No. 395.
Mr. Morgan to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

No. 612.]

Sir: I now inclose a copy of a dispatch from Consul Viosca (No. 7, 17th April, 1883), and a copy and translation of the document therein referred to, which appears to be a copy of the judgment pronounced in [Page 647] the criminal proceedings instituted against Captain George Caleb and the crew of the Adriana charged with smuggling.

Captain Caleb has been sentenced to five years imprisonment, and the Crew have been declared not responsible. Their release has been ordered; but only, as you will observe, upon their furnishing bond to await the decision of the superior court to which the case goes, by law on appeal.

The document sent is not a transcript of the record, and therefore it is quite impossible, if it would be proper, for me to express any opinion as to the legality of the proceedings. Their harshness, however, appears to me too patent to require comment, and that the penalty inflicted upon Captain Caleb, admitting that the judgment was right (upon which point I express no opinion) is, I think it must be admitted, outrageously rigorous not to say inhuman. For, after all, what was the man convicted of according to the judgment? Of having transferred from his vessel to another vessel three parcels without its being ever stated in the judgment that he had transferred them with the view of their being smuggled into the country. Besides, the contents of the packages are not stated. The articles they contained may not have been dutiable. Be this as it may, they could have been but of small value, as they were conveyed, if conveyed at all, upon the deck, or in the cabin of the vessel, for, as you will see by the judgment in the case against the ship (inclosure 1 in my No. 611), when she arrived at La Paz her hatches and bulkheads were intact.

In point of fact a sentence to five years’ imprisonment is, in the condition of health in which Captain Caleb finds himself (according to the statement of Consul Viosca), to condemn him to death by torture.

I have therefore again requested Consul Viosca to furnish a complete transcript of the record, as well to the Department of State as to this legation.

As the matter is of great importance, not only to Captain Caleb but to all American shipmasters, and as the case is an appeal, I take the liberty of suggesting whether it would not be possible and well to have the question of the legality of these proceedings brought up for decision by the federal supreme court. This could, I think, be done by applying for an “amparo” from that tribunal.

I do not doubt that when you read the judgment inclosed herein your attention will be challenged by the fact that while the American citizen has been severely punished, no attention whatever has, as is admitted by the judge, been paid to the captain and crew of the Inteligente or to the members of the house of Pablo Hidalgo & Co., the latter of whom sent the Inteligente to meet the Adriana for the purpose of doing the smuggling, and the former having been the parties who were smuggling (if there were any smuggling in the case). As an excuse for this, the judge says that their capture had not been effected. As regards Hidalgo & Co., as they reside at La Paz, it is to be supposed that they could easily have been arrested. As regards the captain and crew of the Inteligente they were on that vessel when she was seized.

I am, &c.,

P. H. MORGAN.
[Inclosure 1 in No. 612.]

Consul Viosca to Mr. Morgan.

Sir: As stated in my dispatch of April 12, 1883, the district judge has rendered sentence on the trial against Captain Caleb, mate, and crew of the Adriana, the 16th of the present month. Captain Caleb, being declared guilty, has been condemned by the [Page 648] court to five years’ imprisonment. The mate and crew, not found guilty, have been acquitted and released from prison.

I have the honor to inclose copy of the sentence pronounced by the judge, containing the abstract of proceedings and his preliminary considerations wherein he exhibits the motives for his decision. The said decision has been appealed to the circuit court by the counselor for Captain Caleb, and I will wait the result of the said Appeal to inform the legation of the same. In the mean time Captain Caleb is so exceedingly ill that I have doubts of his surviving the above sentence for any great length of time.

Please notice also the contradiction set in by the district judge, between the two written sentences, the civil and criminal. In the first named, the crew’s testimony is not lawfully accepted, because they are considered parties to the case; and on the criminal sentence the said crew are declared innocent by the said judge from the first to last of the charges brought against them; therefore their testimony was good and lawful, according to the last decision, from the beginning of the proceedings.

I am, &c.,

JAS. VIOSCA,
Consul.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 612.—Translation.]

Criminal proceedings against Captain Caleb and crew.

In the criminal proceedings instituted against George Caleb and the crew of the schooner Adriana, the following sentence has been pronounced:

Considering the proceedings instituted against George Caleb, a citizen of the United States, captain of the schooner Adriana, and against the crew of said vessel, viz, William Richner, Fritz Brunckhorst, Matthew Sullivan, and Benjamin Mollin, the first of whom (Caleb) is charged with smuggling, and the others as his ‘accomplices therein; considering, first, that the summary proceedings resulted in establishing the offense, and the seizure of the Inteligente with the goods found on board of her; that by the confession of Caleb made before the administrator of the custom-house and the witnesses who subscribed to it, as well as by the testimony of Franco and Nelson, which established Caleb’s guilt; third, that although Captain Caleb does not stand by the statement made in his first deposition, the circumstance that no other vessel was in the bay of Los Frailes, the place of capture; an examination of the marks on the goods seized, together with an examination of the goods of the house to which Caleb said he was consigned; the declarations of employe’s of that house, Valdorinos and Gilbierto Padilla, Fourth, considering also that the bay of Los Frailes is not a point open to commerce and still less to foreign commerce. Fifth, considering that although it is certain that the crew referred to must have assisted in the reshipment of the contraband goods, they cannot be held responsible as accomplices in view of the rigor of naval discipline which converts them into the passive, innocent, and involuntary instruments in the execution of his orders. Sixth, considering in respect of the house of Pablo Hidalgo & Company, who were charged as participators in the crime which is now being passed upon, and the crew of the Inteligente, none of whom have been captured.

In conformity with articles 86, sec. 1, and 87, sec. 6, of the tariff laws of the 8th November, 1880, it is decreed: First, George Caleb is sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, and his name is to be published in the papers; second, the five years to begin to run from the date of the final judgment of imprisonment; third, William Richner, Fritz Brunckhorst, M. Sullivan, and Benjamin Mellin are acquitted, and are released on bail to await the result of the decision of the case on appeal; fourth, that proceedings be taken against the house of Pablo Hidalgo & Co. and the crew of the Inteligente; fifth, this judgment is sent to the superior court for its revision.

Thus done in the territory of Lower California, &c.

  • M. GARFIAS.
  • L. G. CAVALLERO,