Miscellaneous Back Matter [pp. 472A-RD06]

PRIVATEERS AND PltiVATEER'.ING.
priv-ateers cut them off fromi this source of profit nd employieit, for already the premiumns of insurance on goo(ds sent by
Yankee vessels are so h-igh as to throw them out of the carrying tlraIe.
Olitr privateers, if' properly sustained and encour-aged by
(Governmenit, will render the Not'tl-erii mercantile marine valueless, and besides, capture a great many of the enemy's war
steam oeis.
Immense amounts in bounty lan(Ts and pensions have been
givell to t1he soldiers of' the Revolutioni and of the late war,
and notliu (l,done for the privateers (lwho, according to numubers, d(lid twice as much for their country), except to fleece
theml, in order to f(ed( law officials.
This thing, must be rectified, else privateering will be attended with neither honort or profit and in-Lust cease. If it be
dily encouraiged(l, it will operate as a more stringent blockaloe of thle Northl than that wvhichl she is inflicting on the
South.
4r. Cog~geshall, in the conclusion of his book, gives a list of
the privateers in the late war, the names of their conmmanders,
and the ports to which they belonged. They were in all two
hundiired and forty in numiber-only seventeen of which belonged to the secedingr States. Their prizes amounted to seve tll thoustand-the value of vlwhich seenms to have been from
fiftyr to a hundred millions of dollars. HIitlheito, privateering
has )een the favorite pursuit of Yankees. They were equally
addlicted to it and equally successful in the Revolutionary war.
But "a changoe has comne over the spirit of their dream." Privateering( now will injure them and benefit us; and, foisooth,
they are suddenly seized with violent qualmns of conseiene-,
and den-ounce privateerling as wicked and inhunman, and
threaten to p)unish it as piracy. Let them try it!
As late as Mr. Pierce's administration they were the zealous
champions of that mode of warfare, which previously tlherieto
the-y lia(l so successfully followed. Setting aside, thlen, the
questions of abstract right and national law, it is peculiarly
appropriate that we assail them with their favorite weapon,
and iuete out to them tihe( measure which they have meted out
to others.
Ai essay on privateering would be incomplete without some
reference to, and account of the recent history of diplomatic
discussion on the sut)ect. For tlhis purpose, we subt)join a long
note fiom " Whecaton's Elements of International Law." The
subject is a dry one, and thle extract will be read by few per sons. Yet it finds an appropriate place in this l1eview, wvhich
is intended- rather to convey useful and interesting information
thani to fulrnish amuisenment. In the investigation of various
subjects, we used to refer to (so called) Eicyclopcedias: but
after a w lile we discerned that they were, of all books, the
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