1st Session. No. 7. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. DECEMBER 21, 1853. Mr. HAMLIN made the following REPORT: [To accompany bill S. No. 50.] The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the petition of Nouh Miller, ask leave to submit the following report: The petition referred is in the words and figures following, viz: To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled, A. D. 1837: Your petitioner, Noah Miller, of Lincolnville, in the State of Maine, respectfully represents : That in the month of November, 1814, while the British troops were in possession of Castine, I, the said Noah Miller, hired a large whale boat, at Lincolnville, and four men, on wages, to intercept, in the bay, supplies that were expected to arrive at Castine, for the British troops, from Halifax. I procured the necessary arms and fitted out the boat, and made all proper arrangements for such an enterprise. I fortunately espied, near Turtle Head, in Penobscot bay, about five or six miles from Castine, a British vessel, for the capture of which I immediately made preparation. The vessel showed a number of men on deck. My force was four men besides myself. On approaching the vessel, I was mistaken for a pilot boat from Castine, sent out to pilot them in. The enemy was not undeceived till I had stationed my men at the proper positions on her deck, and approached to demand the helm, and informed the captain that he and his crew were my prisoners, and that his vessel was my prize. The vessel proved to be the schooner Mary, from Halifax, laden with bales of merchandise and a large amount of clothing for the British troops at Castine. As soon as the prisoners were disposed of for our safety, I put about and made all sail for Camden, a distance of twenty miles. These movements were espied from the heights near Castine, and immediate pursuit was made by the British, who pressed into their service an American pilot, who, by accident or design, ran the vessel aground, by which they were detained three hours, and enabled me to reach Camden with my prize. When all were secured, so that I could leave the helm, and on our way to Camden, I went into the cabin, where was a lady in the greatest distress of mind, arising from apprehension of being massacred or of great ill usage, (for she had been told that the Ameri cans were no better than savages.) She was the wife of the captain, and had retired to her berth in despair. I relieved her apprehensions with assurances of honorable protection. The captain had his furniture and goods on board, and was going to take up his residence at Castine, and engage in trade there. On arriving at Camden, I procured a boarding-house for the captain and his lady, engaging the kindest attention to them, at my own expense, while they should remain, and gave up to them all their furniture, goods, and effects, of every description, as I thought was becoming the American character to do. Soon after the capture, and on our way to Camden, the supercargo of the Mary, Mr. McWalters, offered me £10,000 as a ransom for the schooner and cargo. I rejected the proposition. It would hardly have comported with the dictates of patriotism to have suffered the enemy to receive the "aid and comfort" of such a cargo of supplies, to enable them to maintain their position at Castine, and to annoy our commerce and our citizens at that commanding point. I declined the proposition while the enemy were under a press of sail to overtake us. There were on board the schooner Mary letters from sundry merchants and others in England, to the Governor at Halifax, and by him transmitted to the British commander at Castine, which contained intelligence interesting to our Government. Apprehending great insecurity in the captured goods remaining at Camden, exposed as it was, I chartered a great number of wagons, and had them all conveyed the same night to Warren, Waldoborough, and afterwards to Portland, except what belonged to the crew and passengers on board the schooner, which I gave up to them. The next day the Furieuse 74, Commodore Muncy, appeared off Camden, and demanded the restoration of the British schooner and cargo. Commodore Muncy sent in a special message, conveying the threat, that unless I gave up the vessel, &c., he would have me at all events, and hang me up to the yard-arm; and by the same message, a public offer was made of a reward of $10,000 for my arrest and delivery on board the Furieuse, accompanied by threats to destroy the town. Under such influences, some of the citizens of Camden held a meeting, as I was informed, at which it was determined to arrest me, and deliver me up to Commodore Muncy. I made it hazardous, if not impracticable, to carry that resolution into effect. I immediately received from General King orders for calling out the militia in the neighboring towns, for the defence of Camden. I was then a major in the militia. I communicated the orders, the troops were raised, and I appeared personally among those who had resolved at a public meeting to arrest me, and deliver me to the British commodore, and was ready to render such services as I might be able, to defend them against the threatened attack of the common enemy. Josiah Hook, esq., was then the collector of the district of Castine. He appeared at Camden, and took great interest in the captured vessel and cargo. He advised me by all means to give both up to the Government, on whose account, as collector, he would take possession, and proceed against them as a seizure; telling me that was the only way to protect Camden and the country around; and that, as a private citizen, I had no right to make the capture. Others told me I had no right to the property captured; and though some expressed a different opinion, yet I yielded to the collector's views and solicitations, under a misapprehension, as I have recently been led to believe, of my legal and just rights. And I have no doubt, from subsequent events, that many if not most of those who counselled me to give up the prize to the Government, and to the management of its revenue officer, were stimulated to give me such counsel by the collector himself; but I gave it up, notwithstanding all the hazard I had run to capture, and the trouble I had been at to secure it. But for this great error, committed under misapprehension of my rights, produced, as I have reason to believe, by the revenue officers of the Government, I should not now have occasion from pecuniary necessity to present this petition to your honorable body; thirty-three thousand eight hundred dollars having been received into the treasury of the United States as a moiety of the net proceeds of the vessel and cargo, after condemnation and sale, which afterwards took place. While Commodore Muncy was off Camden, Mr. Hook procured Joseph Farley, esq., collector of the adjoining district of Waldoborough, to go on board of the Furieuse with the municipal authorities of Camden, and represent the facts of the case; and he did so. They informed Commodore Muncy that the capture was the private act of myself as an individual, unconnected with the Government, and unauthorized by it; that neither the collector of Castine, nor any other officer of the Government, had anything to do with it, nor had any interest in nor any control over the matter. They further represented, that I had carried all the goods away, and secreted them, and therefore they could not restore them. This information, accompanied by suitable intercession in behalf of themselves and the people of Camden, had the effect to assuage the commodore's wrath against them, although it exposed me still more to the halter which dangled to the yardarm of the Furieuse. The Government's officers having made sure of the prize, the humble individual who had hazarded something in taking it, and had done the country "some service," was left to escape arrest by his own fellow-citizens, acting under the temporary lure of $10,000 reward, and to keep his neck out of the commodore's noose the best way he could. I was subsequently appointed an officer of the customs at Belfast, and in that capacity I made seizure of a large quantity of beef, belonging to one Whittier, of Belfast, on its way to Castine, to afford "aid and comfort" to the enemy. It was condemned and sold. Whittier swore vengeance against me, in which he had the countenance aud support of a number of the citizens who were driving a profitable trade with the British, to which I had, as an officer of the customs, often presented serious obstacles. Whittier attacked me in the streets of Belfast with a knife, by which I was severely and dangerously wounded; the effects of which were disastrous to all my future hopes and prospects through life. I was rendered a helpless cripple, my nervous system was shattered, and I have been wholly unable to attend to any sort of business whatever, from that time to this, for the support of myself and my family. My condition is that of poverty and of helplessness, except from the justice of my country, whose coffers were replenished in its time of need at the expense of my own. I therefore most respectfully, and, in my situation, must say humbly, pray that the proceeds of said schooner Mary and cargo may be restored to me, or such other measure of justice meted out to me as you in your wisdom may deem suitable and proper, under the circumstances of the case. NOAH MILLER. STATE OF MAINE, Waldo, ss: Then personally appeared the above-named Noah Miller, and rade oath that the facts detailed in the foregoing petition, by him signed, relating to the capture by him, as a private individual, and the subsequent disposition, of the British schooner Mary and her cargo, in the late war, are true. Before me, NOVEMBER 20, 1837. JOSEPH MILLER, Justice of the Peace. The occurrences related in the foregoing memorial must necessarily have been of general notoriety. Material errors in a statement of them could hardly have escaped detection, and are not therefore to be presumed. The principal and most material facts stated, seem sufficiently established by circumstances, and by extrinsic proofs. Thus sustained in prominent points, the inference is natural and fair, that the whole relation is true. It will be perceived, too, that the statement is verified by the oath of the memorialist. This cannot fail to strengthen the presumption of its correctness. Noah Miller possessed, in a high degree, the respect and confidence of the community with which he was conversant. It is not lightly to be presumed that such a man, especially when under the solemn influences of an oath, even though he should indulge the belief that such perversion might strengthen the application he has submitted, would intentionally pervert the truth. A man so eminently distinguished by intrepid bravery, and by elevated love of country, is seldom found to unite in his character the opposite and degrading quality of sordid and mercenary selfishness. And it would accord still less with all reasonable probabilities, to suppose so of one who, when pressed by danger, not merely of loss of property, but of life even, could yet find, in the impulses of his own integrity and fidelity to his country, motives strong enough to impel him to reject the proffer made to him by the supercargo of the vessel he had so gallantly captured, of ten thousand pounds, (£10,000,) if he would suffer his prize to proceed to her destined port, there to strengthen the hands of the public enemy. Influenced by such considerations, and after a careful review of the proofs exhibited, your committee are constrained to believe that the facts alluded to are fairly and truly set out by the memorialist. They are next led to inquire whether it accord with the past usages of the government, to grant the prayer of the petition?-whether justice to the individual applying, require it?-whether a policy just and wise, with reference to its continued and prospective influences upon the national interests and character, demand it? In regard to the first-mentioned topic, your committee ask leave to say, that, from the earliest periods of our history, it is believed that the policy has always obtained, of assigning to captors an adequate portion of the avails of all prizes made upon the ocean, flagrante bello. By the act of April 23, 1800, for the better government of the navy of the United States," (3d vol. U. S. Laws, p. 360, sec. 5,) it is provided, "That the proceeds of all ships and vessels, and the goods taken on board of them, which shall be adjudged good prize, shall, when of equal or superior force to the vessel or vessels making the capture, be the sole property of the |