jurist and the uncle of
Captain Mackenzie's wife. At the request of the Hon. John C. Spencer,
Benjamin F. Butler and Charles O'Conor, leaders of the New York bar,
formally applied for permission to ask questions approved by the court
and to offer testimony, but the request was refused--"so that," as
Thomas H. Benton expressed it, "at the long _post mortem_ trial which
was given to the boy after his death, the father was not allowed to ask
one question in favor of his son." After a lapse of sixty-nine years,
judging from Mackenzie's report to the Navy Department, it almost seems
as if he possessed a touch of mediaeval superstition. He speaks of
Spencer giving money and tobacco to the crew, of his being extremely
intimate with them, that he had a strange flashing of the eye, and
finally that he was in the habit of amusing the sailors by making music
with his jaws. Mackenzie in his official report stated that this lad
"had the faculty of throwing his jaw out of joint and by contact of the
bones playing with accuracy and elegance a variety of airs." James
Fenimore Cooper stated it as his opinion, "that such was the obliquity
of intellect shown by Mackenzie in the whole affair, that no analysis
of his motives can be made on any consistent principle of human action;"
and the distinguished statesman, Thomas H. Benton, whose critical and
lengthy review of the whole case would seem to carry conviction to
unprejudiced minds, declared that the three men "died innocent, as
history will tell and show."

The proceedings of the Mackenzie trial were eagerly read by an
interested public. As I remember the testimony given regarding Spencer's
last moments upon earth, Mackenzie announced to the youthful culprit
that he had but ten minutes to live. He fell at once upon his knees and
exclaimed that he was not fit to die, and the Captain replied that he
was aware of the fact, but could not help it. It is recorded that he
read his Bible and Prayer-Book, and that the Captain referred him to the
"penitent thief;" but when he pleaded that his fate would kill his
mother and injure his father, Mackenzie made the inconsiderate reply
that the best and only service he could render his father was to die.

I recall a conversation bearing upon the _Somers_ tragedy which I
overheard between my father and his early friend, Thomas Morris, when
their indignation was boundless. The latter's son, Lieutenant Charles W.
Morris, U.S.N., had made several cruises