Pierce, Franklin; Marcy, W. L.; et al. Message of the President of the United States, communicating, In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 2d instant, copies of the correspondence between the governments of the United States and the Netherlands, relative to the refusal of that government to allow its diplomatic agents to testify in the criminal courts of the United States. Washington: A. O. P. Nicholson, Printer, 1857. First Edition. [12532]
Removed, no wrapper, 9 x 5 1/2 inches, 15 pp. Good. Disbound.
34th Congress, 3d Session, Senate Ex. Doc. No. 21.
In May of 1856 the Democratic Congressman from California, Philemon Thomas Herbert, ordered breakfast at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC. Herbert was born in Alabama, and was a pro-slavery, anti-Irish politician; he became enraged at the lateness of his breakfast, served by the Irish headwaiter Thomas Keating. In the ensuing brawl, Herbert fired his Derringer pistol into Keating's chest, killing him. The eyewitness to the event was the minister from the Netherlands, the diplomat Henry C. Dubois.
The series of letters within this report are the attempts to have Mr. Dubois give testimony in a court of law. Mr. Dubois is willing to testify, but his government will not allow him to give up his diplomatic immunity, and forbade him to testify under oath in any criminal court, or to be cross-examined, for, in their view, this put him under the jurisdiction of the United States. A compromise was sought for, and he obtained permission to testify in the State Department, but not in a court of law or under any cross-examination. The rights of the accused in the United States included the right to confront and cross-examine any witness against him, and so the plan fell apart.
Herbert was acquitted in court, but his political career was over. He moved to Texas, and served in the Confederate Army. He died from wounds suffered during the Battle of Mansfield in 1864.
This report presents an interesting case of international law and of the rights of the accused in the United States.
