The Treasury Department having informed the District Attorney of the United States at Washington, that it was very questionable whether the captures mentioned in the libel were prize of war, and that it was desired to have this question, besides questions of fact arising in the cases, fully and fairly tried, directed him to take such steps as upon consulation with a gentleman named (Mr. Corwine), who had been retained as special counsel of the government, it might be deemed necessary to take to protect the interests of the government. So far as the reporter could gather things from a confused record, one ground of the question suggested by the Treasury Department, whether the vessels libelled were prize of war, jure belli, was an idea that the captures had been made in a greater or less degree by the aid of the army; it was also of the impression that in asking for so large a sum of prize-money as it did, the libellants were disregarding the statutory rule which gave them so large a sum only when the capturing force was inferior to that opposing it.
However, whatever was the ground of its action, the United States, both by the attorney for the District of Columbia and by special counsel employed in the case, appeared and defended the suit, and such proceedings were had that by a written agreement between the United States on one side, and the libellant on the other, the whole controversy was submitted to three arbitrators, whose award, or that of a major part of them, should by rule of the court be entered as its decree. It was signed by the counsel for Farragut, by the special counsel of the United States, the Attorney-General, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of the Navy.
This agreement, after reciting the pendency of the suit which we have just mentioned, and another by the same libellant against the United States, which was not found in the record, but is supposed to have related to the same subject-matter, proceeds as follows:
'Now, for the more speedy and economical adjustment of said controversies, it is agreed between the libellants and the United States that these causes shall be referred to the final determination and award of Henry W. Paine, Esq., of Boston, and Thomas J. Durant, Esq., of Washington, and Gustavus V. Fox, Esq., late Assistant Secretary of the Navy, mutually chosen on the part of the libellants and the United States, the award of whom, or the greater part of whom, shall be final upon all questions of law and fact involved in these causes; said award to be entered as a rule and decree of court in said cases in said Supreme Court, with due right of either party to take evidence, as in other like cases, within thirty days from this date; and with the right also of either party to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States as from other decrees or judgments in prize cases.'
In due time the arbitrators made their unanimous award, the substance of which is as follows:
1. That the capture was not a conjoint operation of the army and navy of the United States.
2. That forty-two vessels, whose names were given, participated in the capture.
3. That twenty-nine vessels, whose names were also given, and which included the vessels already mentioned by name, were captured, and also five vessels of war in process of construction on the docks in the Mississippi River, and sixteen thousand tons of coal.
4. That the value of each of these vessels separately, and of the coal and unfinished vessels was such and such a sum, which the award specified, the aggregate being $966,120.
5. That all this property was lawful prize of war, and lawfully subject to condemnation as such.
6. That in the engagement which resulted in the capture of those ships, the entire force of the enemy was superior to the force of the United States ships and vessels so engaged.
9. That of the above-mentioned captured vessels, the McRae was wholly lost and destroyed, having been used as a cartel by the United States, and sunk in the river opposite New Orleans, within four days after her capture.
10. That the ships Metropolis, Farwell, and Milan, the barkantine Ocean Eagle, the bark George Alban, and the steamer Sallie Robinson, whose aggregate value was $116,500, were, after capture, given up to the legal owners, from whom they had been taken by the enemy.
The award allowed the captors the value of these vessels, and $46,600 for military salvage due thereon, and closed by giving to the libellants the whole value of all these vessels, $966,120, and the $46,600 salvage just mentioned.