TRIAL OF HENRY WIRZ. LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF WAR AD INTERIM, IN ANSWER TO A RESOLUTION OF THE HOUSE OF APRIL 16, 1866, TRANSMITTING A SUMMARY OF THE TRIAL OF HENRY WIRZ - Rare Book Insider
TRIAL OF HENRY WIRZ. LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF WAR AD INTERIM

[Wirz, Henry]

TRIAL OF HENRY WIRZ. LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF WAR AD INTERIM, IN ANSWER TO A RESOLUTION OF THE HOUSE OF APRIL 16, 1866, TRANSMITTING A SUMMARY OF THE TRIAL OF HENRY WIRZ

40th Cong., 2d Sess. HED 23, Washington: 1867
  • $500
850pp. Bound in contemporary Congressional sheep [rubbed, chip at spine, hinges starting, gilt-lettered morocco spine labels]. Preceded by an XXXVIII-page Index of House Executive Documents at this Session of Congress. Text clean and Fine. Responsible for Sumter Prison at Andersonville, Wirz was blamed for its horrendous conditions. He was tried after the War for atrocities. Andersonville had a high mortality rate, lacked food and medical supplies, was severely overcrowded and utterly unsanitary. In mid-1865 Harper's Weekly published photographs of the Union prisoners, stimulating calls for the punishment of those responsible. Wirz was found guilty of conspiring to injure Union prisoners, and of eleven counts of murder. He was hanged November 10, 1865, the only man tried and executed for war crimes during the Civil War. The Wirz case was a precedent, cited after the First and Second World Wars, for individual responsibility of soldiers in wartime; and for the invalidity of a claim that due execution of an order absolved the soldier of accountability for his actions. This enormous record is the most complete report of the charges, evidence, testimony, and arguments. II Harv. Law Cat. 1228. Marke 977. Not in McDade.
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BY THE HONORABLE JAMES KENT, ESQUIRE CHANCELLOR OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME OR MAY CONCERN: KNOW YE, THAT [JAMES TALLMADGE JUNIOR] HAVING BEEN DULY EXAMINED AND REGULARLY ADMITTED AS A [COUNSELLOR] IN THE COURT OF CHANCERY OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK, IN THE TERM OF [JUNE] IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND [FOURTEEN] I DO HEREBY AUTHORIZE AND LICENSE THE SAID [JAMES TALLMADGE JUNIOR] TO APPEAR IN THE SAID COURT, AND THERE TO PRACTICE AS A [COUNSELLOR] ACCORDING TO THE RULES AND CUSTOMS OF THE SAID COURT, AND THE LAWS OF THIS STATE. GIVEN UNDER MY HAND AND THE SEAL OF THE SAID COURT, AT [NEW YORK] THE [ELEVENTH] DAY OF [JULY] IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND [FOURTEEN] [signed in ink manuscript] JAMES KENT

Kent, James 7" x 10-3/4". Printed certificate on thick paper, the New York State seal at the bottom left corner. Printed in typescript with several fonts, completed in ink manuscript [as noted by the brackets]and signed in ink by James Kent. Text surrounded by an ornamental rectangular border. Acknowledgment in ink manuscript on verso, dated and signed by Isaac L. Kip, Assistant Registrar. Very Good. James Kent [1763-1847] the son of Moss Kent, a lawyer, is considered one of the great jurists of any era. Admitted to the New York Bar in 1785, he was a State Assemblyman, the first professor of law in Columbia College, Governor Jay's appointee as Master in Chancery; New York's Chief Justice; and a member of the 1821 State Constitutional Convention, where he unsuccessfully opposed raising the property qualification for Negroes. His four-volume COMMENTARIES ON AMERICAN LAW is a foundation of American jurisprudence. Tallmadge became a Congressman and author of the Tallmadge Amendment, which would have prohibited Slavery in the contemplated State of Missouri.
  • $375