him. Mackenzie, in

620
00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:10,480
Speaker 1: Griffin's words, had quenched the flame of mutiny. He had

621
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:16,279
Speaker 1: saved not only the Summers but all future navy's ships

622
00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:23,279
Speaker 1: from quote the demoralizing, destructive principle of insubordination. It was

623
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:28,759
Speaker 1: a powerful emotional message, especially to the career navymen who

624
00:48:28,840 --> 00:48:33,600
Speaker 1: sat in judgment of Mackenzie. Over the next five days,

625
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:37,640
Speaker 1: all of the testimony was read aloud again. Then, on

626
00:48:37,719 --> 00:48:42,919
Speaker 1: March twenty seventh, William Norris presented his summation. Norris said

627
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:47,440
Speaker 1: Mackenzie was not a defender of American values, he was

628
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:52,040
Speaker 1: a destroyer of them. Though the military code was different

629
00:48:52,040 --> 00:48:56,040
Speaker 1: from the civil law, Norris acknowledged naval men are still

630
00:48:56,239 --> 00:49:00,960
Speaker 1: quote shielded by guaranteed privileges. The law tells of a

631
00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:05,280
Speaker 1: legally constituted court of the right of challenging the judges,

632
00:49:05,840 --> 00:49:11,080
Speaker 1: of examination and confrontment of witnesses. Whether or not Philip

633
00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 1: Spencer had really planned a mutiny, and Norris did not

634
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:19,200
Speaker 1: believe he had. Spencer was still due these sacred rights.

635
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:24,400
Speaker 1: Public ships are creatures of the law, Norris concluded, and

636
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 1: meant to sustain it and not to overstretch it. The

637
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:33,320
Speaker 1: Navy's officers are sworn to sustain the constitution, but Mackenzie

638
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:37,239
Speaker 1: had not upheld the law. Norris argued he had put

639
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:42,279
Speaker 1: himself above it. The panel of Navy officers deliberated for

640
00:49:42,360 --> 00:49:46,320
Speaker 1: five days and then delivered their verdict on April first.

641
00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:49,719
Speaker 1: They had made the same finding for each one of

642
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:53,880
Speaker 1: the five charges Mackenzie faced on the charges of murder,

643
00:49:54,160 --> 00:50:00,880
Speaker 1: illegal punishment, oppression, conduct, unbecoming an officer, and cruelty. Commander

644
00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:10,080
Speaker 1: Alexander Slidell McKenzie was found not guilty. The verdict had

645
00:50:10,120 --> 00:50:15,040
Speaker 1: not been unanimous. General court martials did not and still

646
00:50:15,080 --> 00:50:19,440
Speaker 1: do not, require unanimity for a guilty verdict, only a

647
00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:24,120
Speaker 1: two thirds majority. The panel of jurors concluded that Norris

648
00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:27,640
Speaker 1: had not addressed the fourth and fifth charges, those of

649
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:31,240
Speaker 1: unbecoming conduct and cruelty for the general treatment of the crew.

650
00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:34,360
Speaker 1: On the charge of illegal punishment for the hanging of

651
00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:39,880
Speaker 1: Elishah Small, the jurors unanimously acquitted mackenzie. On the charge

652
00:50:39,880 --> 00:50:43,040
Speaker 1: of murder for the hanging of Philip Spencer. The jurors

653
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:46,719
Speaker 1: split nine to three in favor of acquittal. On the

654
00:50:46,800 --> 00:50:49,840
Speaker 1: charge of oppression for the hanging of Samuel Cromwell, the

655
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:53,960
Speaker 1: jury voted eight to four to acquit. The military also

656
00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:58,200
Speaker 1: decided to release the remaining sailors whom mackenzie had ordered arrested.

657
00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 1: On March twenty nine, ninth, President John Tyler's cabinet met

658
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:06,680
Speaker 1: to discuss the verdict. The other members encouraged John Spencer

659
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:11,680
Speaker 1: to recuse himself from the meeting. He did not. Secretary

660
00:51:11,680 --> 00:51:14,840
Speaker 1: of the Navy Abel Upsher recommended that he and Tyler

661
00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:19,760
Speaker 1: publicly declare that the verdict was an honorable acquittal. Upsher's

662
00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:23,400
Speaker 1: support from Mackenzie apparently led to a full blown physical

663
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:26,919
Speaker 1: fight between himself and John Spencer, which the President had

664
00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:31,000
Speaker 1: to break up. President Tyler himself was not happy about

665
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:34,319
Speaker 1: the verdict. He had read the court martial transcript and

666
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 1: believed that Mackenzie ought to have been found guilty, but

667
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:42,640
Speaker 1: his hands were tied under the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy.

668
00:51:43,120 --> 00:51:46,080
Speaker 1: Mackenzie could not be retried for a crime he had

669
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:49,359
Speaker 1: been acquitted of, and Tyler did believe that the court

670
00:51:49,400 --> 00:51:53,440
Speaker 1: proceedings had been fair. Nonetheless, the President made his true

671
00:51:53,560 --> 00:51:57,919
Speaker 1: feelings clear. As long as my power should last, he said,

672
00:51:58,480 --> 00:52:02,319
Speaker 1: Mackenzie should never be a trusted with another command. He

673
00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:05,680
Speaker 1: publicly approved the verdict, but refused to call it an

674
00:52:05,719 --> 00:52:12,400
Speaker 1: honorable acquittal. Despite the President's criticisms, many people supported Mackenzie.

675
00:52:12,440 --> 00:52:15,400
Speaker 1: A public fund was taken up to cover his legal fees.

676
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:20,520
Speaker 1: The famous poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, author of poems such

677
00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:26,799
Speaker 1: as Paul Revere's Ride, was just one of Mackenzie's prominent fans. Longfellow,

678
00:52:26,920 --> 00:52:30,799
Speaker 1: who knew Mackenzie through Washington. Irving wrote to Mackenzie after

679
00:52:30,840 --> 00:52:35,560
Speaker 1: the court martial, saying, quote, the voice of all upright men,

680
00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:40,839
Speaker 1: the common consent of all the good is with you. Mackenzie,

681
00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:46,680
Speaker 1: delighted and apparently remorseless, replied with the suggestion that Longfellow

682
00:52:46,719 --> 00:52:51,440
Speaker 1: write an epic poem about the USS Summers. But Mackenzie's

683
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:54,719
Speaker 1: reputation was permanently painted by the Events on the Summers.

684
00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:59,080
Speaker 1: This was in part thanks to another famous literary figure,

685
00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:03,560
Speaker 1: one who made his disgust with the acquittal public in

686
00:53:03,719 --> 00:53:09,239
Speaker 1: impressive form. James Fenimore Cooper, best known today as the

687
00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:12,680
Speaker 1: author of the Last of the Mohicans, had pre existing

688
00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:16,840
Speaker 1: beef with Mackenzie. The two had disagreed over Cooper's writings

689
00:53:16,880 --> 00:53:20,520
Speaker 1: about the Battle of Lake Erie. Cooper had served in

690
00:53:20,560 --> 00:53:25,000
Speaker 1: the Navy himself and felt uniquely qualified to judge Mackenzie's actions,

691
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:29,480
Speaker 1: believing that his insights might be helpful to others. Cooper

692
00:53:29,520 --> 00:53:33,160
Speaker 1: published two extensive dissections of the events on the Summers

693
00:53:33,280 --> 00:53:37,720
Speaker 1: and the proceedings of the court martial. In the dramatically

694
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:42,279
Speaker 1: titled The Crews of the Summers Illustrative of the Despotism

695
00:53:42,320 --> 00:53:46,759
Speaker 1: of the Quarterdeck and of the unmanly conduct of Commander Mackenzie.

696
00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:52,600
Speaker 1: Cooper methodically exposed the absurdity of the mutiny claims. The

697
00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:56,799
Speaker 1: truth is, Cooper wrote, the story is an exaggeration. For

698
00:53:56,920 --> 00:53:59,879
Speaker 1: all the testimony gathered by the officers from the crew,

699
00:54:00,080 --> 00:54:04,840
Speaker 1: Cooper noted quote, not an individual gives any fact to

700
00:54:04,880 --> 00:54:09,839
Speaker 1: corroborate his suspicions. He criticized the investigation, noting that it

701
00:54:09,880 --> 00:54:13,560
Speaker 1: was on shaky grounds from the very beginning. Why had

702
00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:17,640
Speaker 1: Commander Mackenzie so readily accepted the words of the purser's steward,

703
00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:23,399
Speaker 1: James Wales? Besides a personal dislike of Philip Spencer? What

704
00:54:23,520 --> 00:54:28,399
Speaker 1: made his character so inherently less trustworthy than Wales's? Yes,

705
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:33,240
Speaker 1: Spencer had a record, but so it emerged, did Wales.

706
00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:38,560
Speaker 1: The summer before the Summers's first official mission, Mackenzie had

707
00:54:38,560 --> 00:54:41,720
Speaker 1: taken the ship for a practice run to Puerto Rico.

708
00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:45,080
Speaker 1: While there, James Wales had gotten mixed up in some

709
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:49,200
Speaker 1: sort of trouble, serious enough that Mackenzie acknowledged it in

710
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:53,799
Speaker 1: his narrative of events. Why was Wales's word taken as

711
00:54:53,880 --> 00:55:00,440
Speaker 1: gospel while Cromwell, Small and Spencer were disbelieved? Cooper after

712
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:04,680
Speaker 1: walking through each piece of supposed evidence, from the flimsy

713
00:55:04,800 --> 00:55:10,239
Speaker 1: importance of infernal expressions to the likely innocent explanation for

714
00:55:10,280 --> 00:55:16,200
Speaker 1: the mast's collapse, dove into the captain's psychological motivations. Many

715
00:55:16,200 --> 00:55:20,520
Speaker 1: people had attributed Mackenzie's harsh decision to fear, but we

716
00:55:20,560 --> 00:55:25,160
Speaker 1: should remember, Cooper wrote that peril is the very thing

717
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:30,680
Speaker 1: a sailor expects to meet, wishes to meet. Indeed, wherever

718
00:55:30,760 --> 00:55:34,680
Speaker 1: he goes, he expects to face danger that requires more

719
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:39,440
Speaker 1: than a landsman's nerve to meet. Despite the ship's isolation

720
00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:43,640
Speaker 1: and the tense circumstances, Cooper believed that a true naval

721
00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:46,720
Speaker 1: officer should be better equipped to deal with such events

722
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:51,160
Speaker 1: than anyone else. Cooper also discussed a troubling point that

723
00:55:51,200 --> 00:55:55,000
Speaker 1: had emerged during the court martial. Horace High School, the

724
00:55:55,040 --> 00:55:59,040
Speaker 1: purser had been in charge of transcribing the officer's interviews

725
00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:04,439
Speaker 1: with crewmen during his testimony. High School acknowledged that some

726
00:56:04,520 --> 00:56:08,280
Speaker 1: of the transcripts had been edited after the interviews concluded.

727
00:56:09,160 --> 00:56:13,400
Speaker 1: This loose manner of taking down such important testimony, Cooper wrote,

728
00:56:14,000 --> 00:56:17,280
Speaker 1: is not only illustrative of the want of a decent

729
00:56:17,360 --> 00:56:20,560
Speaker 1: regard for the rights of the accused and for public opinion,

730
00:56:21,400 --> 00:56:24,920
Speaker 1: but very justly lays the published account of it open

731
00:56:25,040 --> 00:56:32,640
Speaker 1: to grave suspicions. These suspicions would later be confirmed. A crewman,

732
00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:37,520
Speaker 1: George Washington Warner, told his nephew, the journalist Frederick F.

733
00:56:37,640 --> 00:56:41,040
Speaker 1: Van der Water, that the officers had fabricated part of

734
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:46,440
Speaker 1: his testimony. Warner, who had been flogged by Cromwell, had

735
00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:50,120
Speaker 1: told the officers that he would hang Cromwell if he could.

736
00:56:50,520 --> 00:56:54,200
Speaker 1: When the officers asked why, Warner said he'd just disliked

737
00:56:54,239 --> 00:56:59,319
Speaker 1: the man. But this answer didn't satisfy the officers. They

738
00:56:59,360 --> 00:57:02,960
Speaker 1: pushed Warren to say he believed Cromwell was guilty of mutiny.

739
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:07,960
Speaker 1: When he would not, they dismissed him. When Warner next

740
00:57:07,960 --> 00:57:11,560
Speaker 1: saw his testimony, someone had put in their own answer,

741
00:57:11,840 --> 00:57:16,360
Speaker 1: attributing it to him. Now. When asked why he believed

742
00:57:16,400 --> 00:57:21,040
Speaker 1: Cromwell should be hanged, the paper showed Warner saying, quote,

743
00:57:21,600 --> 00:57:27,200
Speaker 1: because I believe him guilty. This example is a neat

744
00:57:27,280 --> 00:57:32,160
Speaker 1: illustration of the whole story of the USS Summers. From

745
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:37,520
Speaker 1: the beginning, Commander Mackenzie had believed Philip Spencer guilty, guilty

746
00:57:37,560 --> 00:57:40,960
Speaker 1: of what exactly he did not know, but when he

747
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:44,080
Speaker 1: was given an opportunity to rid himself of a troublesome,

748
00:57:44,320 --> 00:57:50,160
Speaker 1: disliked officer, Mackenzie did not hesitate. This isn't to discount

749
00:57:50,160 --> 00:57:53,280
Speaker 1: the very real fear the officers of the Summers may

750
00:57:53,360 --> 00:57:57,040
Speaker 1: have felt at the idea of a mutiny, but Cooper's

751
00:57:57,080 --> 00:58:00,880
Speaker 1: point that naval men ought to be more for danger

752
00:58:01,000 --> 00:58:05,520
Speaker 1: than other men is a revealing one. Both he and

753
00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:09,000
Speaker 1: William Norris pointed out that the heightened powers of a

754
00:58:09,040 --> 00:58:14,320
Speaker 1: military commander should not give him greater leeway to act. Instead,

755
00:58:14,560 --> 00:58:18,760
Speaker 1: it should subject him to stricter scrutiny. In other words,

756
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:24,960
Speaker 1: with great power comes great responsibility. This is particularly true

757
00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:29,360
Speaker 1: when those under your command are mainly children. The two

758
00:58:29,520 --> 00:58:34,400
Speaker 1: experienced officers aboard, Commander Mackenzie and First Lieutenant ganzi Ort,

759
00:58:34,880 --> 00:58:39,280
Speaker 1: should have remembered that their accused criminal was a fanciful teenager,

760
00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:43,560
Speaker 1: and they should not have asked the officers, many of

761
00:58:43,560 --> 00:58:49,080
Speaker 1: whom were teenagers themselves, to pass a death sentence. For

762
00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:53,720
Speaker 1: Ganziwort's part, he seemed haunted by the whole ordeal. He

763
00:58:53,760 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 1: would later be disciplined for drinking on the job and

764
00:58:57,480 --> 00:59:00,000
Speaker 1: during the Civil War for running a sloop he could

765
00:59:00,000 --> 00:59:04,760
Speaker 1: demanded a ground. He never held command again and died

766
00:59:04,800 --> 00:59:09,800
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty eight. Ganzafort was not the only officer

767
00:59:10,040 --> 00:59:14,520
Speaker 1: to apparently struggle with what happened on the Summers. On

768
00:59:14,640 --> 00:59:19,200
Speaker 1: March thirty first, eighteen forty three, shortly before the verdict

769
00:59:19,200 --> 00:59:23,440
Speaker 1: in the court martial was announced, Richard Leacock, the twenty

770
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:26,840
Speaker 1: eight year old ships surgeon who had both recommended the

771
00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:31,560
Speaker 1: executions and written Mackenzie's sick notes during the court martial,

772
00:59:32,560 --> 00:59:38,920
Speaker 1: killed himself aboard the Summers. Mackenzie, on the other hand,

773
00:59:38,960 --> 00:59:44,600
Speaker 1: never stopped defending himself. True to President Tyler's word, Mackenzie

774
00:59:44,640 --> 00:59:49,000
Speaker 1: did not command another ship during that president's tenure. He

775
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:53,160
Speaker 1: spent this time at home working on his books. Then,

776
00:59:53,640 --> 00:59:56,680
Speaker 1: during the Mexican War, he was given command of a

777
00:59:56,720 --> 01:00:00,840
Speaker 1: steam freighter. This command seems to have passed without incident.

778
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:07,320
Speaker 1: On September thirteenth, eighteen forty eight, Alexander Mackenzie died suddenly

779
01:00:07,320 --> 01:00:12,640
Speaker 1: at home of a heart attack, aged forty five. Three

780
01:00:12,720 --> 01:00:17,240
Speaker 1: years earlier, in eighteen forty five, the Navy had finally

781
01:00:17,400 --> 01:00:23,200
Speaker 1: established a permanent, comprehensive officer training school. This school now

782
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:27,439
Speaker 1: the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, traces its

783
01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:32,000
Speaker 1: history in part to the Summers. Per the Academy's website

784
01:00:32,160 --> 01:00:36,120
Speaker 1: quote the incident cast doubt over the wisdom of sending

785
01:00:36,200 --> 01:00:41,200
Speaker 1: midshipmen directly aboard ship to learn. By doing so, mackenzie

786
01:00:41,200 --> 01:00:44,760
Speaker 1: had seen his hopes for an educated officer class realized.

787
01:00:45,720 --> 01:00:49,640
Speaker 1: But in a strange way, McKenzie had actually come closer

788
01:00:49,800 --> 01:00:55,040
Speaker 1: to achieving Philip Spencer's dreams than his own. McKenzie had

789
01:00:55,120 --> 01:00:59,000
Speaker 1: never become a truly famous author, nor risen to the

790
01:00:59,120 --> 01:01:03,360
Speaker 1: highest ranks of the Navy, but he had, by taking

791
01:01:03,400 --> 01:01:08,560
Speaker 1: the law into his own hands, become a pirate of sorts.

792
01:01:09,920 --> 01:01:14,440
Speaker 1: Justice there was none of on board the Summers, James

793
01:01:14,520 --> 01:01:20,400
Speaker 1: Fenimore Cooper wrote, A pirate's deck would have exhibited more mercy.

794
01:01:22,880 --> 01:01:26,080
Speaker 1: That's the story of the court martial of Commander Alexander

795
01:01:26,120 --> 01:01:30,040
Speaker 1: Slidel mackenzie. Stay with me after the break to learn

796
01:01:30,080 --> 01:01:33,400
Speaker 1: about how this case touched the life of yet another

797
01:01:33,680 --> 01:01:39,600
Speaker 1: famous author. Lieutenant Gerrett gans of Ort was part of

798
01:01:39,640 --> 01:01:44,280
Speaker 1: a prominent Dutch American family from New York. His grandfather,

799
01:01:44,520 --> 01:01:48,120
Speaker 1: Peter Gansavort, had served as a general in the Continental

800
01:01:48,240 --> 01:01:53,040
Speaker 1: Army during the Revolutionary War. Peter Gansibort had six children.

801
01:01:53,560 --> 01:01:57,439
Speaker 1: One of them, a son named Leonard, was Gerret Gansifort's father.

802
01:01:58,360 --> 01:02:03,520
Speaker 1: Another of Peter's children was a daughter, Maria. Maria married

803
01:02:03,560 --> 01:02:07,760
Speaker 1: a man named Allan. The couple would have eight children

804
01:02:07,840 --> 01:02:11,200
Speaker 1: of their own. The third was a boy who would

805
01:02:11,200 --> 01:02:15,680
Speaker 1: become perhaps the most well known chronicler of the nautical world,

806
01:02:16,520 --> 01:02:21,880
Speaker 1: Herman Melville. Melville, who was only seven years younger than

807
01:02:21,920 --> 01:02:26,400
Speaker 1: his cousin Garrett, was intimately familiar with the USS Summers.

808
01:02:26,880 --> 01:02:30,840
Speaker 1: He referenced the case in multiple works. The most direct

809
01:02:30,840 --> 01:02:35,120
Speaker 1: connection is in his posthumously published novella Billy Budd, which

810
01:02:35,160 --> 01:02:38,600
Speaker 1: tells the story of a British sailor who accidentally kills

811
01:02:38,680 --> 01:02:42,400
Speaker 1: a sadistic officer who has wrongfully accused Bud of plotting

812
01:02:42,400 --> 01:02:48,000
Speaker 1: a mutiny. Bud, in turn, is himself executed. The men

813
01:02:48,080 --> 01:02:52,400
Speaker 1: who hanged Bud, Melville writes, were brought to something more

814
01:02:52,520 --> 01:02:55,880
Speaker 1: or less akin to that harassed frame of mind, which

815
01:02:55,920 --> 01:03:00,280
Speaker 1: in the year eighteen forty two actuated the command of

816
01:03:00,320 --> 01:03:03,920
Speaker 1: the US brig of War Summers to resolve upon the

817
01:03:04,000 --> 01:03:09,560
Speaker 1: execution at sea of three men, Which resolution was carried out,

818
01:03:09,800 --> 01:03:13,160
Speaker 1: though in a time of peace and within not many

819
01:03:13,240 --> 01:03:17,600
Speaker 1: days sale of Home. Dryly, Melville says that the story

820
01:03:17,800 --> 01:03:22,440
Speaker 1: is quote cited without comment, though his sarcasm makes his

821
01:03:22,600 --> 01:03:27,120
Speaker 1: real feelings clear. Over the years, many have chosen to

822
01:03:27,160 --> 01:03:31,320
Speaker 1: comment more explicitly on the Summer's case. Some have supported

823
01:03:31,400 --> 01:03:36,320
Speaker 1: Mackenzie's choices, others have denounced them, But the story has

824
01:03:36,440 --> 01:03:41,120
Speaker 1: lingered on finding echoes in cases where questions of safety

825
01:03:41,280 --> 01:03:45,840
Speaker 1: are held up against the preservation of rights. Philip Spencer,

826
01:03:46,200 --> 01:03:50,280
Speaker 1: Samuel Cromwell, and Elijah Small may have been silenced by

827
01:03:50,280 --> 01:03:55,520
Speaker 1: a lack of due process, but their lives echo, As

828
01:03:55,640 --> 01:03:59,800
Speaker 1: James Fenimore Cooper so powerfully put it, though the prince

829
01:03:59,840 --> 01:04:03,960
Speaker 1: of perpetrator has safely passed the ordeal of a courtmercial,

830
01:04:04,720 --> 01:04:08,440
Speaker 1: the blood of the slain cries from out the deep,

831
01:04:09,040 --> 01:04:12,960
Speaker 1: and sooner or later will be heard, no matter what

832
01:04:13,120 --> 01:04:18,120
Speaker 1: attempts may be made to stifle it. Thank you for

833
01:04:18,200 --> 01:04:21,480
Speaker 1: listening to History on Trial. My main sources for this

834
01:04:21,600 --> 01:04:25,960
Speaker 1: episode were Richard Snow's book Sailing the Graveyard Seed, The

835
01:04:26,000 --> 01:04:29,920
Speaker 1: Deathly Voyage of the Summers, The US Navy's Only Mutiny

836
01:04:30,320 --> 01:04:34,160
Speaker 1: and the Trial that Gripped the Nation, and James Fenimore

837
01:04:34,200 --> 01:04:38,600
Speaker 1: Cooper's The Crews of the summers illustrative of the despotism

838
01:04:38,680 --> 01:04:42,520
Speaker 1: of the Quarterdeck and of the unmanly conduct of Commander Mackenzie.

839
01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:45,720
Speaker 1: For a full bibliography, as well as a transcript of

840
01:04:45,760 --> 01:04:50,000
Speaker 1: this episode with Citatis, please visit our website History on

841
01:04:50,280 --> 01:04:55,800
Speaker 1: Trial podcast dot com. History on Trial is written and

842
01:04:55,880 --> 01:04:59,640
Speaker 1: hosted by me Mira Hayward. The show is edited and

843
01:04:59,680 --> 01:05:03,680
Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Trevor Young and

844
01:05:03,800 --> 01:05:09,600
Speaker 1: executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward.

845
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Speaker 1: Learn more about the show at History on Trial podcast

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Speaker 1: dot com and follow us on Instagram at History on

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Speaker 1: Trial and on Twitter at Underscore History on Trial. Find

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.