Closing Argument For The Petitioner Fitz John Porter

Author : Asa Bird Gardiner
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331119685
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (196 download)

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Download or read book Argument of Asa Bird Gardner written by Asa Bird Gardiner and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-10 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Argument of Asa Bird Gardner: Counsel for Government, After Conclusion of the Evidence in the Case of Fitz-John Porter Before the Board of Army Officers at West Point, January, 1879 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board: After a series of meetings, not equaling, however, the number held by the high military court which tried this petitioner sixteen years ago, the Board will soon exhibit to the reviewing authority, to the future historian, and to the Judgement of the country a mass of statements respecting the campaign in Virginia in August, 1862, such as no other campaign, not even that terminating in Waterloo, has ever presented. While the Revised Statutes of the United States provide for the institution of courts-martial or courts of inquiry to administer justice to those who are in the military service of the nation, and minutely provide for the oaths which have to be taken by the members and judge-advocate or recorder preliminary to any investigation or inquiry. Congress has never provided for any appeal or writ of error from the judgment of a court-martial after it has been finally acted upon by the convening authority. His decision is final and conclusive when the court which tries the case has jurisdiction over the offense and individual. In the criminal practice of the circuit and district courts of the United States we find that, in many instances, judgment is final. The present Lord Chief Justice Cockburne of England, in 1867, in the case of Colonel Nelson and Lieutenant Brand, said, when referring to general courts-martial: No one, I think, can deny that the substance of justice is carefully attended to. There is nothing arbitrary, nothing capricious, nothing unsettled. *** Perhaps there are no tribunals in the world in which justice is administered with a higher sense of the obligation which the exercise of judicial functions imposes, with a higher sense of honor, or a greater desire to do justice. These, I think, so far as experience has shown, are, generally speaking, the characteristics of the military tribunals which exercise their functions under the name of courts-martial. The eminent jurist who used this language did it after allusion to the fact that the accused, in general courts-martial in the British army, is deprived of, as he terms it - The inestimable advantage of having his case advocated by those who are practiced in the science and skill of advocacy, and who know how to bring out everything that can possibly make for the benefit of the client, whereby, in the end, truth, is elicited by all that can be said on either side, being heard, and the tribunal which has to judge is placed in the most advantageous position for deciding according to right. In the American Army, the accused is, under the Constitution, always entitled to counsel as of right. This is exemplified in the case of this petitioner, who, on his trial. Was defended by able counsel in the persons of the late Hon. Reverdy Johnson and Charles Eames, esq. The history of the Army shows no instance of a body of commissioned officers assembled by executive order for the purposes which brought this Board together. Necessarily the Board had to hear counsel for petitioner before determining its method of procedure. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com