crew, who were of so sympathetic a disposition that they were moved by their first captive's tears to the point of collecting a purse for him. ^ I do not understand that they continued this habit ; but to the very end I have no doubt the hard plight of an orphan would have worked upon their feelings as volcanically as upon the pirates of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Perhaps more convincing than such somewhat ex parte evidence, and, indeed, conclusive, are the calm state- ments of Union authorities. Through the war " pirates " was the universal cry of the Northern Government and press. But Professor Soley, as competent as any one to give an opinion, declares that, *' Neither the privateers, like the Petrel and the Savannah, nor the commissioned cruisers, like the Alabama and the Florida, were guilty of any practices which, as against their enemies, were contrary to the laws of war." 2 While Robert A. Bolles, legal adviser of the Navy Department, writing in the
- Adantic Monthly," shortly after the war, to explain
why Semmes was not prosecuted, asserts that he was "entitled to all of the customary cheats, falsehoods, snares, decoys, false pretences, and swindles of civilized and Christian warfare," and that "the records of the United States Navy Department effectually silence all right to complain of Semmes for having imitated our example in obedience to orders from the Secretary of the Confederate Navy."^
It is impossible to imagine anything more satisfactory
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