The next thing to be done is to show to the court and jury that
the captain is a poor man, and has a wife and family, or other
friends, depending upon him for support; that if he is fined, it
will only be taking bread from the mouths of the innocent and
helpless, and laying a burden upon them which their whole lives will
not be able to work off; and that if he is imprisoned, the
confinement, to be sure, he will have to bear, but the distress
consequent upon the cutting him off from his labor and means of
earning his wages, will fall upon a poor wife and helpless children,
or upon an infirm parent. These two topics, well put, and urged home
earnestly, seldom fail of their effect.
In deprecation of this mode of proceeding, and in behalf of men
who I believe are every day wronged by it, I would urge a few
considerations which seem to me to be conclusive.
First, as to the evidence of the good character the captain sustains
on shore. It is to be remembered that masters of vessels have
usually been brought up in a forecastle; and upon all men, and
especially upon those taken from lower situations, the conferring of
absolute power is too apt to work a great change.
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