Billy Budd and Capital Punishment: a Tale of Three Centuries Author(S): H

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Billy Budd and Capital Punishment: A Tale of Three Centuries Author(s): H. Bruce Franklin Source: American Literature, Vol. 69, No. 2 (Jun., 1997), pp. 337-359 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2928274 Accessed: 21/10/2010 08:13

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http://www.jstor.org H. Bruce BillyBudd and Capital Punishment: A Tale of Franklin ThreeCenturies

Has anywork of American literature generated moreantithetical and mutuallyhostile interpretation than Herman Melville'sBilly Budd, Sailor? And all thebattles about the moral and politicalvision at theheart of the tale swirl around one question:Are we supposedto admireor condemnCaptain Vere for his decisionto sentenceBilly Budd to deathby public hanging? 1 Somehow, astonish- inglyenough, nobody seems to havenoticed that central to thestory is thesubject of capital punishment and its history. This is trueeven in the ten essays constitutingthe firstnumber ofCardozo Studies in Law andLiterature, which was devotedto Billy Buddbecause-in thewords of law professor Richard H. Weisberg-it is "thetext that has cometo 'mean' Law andLiterature. "2 The closest encounterwith the issue of capital punishment inthese essays or else- wherecomes from Weisberg's antagonist, Judge Richard A. Posner ofthe United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (and a self-styled"new critic"), who condemns those who "condemn Vere's conduct"as mere"liberals" who are "uncomfortablewith authority, includingmilitary authority, and hate capital punishment" ("most lit- erarycritics are liberals,"adds Posner).According to thejudge, "we mustnot read modern compunctions about capital punishment into a storywritten a centuryago. "3 Yetduring the very years that Melville was composingthe story- 1886to 1891-nationaland international attention was focusedon the climaxof a century-longbattle over capital punishment unfolding in thevery place where Melville was living-NewYork State. Why have we overlookedsomething so obvious?Is it because we ignorethe

AmericanLiterature, Volume 69, Number2, June1997. Copyright C) 1997by Duke UniversityPress. 338 AmericanLiterature historyof capitalpunishment in the nineteenthcentury, including itsprofound influence on Americanculture?4 Or havewe, who have been scrutinizingthis story within the post-World War II cultureof thesecond half of the twentieth century, become desensitized to the implicationsof the issue that were so manifestto nineteenth-century Americans?In anycase, ifwe do contextualizeBilly Budd within the Americanhistory of capitalpunishment and its bizarreoutcome in NewYork State during the years 1886 to 1891,the storytransforms beforeour eyes. IfBilly Budd had been published in 1891,when Melville wrote "End ofBook" on thelast leafof the manuscript, few readers at thetime couldhave failedto understandthat the debatethen raging about capitalpunishment was centralto thestory, and to thesereaders the story'sposition in thatdebate would have appeared unequivocal and unambiguous.Billy Budd derivesin partfrom the American movementagainst capital punishment. It dramatizeseach ofthe crucial argumentsand conceptsof that movement. And it bringsinto vivid focusthe key issues of the contemporaneous debate: Which offenses, ifany, should carry the death penalty? Does capitalpunishment serve as a deterrentto killingor as an exemplarymodel for killing? What are the effectsof public executions? Is hanginga methodof execu- tionappropriate to a civilizedsociety? Is an impulsiveact ofkilling by an individualmore- or less-reprehensiblethan the apparently calmlyreasoned act ofjudicial killing? Is capitalpunishment essentiallya manifestationofthe power of the state? A ritualsacrifice? An instrumentof class oppression?A key componentof the cultureof militarism?Participants on all sidesof the debate seemed to agreeon onlyone thing: that the most appalling moment in the history of capitalpunishment within modern civilization was thereign of George III in England. Whenthe officers whom Captain Vere has handpickedfor his drumhead courtappear reluctant to convictBilly and sentencehim to death,Vere forcefully reminds these subordinates that they owe their "'allegiance"'not to "'Nature,"'their "'hearts,"' or their"'private conscience,"'but entirelyto "'the King"' and his "'imperial[conscience]formulated in thecode underwhich alone we officiallyproceed."'" The time is 1797, the king is George III, and the code to whichVere referswas knownin the nineteenthcentury as the "BloodyCode." BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 339

Duringthe reignsof the Tudors and Stuarts,fifty crimes had carriedthe deathpenalty, and morewere slowlyadded. The most spectacularincrease came later, during the reign of George III, when sixtyoffenses were appended to the death-penaltystatutes.6 By the last thirdof the nineteenthcentury, George III's BloodyCode had been universallyrepudiated and condemned,both in Englandand America.7As thebattle against capital punishment raged while Mel- villewas composingBilly Budd, partisans on bothsides agreedthat eliminatingmost of the code's capitaloffenses constituted one ofthe century'snotable achievements in humanprogress. Not surprisingly, opponentsof the deathpenalty cited the Georgiancode as barbaric and anachronistic,even for the eighteenthcentury. For example,a widelyreprinted 1889 article referred to "Georgian justice" as "a scan- dalto the rest of the civilized world, " and agreed with Mirabeau's ver- dictat thetime that" 'The Englishnation is themost merciless of any thatI haveheard or read of. "18 Evenadvocates of capital punishment celebratedthe progress away from the Bloody Code, pointing out that by the early1880s capital offenses in Englandhad been reducedto "threeclasses" of deliberate murder, none of which included "crimes committedunder circumstances of great excitement, sudden passion, orprovocation. "9Articles favoring capital punishment published duringthe late 1880s argued that the death penalty should certainly "be restrictedto murdercommitted with malice prepense, by a sane person, in resistingarrest, or in the commissionof anotherfelony." 10 BillyBudd, remember, is chargednot with murder but with striking "'his superiorin grade' "; "'Apartfrom its effect the blow itself is,' " as CaptainVere states, "'a capitalcrime"' under the Articles of War of theGeorgian code (272).Nobody on the ship believes the sailor acted withpremeditation or malicious-muchless murderous-intent,but Vere instructsthe courtthat they must disregard all questionsof intent(274). In the midstof the American Revolution against George III's im- perialregime there were some attempts to abolish capital punishment forall crimesexcept murder and treason. For example, Thomas Jeffer- son and fourother Virginia legislators drafted such a law in early 1777,but it was notconsidered until 1785, when it was defeatedby a one-votemargin in theHouse of Delegates.1" The mostinfluential legal act camein 1794,three years before the actionof Billy Budd, when the state of Pennsylvania became the first 340 AmericanLiterature

to codifyinto law the innovative concept of "degrees" of murder. Capi- talpunishment was restrictedto murder in the "first degree," defined as "wilful,deliberate and premeditatedkilling. "12 Two yearslater, NewYork State reduced the number of capital crimes from thirteen to two-murderand treason-whilealso abolishingwhipping as a pun- ishmentfor any crime.13 In the ensuingdecades, state after state in theNorth and West followed the lead of Pennsylvania and New York in reducingcapital offenses, and the movement for complete abolition of thedeath penalty steadily gained momentum into the 1850s. Maine in 1837and New Hampshire in 1849passed moratoria on all executions; Massachusettslimited the deathpenalty to firstdegree murder in 1852;and one house of the state legislature voted to abolishthe death penaltyin Ohio (1850),Iowa (1851),and Connecticut(1853). Capi- tal punishmentwas abolishedaltogether in Michigan(1846), Rhode Island(1852), and Wisconsin (1853).14 Amongthe champions of the surging campaign for abolition were manyof the republic'scultural leaders, such as HenryWadsworth Longfellow,John Greenleaf Whittier, John Quincy Adams, Lydia Maria Child,Theodore Parker, Margaret Fuller, and HenryWard Beecher.The twogreat newspapers of New YorkCity were for decades editedby prominent opponents of capital punishment, William CullenBryant of the New York Evening Post (1829-1878) and Horace Greeleyof the New York Tribune (1841-1872).15 In theslave South, however, George III's BloodyCode had itsdis- tinctivelyAmerican counterpart in themyriad of offenses defined as capitalif committed by slaves.Capital punishment as an instrument ofclass oppressionhas neverbeen demonstratedmore blatantly, an argumentmade frequently inthe anti-death-penalty literature. For example,in 1844Universalist minister Charles Spear of Massachusetts citedthe laws of the South as examplesof the class contentof capital punishmentand reasonsfor its total abolition. Georgia had a mandatorydeath sentence for the following crimes: "Rape on a freewhite female,if a slave.Assaulting free white female with intent to murder, if a slave. Burglaryor arsonof anydescription contained in penal code ofstate, if a slave.Murder of a slave or freeperson of color, if a slave."916On the otherhand, a whiteman in Georgiaconvicted of rapinga slavewoman or freewoman of color faced a fineand/or imprisonment,at thediscretion of the court.17 In Alabama,Spear noted, BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 341 it was nota capitalcrime to killa black,but there was a mandatory deathpenalty for these offenses: "Murder, or attempt to kill any white person.Rape, or attemptto commit,if a slave,free negro or mulatto. Insurrectionor rebellionagainst the white inhabitants. Burglary. Ar- son.Accessary [sic] to anyof the above crimes." Missouri provided thatany "negro,mulatto, or freecolored person" committing rape wouldbe executedby means of castration. Virginia had seventy-one crimesthat were capital offenses for slaves but not for whites. These includedburglary, forgery, stealing a horseor harboring a horse thief, "wilfullysetting fire to anystack or cock of wheat, " theftof money or goods"of the value of four dollars, " and of course raping or attempting torape a whitewoman.18 In 1848,Virginia passed a newstatute requir- ingthe death penalty for blacks for any offense that was punishable bythree or more years imprisonment ifcommitted by whites.19 The politicalcontent of capital punishment was also manifestin the legal codes thatsupported the institutionof slavery.Pre-Civil War NorthCarolina had a mandatorysentence of deathfor any person guiltyof concealing a slavewith intent to freehim20 or for"circulat- ingseditious publications among slaves, second offence."21 Georgia imposeda mandatorydeath penalty for "Circulating insurrectionary papers,either by a white,a negro,mustizzo, or freeperson."22 Mis- sourilaw requiredmandatory execution for "Exciting insurrection amongslaves, free blacks, or mulattoes."Louisiana had a mandatory deathpenalty for anyone guilty of "writings of a seditiousnature."23 Fromthe mid-1850s through the Civil War, the movement to abolish the deathpenalty was overwhelmedby the movementagainst slavery.24When revived in thelate 1860s, the anti-capital-punishment movementoften seemed to its adherentsto be partof inexorable globalprogress. By 1889they could cite the abolitionof the death penalty,by law or in practice,in Holland,Finland, Belgium, Prus- sia,Portugal, Tuscany, and Rumania.25 To maximizeshock value, they oftenfocused on what many regarded as themost barbaric aspects of capitalpunishment as practiced:public execution and hanging. Publicexecution and hanging, which are integralto CaptainVere's argumentsfor the necessity of killing Billy Budd, played a complex rolein the debates of the last third of the nineteenth century. As abo- litionistsemphasized the grotesqueand sordidspectacles of public hangings,they often played into the hands of retentionists, who saw 342 AmericanLiterature thattheir best strategy for preserving the death penalty lay in cleans- ing it of the featuresalmost universally condemned as loathsome remnantsof a savagepast.26 Between1833 and 1849, fifteen states abolished public executions,27 andthe movement to banishthe practice altogether was unstoppable in thepostwar decades. From the late 1860sthrough the end ofthe century,hanging became the focal point of abolitionist and reformist arguments,and New YorkState became the pivotalbattleground. In his 1869 Putnam'sarticle "The Gallowsin America,"Edmund ClarenceStedman (who was to becomeMelville's most enthusiastic patronduring the period of Billy Budd's composition)dwells on the horrorsof hanging to convincereaders, especially in New York,to abolishthe death penalty entirely. "Let the Empire State" join Michi- gan in endingcapital punishment, Stedman declares, "and within ten yearsthereafter the gallowswill be banishedfrom every State in the Union."28Although he acknowledgesthat through "new scien- tificknowledge" some "painless mode of killing may be discovered,- as by an electricshock," the movementagainst the deathpenalty is growing"so rapidlythat there is smalllikelihood of its modifica- tionby newforms."29 Stedman did notforesee how one ofthe most bizarrechapters in nineteenth-centuryAmerican technological and culturalhistory-the "Battle of the Currents"-would help preserve capitalpunishment in NewYork and much of the nation deep into the twentiethcentury. In theearly 1880s Thomas Alva Edison and his Edison Corporation dominatedthe emerging electrification ofurban America, especially in the New YorkCity area. Edison,however, was obsessivelycom- mittedto directcurrent (DC), whichcould not be economicallytrans- mittedmore than a mileor two. In 1886George Westinghouse's newly incorporatedWestinghouse Electrical and ManufacturingCompany placed intooperation the firstalternating current (AC) generating stationand demonstratedthat AC couldbe transmittedover great distances.Meanwhile, Civil War hero General Newton Curtis, elected to theNew York Assembly in 1884,had launcheda majorcampaign to abolishthe deathpenalty in New YorkState.30 In 1885Governor DavidHill, anxious to preserve capital punishment while recognizing the prevalentrevulsion against hanging as a "remnantof the dark ages," askedthe legislature to createa commissionto exploreways ofcarrying out the death penalty "in a less barbarousmanner. '31 BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 343

In early1887 Westinghouse moved into direct competition with Edisonin New YorkCity, touching off the Battleof the Currents.32 Edison'sstrategy was to convincethe public that AC was toodanger- ous fordomestic use. So in 1887he begana gruesomepublicity campaign,inviting reporters, particularly from the New York newspapers, towitness theatrically staged electrocutions ofcats, dogs, calves, and horses.Edison even managed to get the membersof the NewYork StateCommission to Investigateand Reportthe MostHumane and PracticalMethod of Carryinginto Effect the Sentenceof Death to attendhis AC electrocutionof neighborhooddogs.33 Edison's main operativewas one HaroldP. Brown,who pretended to be actinginde- pendentlyeven after the New York Sun printeda seriesof forty-five lettersbetween Brown and Edison,as well as betweenBrown and thecompanies covertly acting for Edison.34 In 1888Brown staged at ColumbiaCollege's School of Mines an especiallycruel execution of whatthe New YorkHerald called "a largemongrel Newfoundland"; theshow produced sensational accounts in theNew York dailies and evena ballad.35Meanwhile, Brown was secretlyconspiring with New YorkState prisonauthorities to purchasethree Westinghouse AC generatorsand set themup in prisonsto be wiredto a proposed "electricchair."36 The objectwas to arrangefor human executions to be conductedby electrocution with AC, thus terrorizing the popu- lationabout the lethal menace posed by Westinghouse's technology. Fromnow on, according to Edisonand his cohort,condemned felons wouldnot be hangedbut "Westinghoused."37 Brown concluded a self- serving1889 article in theNorth American Review with these words: "strenuousefforts have been madeto befogthe public mind in order toprevent the use ofthe alternating current for the death-penalty, lest thepublic should learn its deadly nature and demandthat the Legis- laturebanish it fromstreets and buildings,thus ending the terrible, needlessslaughter of unoffending men. "^38 New YorkCity's newspapers charged into the Battleof the Cur- rents.The New YorkEvening Post, no longeredited by ardentfoe ofcapital punishment William Cullen Bryant, favored electrocution. The NewYork Tribune and NewYork Times were both zealous allies ofEdison and defendersof capital punishment.39 The Timesin 1887 editorializedin favorof replacinghanging-which it characterized as sheer"barbarity"-with electrocution, which it envisionedas so quickand deadlyas to be a formof "euthanasia"; it urged"the State 344 AmericanLiterature ofNew York to be thefirst community to substitutea civilizedfor a barbarousmethod of inflicting capital punishment, and to set an ex- amplewhich is sureof being followed throughout the world. "40 When theNew York State Commission in January 1888 reported, to no one's surprise,in favorof electrocution, the Tribuneand Timespresented therecommendation as major and welcome news. Besides their news coverage,both papers had daysof lengthy editorials extolling electrocution.The Tribunedeclared that electrocution would be "a step towardhumanity and decency."'41In anothereditorial the same day, the Tribuneevoked the almostuniversal repugnance against hanging:"The American people are practically unanimous in desiringthat thepresent cruel and clumsy method of execution shall be relegated amongthe other barbarisms of punishment. "42 Bothnewspapers also approvedof the recommendationthat all executionsbe heldwithin thewalls of a prison,with the number of witnesses-all to be selected byprison authorities-limited to twelve.The onlycaveats, expressed byboth papers, had to do withthe Commission'srecommendations thatthe executedperson's body should "in no case be deliveredto any relativeor otherperson whatsoever" and thatany newspaper publishingan accountof an executionother than "the statement of thefact that such convictwas on theday in questionduly executed accordingto lawat theprison" would be "guiltyof a misdemeanor."43 The Timescommended the intentof these prohibitions, which was to keepthe executed criminal from becoming "a hero"of the masses andprevent "such a displayof sympathy with crime as was furnished bythe funeral of the Anarchists in Chicago." The editorialistargued, however,that to "makea mystery"of an executionsuch as thatof "theChicago Anarchists" would be "proceedingtoo muchin theline ofa despoticGovernment to be acceptablehere. "44 Duringthe nexttwo and a halfyears New Yorkwas embroiled in legal suits and politicalmaneuvering that brought national and worldwideattention to its struggleswith the issue ofcapital punishment.Lawyers for William Kemmler, the intended victim of the first electrocution,went to courtto preventthis "cruel and unusualpun- ishment."Edison merged his companyinto General Electric, partly to fightthe legal suitsfiled by Westinghouse to keep its equipment frombeing used to electrocuteKemmler. General Curtis submitted his secondAssembly bill to outlawcapital punishment. The Tribune and the Timesnow began to impugnGeneral Curtis's motives, im- BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 345 plyingthat he was actingmerely as a bribedagent of Westinghouse (chargesrefuted by his efforts years later as a memberof Congress to abolishthe death penalty for the whole nation). The personalattacks on Curtisgot fiercer when his billto abolishcapital punishment was passed by the New YorkAssembly on 1 May 1890by a voteof 74 to 29.45 The billwas not, however, approved by the State Senate. All the rec- ommendationsofthe State Commission-including criminal penalties forpublishing descriptions of executions-nowbecame the unchal- lengedlaw of New York State. So on 6 August1890, William Kemmler becamethe first victim of the modern, civilized form of execution by electricity. The spectaclewas hardlythe "euthanasia" earlier promised by the Times.Indeed, the front page ofthe Times the following day violated thevery law that had mandatedKemmler's electrocution by publish- inga descriptionof "the most revolting circumstances" that "placed to thediscredit of the State of New York an executionthat was a dis- grace to civilization."The witnesses,"men eminent in scienceand in medicine,"were so physically"nauseated" by thegory spectacle that"they almost unanimously say thatthis single experiment war- rantsthe prompt repeal of the law." The articleended by noting that thewitnesses all acted"as thoughthey felt that they had takenpart in a scene thatwould be toldto the worldas a publicshame, as a legalcrime. "46 One ofthe attending physicians selected to conductthe autopsy on Kemmlerpublished in October1890 an impassionedappeal to abolish thedeath penalty, opening with an evocationof the "world-wide interest"in theexecution: "When the harrowing details of the death chamberwere tingled along the telegraph wires of the country, and theirimpulses were throbbed through the cable,the entire civilized worldviewed the scene withastonished horror."47 In an influential volumelinking capital punishment to warpublished in January 1891, AndrewPalm noted that the Kemmler execution was "denouncedas horrible,brutal, atrocious, a disgraceto humanity,etc. Englishedi- torswere just as muchshocked as theirbrethren on thisside ofthe Atlantic,one London daily declaring that Kemmler's execution sent a thrillof horror around the globe. "148 It was in thiscontext that Melville composed Billy Budd, which he beganin 1886and concluded in April 1891, eight months after Kemm- 346 AmericanLiterature ler'sexecution. Although Melville's contemporaries, who almost uni- versallyabhorred hanging, might have shudderedat CaptainVere's instantaneousdecision that Billy "'must hang"' (232), the storyis carefullycrafted to keepthe means of execution from being a signifi- cantissue. Whenhe is hanged,Billy evinces none of the hideous agonies famil- iar to the crowdsat publichangings and describedwith sickening detailin countlessnineteenth-century essays and books. There is not eventhe almost invariable muscular spasm or involuntary ejaculation. Chapter26, obtrusivelyinserted between Billy's transcendent death and the sailors'reaction, is devotedto a discussionof thisperfect lack of motion.The pursersuggests that this "'singularity"' must be attributedto Billy's"'will power."' In thesurgeon's response we can hear a parodyof the debatetranspiring in Melville'sNew York aboutthe mosthumane and scientificway to kill a person:"'In a hangingscientifically conducted-and under special orders I myself directedhow Budd's was to be effected-anymovement following thecomplete suspension and originating in thebody suspended, such movementindicates mechanical spasm in the muscular system. Then theabsence of that is no moreattributable to willpower, as youcall it,than to horsepower"'(321-22). Admitting to thepurser that this "'muscularspasm"' is almost"'invariable,"' the surgeonacknowl- edges,"'I do not,with my present knowledge, pretend to account"' forits absence:"'Even shouldwe assumethe hypothesis that at the firsttouch of the halyards the actionof Budd's heart, intensified by extraordinaryemotion at its climax,abruptly stopped-much like a watchwhen in carelesslywinding it up youstrain at thefinish, thus snappingthe chain-even under that hypothesis how account for the phenomenonthat followed?"' (323). The purserthen asks, " 'was theman's death effected by the halter, or was it a speciesof euthanasia?"' "'Euthanasia,"' replies the surgeon,has dubious" 'authenticityas a scientificterm"' (324). Though it may outwardlyresemble the "euthanasia"the New YorkTimes had erroneouslypredicted for electrocution, Billy's death by hanging clearlytranscends not only the surgeon's scientific understanding but also the debateabout the modalities of capital punishment swirling aroundthe composition of the story. Moreprofoundly relevant to Billy Budd are theterms of the debate aboutthe fundamental issue ofcapital punishment itself. Indeed, the essenceof the issue structures the story. BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 347

Wewitness two killings aboard H.M.S. Bellipotent. One comesfrom the impulsive,involuntary fatal blow Billy Budd strikesto thefore- head of Claggart.The blowis partlyin responseto CaptainVere's exhortationto the stammeringBilly, "'Defend yourself!"' Vere rec- ognizesthat Claggart has been "'Struckdead byan angelof God!"' andhe andhis drumhead court all acknowledgethat Billy acted with- outmalice, forethought, orany murderous intent. The otherkilling is carriedout under cover of law, after reasoned argumentation, and by thestate acting through the agency of Captain Vere and his officers. Whichof these two acts constitutesmurder? Budd is noteven ac- cused ofmurder. One questionthat underlies the twentieth-century discussionof Vere's act mightbe framedthis way: Does it conformto the1794 Pennsylvania definition of murder in the"first degree," that is,"wilful, deliberate and premeditated killing"? This is preciselythe way the argument against capital punishment was framedduring the years Melville was writing.The factthat hangings were conductedby the state undercover of law did not,to opponentsof the death penalty, absolve them from being murders. In- deed,the terms widely used forthese killings were "legal murders," "legalkilling," and "murderby law."49 The followingcommentaries, publishedin 1890,could applydirectly to the two killingson the Bellipotent: [W]hena criminalis judged,all the extenuatingcircumstances shallbe takeninto consideration. Were this rule observed, the vic- timof the law wouldseldom appear in so bad a lightas thegov- ernmentthat passed the sentence. Let me illustratethe thought: a mancommits a murder:the government in turnsentences the man to death.Here we have twoparties who have presumed to takea human life.... [T]he question now arises, upon the shouldersof whichparty rests the greatest guilt? A mostsolemn thought. There are manyextenuating circumstances in thefirst instance, but what canbe saidin justification ofthe government? 50

[C]apital punishment administered in anyform is essentiallya relic ofa barbarousage.... [T]he Statealways acts with coolness and deliberation,while ninety per cent. of her children slay their fellow- menin the frenzy of passion.51 AlthoughCaptain Vere has alreadydecided that Billy" 'must hang"' beforehe conveneshis drumheadcourt, the three officers he hand- 348 AmericanLiterature picksare quite reluctant to convict and sentence the Handsome Sailor. In thetrial, during which Vere acts as sole witness,prosecutor, and, ultimately,commander of the jury, he findsit necessary to overwhelm his threesubordinates with a delugeof arguments. One is precisely thatthey must "'let notwarm hearts betray heads thatshould be cool"' (270).52 Vere makeshis firstargument while still in his role of witness (thoughlater he tellsthe officers, "'Hitherto I havebeen but the witness,little more"' [265]):"'Quite asidefrom any conceivable motive actuatingthe master-at-arms,and irrespectiveof the provocationto theblow, a martialcourt must needs in thepresent case confineits attentionto theblow's consequence, which consequence justly is to be deemednot otherwise than as thestriker's deed"' (256). Byargu- ing,especially in suchlegalistic phraseology, that his courtis notto considerextenuating circumstances or motive,Vere is underlining forreaders in 1891the fundamental injustice of the proceedings. The threeofficers, in fact,are disturbedby thismanifestation of"a pre- judgmenton the speaker's part" (258). Later Vere reiterates, " 'Budd's intentor non-intent is nothing to thepurpose"' (274). As discussedearlier, Vere's extended argument that the officers owe theirallegiance not to "'Nature,"' their"'hearts,"' or their "'privateconscience,"' but entirelyto King George III and his "'code underwhich alone we officiallyproceed"' would to anylate- nineteenth-centuryaudience be an emphaticreminder of the barbaric BloodyCode forwhich Vere is actingas agent.Vere insists, in fact, thathe andhis officersmust act merelyas agentsand instruments of thatlaw: " 'Forthe law and the rigor of it, we are notresponsible. Our vowedresponsibility is in this:That however pitilessly that law may operatein anyinstances, we neverthelessadhere to itand administer it"' (270).To late nineteenth-centuryreaders, this would serve as a conspicuousreminder of the horrors of Georgian justice from which nine decades of reformhad liberatedboth the UnitedStates and Britain.Each ofVere's arguments, in fact, defends one or more of the mostegregious features of the Georgian code, features that had been repudiatedby law in those nine ensuing decades. Immediatelyafter insisting that his officersmay not consider "'Budd's intentor non-intent,"'Vere claimsthat they are taking too muchtime (a blatantlyspecious argument, especially in lightof thetime later spent in theexecution and burialrituals): "'strangely BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 349 we prolongproceedings that should be summary-theenemy may be sightedand an engagementresult. We mustdo; and one oftwo thingsmust we do-condemn or let go"' (275). In response,the sailingmaster, the one trialofficer who has not previouslyspo- ken,asks "falteringly,""'Can we not convictand yet mitigatethe penalty?"'(275). Insistingthat this wouldnot be "'lawful,"'Vere highlightsfor readersone ofthe most universally condemned aspects of the code underwhich he operates:mandatory death penalties. Opponents of capitalpunishment of course focused on theinflexible brutality and crueltythus codified into law and passingfor justice. Joining them, however,were some of the mostardent defenders of capitalpunishment,including many judges and districtattorneys, who were continuallyencountering juries that-like the sailing master-would ratheracquit than consign a criminalto death.In the periodfrom 1860to 1895,eighteen states shifted from mandatory to discretionary capitalpunishment, with legislators usually citing the reluctanceof juriesto participatein capitalpunishment.53 Atthis point in thetrial, Vere abruptly shifts from all his previous arguments-whichwere based on thepremise that he andhis drumheadcourt must, under law, sentence Billy to death-tothe argument thatfinally convinces his officers:they should hang Billy in a public execution."His closing appeal, " thenarrator informs us, is notto their reasonbut "to theirinstinct as sea officers"(280, italics mine), and thisis whatmakes it so convincing-atleast to them. This appealis based solelyon thedoctrine of deterrence, the main argumentpreserving capital punishment throughout the nineteenth (as wellas thetwentieth) century. By the late 1880s,however, vast amountsof statistical and other evidence had demonstrated that there is littleif any reasonable basis forthe belief that capital punishment detersany of the crimesfor which it is imposed.Nevertheless, the defendersof capital punishment, like Vere, tended more and more to abandonthe argument that it was just,fair, appropriate, ordained by God,et cetera,and moreand moreto relyon beliefin itsvalue as a deterrentto crime.They appealed not so muchto evidenceas to the fearof violent crime widespread among the privilegedand affluent classes,a fearwhich they of course encouraged.54 Likethe typical nineteenth-century defender of capital punishment, Vereappeals to thefear of the fellow members of his privileged class 350 AmericanLiterature on theBellipotent, in otherwords, to "theirinstinct as sea officers." There is, however,one fundamentaldifference between the deterrence argumentfamiliar to nineteenth-centuryreaders and Vere's decisiveargument. The customaryargument was (and is) thatcapi- tal punishmentdeters the particularcrime by makingan example ofthe criminal. Vere's argument-far more cynical-is thathanging BillyBudd beforethe crewwill intimidatethem and reinforcethe "'arbitrarydiscipline"' exerted over them by the officers,while not hanginghim would encourage mutiny. Mutiny is thecrime of which Claggarthad falselyaccused Billy and of which Vere and his officers knowBilly is innocent.But, argues Vere, " 'thepeople, "' becausethey "'have notthat kind of intelligent responsiveness that might qualify themto comprehendand discriminate,"'will believe that Billy has committed" 'a flagrantact of mutiny"' and will therefore emulate him ifhe is notappropriately punished for it. Forreaders in 1891,Vere's argument,so persuasiveto his subordinateofficers, would seem so obviouslyspecious and illogical as to appearvirtually a parody of the usualdefense of capital punishment for the sake ofdeterrence:

"Gentlemen,were that clearlylawful for us underthe circumstances,consider the consequences of such clemency. The people" (meaningthe ship'scompany) "have native sense; mostof them arefamiliar with our naval usage and tradition; and how would they takeit? Even could you explain to them-which our official position forbids-they,long molded by arbitrarydiscipline, have notthat kindof intelligent responsiveness that might qualify them to comprehendand discriminate. No, to the people the foretopman's deed, howeverit be wordedin theannouncement, will be plainhomicide committedin a flagrantact ofmutiny. What penalty for that should follow,they know. But it does notfollow. Why? they will ruminate. You knowwhat sailors are. Will they revert to therecent outbreak at theNore? Ay. They know the well-founded alarm-the panic it struckthroughout England. Your clement sentence they would ac- countpusillanimous. They would think that we flinch,that we are afraidof them-afraid of practicinga lawfulrigor singularly de- mandedat thisjuncture, lest it shouldprovoke new troubles. What shameto us such a conjectureon theirpart, and how deadlyto discipline.(276-78) BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 351

In otherwords, because "we" are afraidof "the people," "we" have to hangBudd because otherwise "they" would think "we" are afraid of"them"! One influentialarticle published in January1890, entitled "The Crimeof Capital Punishment," directly attacks Vere's final and most effectiveargument-"legal killing ... is donemerely as a warningto evil-doersand for the safety of society"-as "an afterthought,an ex- planationwhich the growing humane sentiment of the people is forcing fromthe barbarians who defend and practise murder by law. " 55 The same articlegoes on to focuson therole of the clergy in the actualadministration ofcapital punishment: "At every scaffold there is a strangeand significantunion of Church and State.The Stateis therein theperson of the hangman. The Churchis therein theperson ofthe priest or minister.It is theold familiarscene ofthe State doingdeeds ofviolence and blood in thename of law and order,and withthe sanction and concurrence of religion. "56 Melvilleseems to be extrapolatingfrom this passage, or many similar ones of the period, in hiscommentary on the chaplain's inability to lift"a fingerto avertthe doomof such a martyrto martialdiscipline" and on his overallrole, whichlinks the execution to theessential purpose of the Bellipotent: Bluntlyput, a chaplainis theminister of the Prince of Peace serving in thehost of the God ofWar- Mars.As such,he is as incongru- ous as a musketwould be on thealtar at Christmas.Why, then, is he there?Because he indirectlysubserves the purpose attested by thecannon; because too he lendsthe sanction of the religion of the meekto thatwhich practically is theabrogation of everything but bruteForce. (312) The responseof the crew to Billy'sexecution is a directrefutation of Vere's deterrenceargument, in whichhe suggestedto his offi- cersthat the threat of imminent mutiny was smolderingon theship. Althoughthe story is labeledan "InsideNarrative," it revealsnot the faintesthint of any such possibility prior to Billy'sdeath. Discipline is breachedonly after Billy's hanging and in responseto it, in the midstof the ritualsof the publicexecution and subsequentburial (326,330, 331). The truesignificance of the killing of Billy Budd comes out in these scenes.Like many of the arguments raised against the death penalty 352 AmericanLiterature betweenthe 1790s and the 1890s, Billy Budd strips away the illusions ofjustice and deterrence to revealthe essence of capital punishment: humansacrifice, a ritualof power in whichthe stateand theruling class demonstrate,sanctify, and celebratetheir ultimate power-the powerof life and death-over the classes they rule. By the last thirdof the nineteenth century, public execution had been thoroughlydiscredited and legallyabandoned, in Englandas wellas in mostof the United States. Nevertheless, crowds continued tofind ways to view hangings that were officially closed to the public. When,for example, a "private"execution took place at theTombs in NewYork City, "the neighboring buildings [were] black with people, seekingto look downover the prisonwalls and witnessthe death agoniesof the poor wretch. "57 Such scenes were a maintarget of the stipulationin the New YorkState electrocution law thatexecutions musttake place insidethe walls of a prison.A principalargument againstpublic executions had been theireffects on the "mobs"that came to watch.This reasoningis ironicallyechoed in the strange "murmur"that runs through the sailors forced to witnesstheir ship- mate'sexecution: "it seemed to indicatesome capricious revulsion of thoughtor feelingsuch as mobsashore are liableto, in thepresent instancepossibly implying a sullenrevocation on the men'spart of theirinvoluntary echoing of Billy's benediction" (326). Anotherargument against public execution was that,contrary to its allegeddeterrent effect, it tendedto transformthe criminalinto botha victimand a "hero."58The sailors,pointedly refuting Vere's predictionabout them, "instinctively felt that Billy was a sortof man as incapableof mutinyas of wilfulmurder." To themhe becomes morethan a hero.The veryspar from which he was hangedis meta- morphosedinto the object of their veneration: "To thema chipof it was as a piece ofthe Cross" (345-46).59 BillyBudd is not,however, a meretreatise against capital punishment.Melville is usingcontemporaneous awareness about the issue to explorethe largerethical, philosophic, and politicalquestions it so dramaticallyfocuses. Undoubtedly New YorkAssemblyman Hitt was overstatingthe case whenhe claimedin early1890, "at present thereare onlytwo classes ofthe communitywho yetfavor capital punishmentand theseare clergymenand prosecutingattorneys."60 Nevertheless,Melville could safely assume that almost all potential readersin 1891would regard public execution and hangingas relics BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 353 ofa barbarouspast, would be sensitizedto the larger issues surround- ing capitalpunishment, and wouldalready either oppose the death penaltyoutright or consider it warranted only for first-degree murder and treason.Even the mostardent proponents of the deathpenalty in late-nineteenth-centuryAmerica would be embarrassedby posi- tionssuch as these:"Vere justifiably condemns Billy to death"(Peter Shaw);Billy Budd is a "murdererand a cause ofhis owndeath" and Melville"is to be identified"with Captain Vere (MiltonStern); "the virtuousman, Captain Vere," must "punish the violence of absolute innocence"-thatis, mustkill BillyBudd-since "absolute,natural innocence"is "atwar with the peace ofthe world and the true welfare ofmankind" (Hannah Arendt).61 Readers in 1891would be farmore likelyto wonder,like the surgeon (235) and thenarrator (236-237), whetherVere is insane. Thereremains a questionthat by now must have occurred to most readersof this essay: Do notmilitary circumstances, especially dur- ingwar, demand the kind of martial law underwhich Vere proceeds (orclaims to proceed) ?62 A bookpublished in 1850 presents in chapter afterchapter a detailedrefutation of this position. Ascribing British navallaw of this period to a "barbarousfeudal aristocracy" that had re- gainedpower in the Restoration and its sequel, the author argues that inthe Interregnum, "a period deemed so gloriousto the British Navy, theseArticles of War were unknown." Therefore, he reasons,"such tyrannicalordinances are not indispensable-even during war-to the highestpossible efficiency of a militarymarine." He pointsout that Nelson(lionized in Billy Budd) opposedcorporal punishment and rou- tinelyreassigned "wholly ungovernable" seamen to an admiralwho "heldin abhorrenceall corporalpunishment," thereby winning the loyaltyof these men."The mutinouseffects of government abuses in theNavy," according to thiswriter, "developed themselves at the greatmutiny of the Nore."The authorsums up his view in these words:"Certainly the necessities of navies warrant a codefor its gov- ernmentmore stringent than the law thatgoverns the land; but that code shouldconform to the spiritof the politicalinstitutions of the countrythat ordains it. It shouldnot convert into slaves some of the citizensof a nationof freemen." He thendenounces the American Articlesof War as "an importationfrom abroad, even from Britain, whoselaws we Americanshurled off as tyrannical,and yetretained the mosttyrannical of all." That author,of course, is HermanMel- 354 AmericanLiterature

ville.The book is White-Jacket,63a volume he consultedfrequently whilecomposing Billy Budd on a writingbox to whichhe had glued thismotto: "Keep true to thedreams of thy youth."64 On anotherlevel, the relations between martial law and civil society had moredisturbing implications for Melville in 1891than in 1850. As he was writingBilly Budd, the risingtide of imperialism,with its corollaryof militarism, was threateningthe basic republicanand democraticvalues expressed so passionatelyin White-Jacket.In 1850 he couldplead forextension of the highestlaws of the land to its shipsat sea. But by 1891,as the nationwas aboutto buildits first large-scalestanding navy to preparefor its imperial manifest destiny, Melvilleenvisioned the governance of the warshipbecoming domi- nantover the laws of the land.65 Like many of his contemporaries,he saw thatthe essence of capital punishment is thestate's power over lifeand death,a powerboundlessly expanded in war.He dramatized the deadlymeaning of capital punishment for the eighteenth,nineteenth,and twentieth centuries in thekidnapping of Billy Budd from theRights of Man andhis executionon theaptly named Bellipotent. RutgersUniversity, Newark

Notes 1 My ownview of the great debate can be foundin "FromEmpire to Em- pire:Billy Budd, Sailor, " inHerman Melville: Reassessments, ed.A. Robert Lee (NewYork: Barnes and Noble, 1984): 199-216. For an astuteanalysis ofthe contesting interpretations as expressions of political changes dur- ingseveral decades of recent U.S. history,see Geraldin2Murphy, "The Politicsof ReadingBilly Budd," American Literary History 1 (summer 1989):361-82. 2 RichardH. Weisberg,"Editor's Preface," Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature1 (spring 1989). Weisberg himself has donethe most thorough analysisof the specific legal issues in thestory in "HowJudges Speak: Some Lessonson Adjudicationin Billy Budd, Sailor with an Application toJustice Rehnquist," New York University Law Review57 (April1982): 1-69,and in TheFailure of the Word: The Protagonist as Lawyer in Modern Fiction(New Haven:Yale Univ.Press, 1984), 131-59. See also theper- ceptiveexploration in Susan Weiner, Law inArt: Melville's Major Fiction and Nineteenth-CenturyAmerican Law (New York:Peter Lang, 1992), 139-66. 3 RichardA. Posner,"Comment on RichardWeisberg's Interpretation of BillyBudd, " CardozoStudies in Law andLiterature 1 (spring 1989): 73-74. BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 355

4 In his groundbreakingarticle "The Movementto AbolishCapital Pun- ishmentin America, 1787-1861," (American Historical Review 63 [Octo- ber 1957],23-46), David Brion Davis was shockedto discoverthat this prominentmovement is "seldommentioned in the standardsocial and intellectualhistories of the period"(23). This articledid mostof the spadeworkfor more recent studies and stilloffers the mostcompre- hensiveexploration of the philosophicbackground for the nineteenth- centuryAmerican arguments opposing and defendingcapital punishment. 5 HermanMelville, Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative), ed. Harrison Hayfordand MertonSealts Jr. (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962), leaves267-72. Subsequent references to this text will be byparenthetical leafnumber. 6 DavidD. Cooper,The Lesson of the Scaffold: The Public Execution Contro- versyin VictorianEngland (Athens: Ohio Univ. Press, 1974), 27. Cooper devotesa chapterto "The BloodyCode" of GeorgeIII. See also Hugo AdamBedau, The Death Penalty in America, 3rd ed. (NewYork: Oxford Univ.Press, 1982), 6. 7 See Cooper'svolume for the history of the movement in England against capitalpunishment, public execution, and hanging. 8 B. PaulNeuman, "The Case AgainstCapital Punishment, " Eclectic Maga- zine,October 1889, 518; thisis an Americanreprint from the British FortnightlyReview, September 1889, 322-33. 9 SamuelHand, "The DeathPenalty," in SelectedArticles on CapitalPun- ishment,comp. Lamar T. Beman (New York:H. W. WilsonCompany, 1925),178; reprinted from North American Review, December 1881, 541- 50.A defenderof capital punishment, Hand celebrates the progress from thebeginning of the century. 10 J.M. Buckley,"Capital Punishment, " in Beman, Selected Articles on Capi- tal Punishment,94; reprintedfrom Forum, June 1887, 381-91. See also W.C. Maude,"Shall We Abolish the Death Penalty for Murder?" Month, February1889, 168-79. 11 VoicesAgainst Death: American Opposition to Capital Punishment, 1787- 1975,ed. PhilipEnglish Mackey (New York: Burt Franklin & Co.,1976), xiv. 12 Bedau,4; SarahT Dike,Capital Punishment in theUnited States (Hack- ensack,NJ.: National Council on Crimeand Delinquency,1982), 7-8; Mackey,Voices, xvi. 13 PhilipEnglish Mackey, Hanging in theBalance: The Anti-Capital Pun- ishmentMovement in NewYork State, 1776-1861 (New York:Garland, 1982),69; Mackey,Voices, xvi-xvii. 14 Mackey,Voices, xxvi-xxvii. 15 In 1850 Melvillepurchased Greeley's Hints toward Reforms, in Lec- tures,Addresses, and OtherWritings (New York,1850), which included 356 AmericanLiterature

Greeley'sinfluential attack on the death penalty, "Death by Human Law" (301-10);see MertonM. SealtsJr., Melville's Reading: A Check-Listof BooksOwned and Borrowed,offprinted from Harvard Library Bulletin (Cambridge:Harvard Univ. Press, 1950), 130. 16 CharlesSpear, Essays on thePunishment of Death, 10th ed. (London, 1845),224. Originally published in 1844,this volume exerted a majorin- fluenceon themovement against capital punishment in Englandas well as America. 17 WilliamJ. Bowers, with Glenn L. Pierceand JohnF. McDevitt,Legal Homicide:Death as PunishmentinAmerica, 1864-1982 (Boston: North- easternUniv. Press, 1984), 140. 18 Spear,224-31. 19 Bowers,140. 20 Bedau,8. 21 Spear,223. 22 Spear,224. 23 Spear,225-26. 24 Louis P. Masur,Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and theTransfor- mationof American Culture, 1776-1865 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1989),160; Mackey, Voices, xxvii; Davis, 45-46. 25 Neuman,524. 26 In pre-1850England, even those who were in favorof public executions admittedthat they were "depraving," "ugly," "disgusting," "evil," and "brutalizing"(Cooper, 50). 27 Mackey,Voices, xx. 28 EdmundClarence Stedman, "The Gallowsin America," Putnam's Maga- zine,February 1889, 234. Stedman met Melville in 1888.On 20 October 1888Melville returned books lent to himby Stedmanwith a letterin whichhe wrote,"And your own book in manyof its viewshas proved eithercorroborative or suggestiveto me." In 1890Stedman arranged a dinnerfor Melville at theAuthor's Club, one ofthe few recognitions of theauthor in his later years. Stedman's son Arthur became a goodfriend ofMelville in thelast two years of the writer's life and afterMelville's deathworked with Elizabeth Melville in reissuing four of his books; see JayLeyda, The Melville Log (NewYork: Harcourt, Brace, 1951), 1:xxxiii; 2:804-06. 29 Stedman,230. 30 DictionaryofAmerican Biography (New York: Scribner, 1943), s.v. Curtis, NewtonMartin. 31 LawrenceMeir Friedman, Crime and Punishmentin AmericanHistory (NewYork: Basic Books,1993), 171. 32 Fora good overallaccount of the Battleof the Currents,see Matthew Josephson,Edison: A Biography(New York:McGraw Hill, 1959), 344- 50; somewhatdifferent perspectives are offeredin RobertSilverberg, BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 357

Lightforthe World: Edison and the Power Industry (Princeton, N.J.: D. Van Nostrand,1967), 238-43; Ronald W. Clark,Edison: The Man WhoMade theFuture (New York: G. P. Putnam'sSons, 1977), 157-60; and Margaret Cheney,Tesla: Man Outof Time (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1981),41-49. A moredetailed and well-documented account is ThomasP. Hughes,"Harold P. Brownand theExecutioner's Current: An Incident in theAC-DC Controversy,"Business History Review 32 (spring1958): 143-65.For some of the Battle's cultural ramifications, including its role in Twain'sA ConnecticutYankee in KingArthur's Court, see H. Bruce Franklin,War Stars: The Superweaponand theAmerican Imagination (NewYork: Oxford Univ. Press, 1989): 54-77. 33 "Lightningfor Murder," New York Tribune, 17 January 1888. The dogs andcats were pets gathered from the West Orange, New Jersey, neigh- borhoodof Edison's laboratory by schoolboys who were paid twenty-five centsfor each animal;as a result,the local animalpopulation was deci- mated(Josephson, 347). 34 NewYork Sun, 25 August1889. 35 Hughes,148-49. 36 Fora detailedaccount of Brown's machinations and the covert operations ofEdison's front organizations, see Hughes,156-58. 37 Josephson,348; Cheney, 45. 38 HaroldP. Brown,"The NewInstrument of Execution," North American Review,November 1889, 586-93. In thesame issue, the editors ran "Dan- gersof Electric Lighting," an anti-ACarticle by Edison himself; in Sep- temberthe North American Review had publishedanother article favoring electrocution,"Capital Punishment by Electricity,"by ElbridgeT. Gerry,the chairmanof the New YorkCommission, who was secretly workingwith Brown. 39 Afterthe deathof editorHorace Greeley, the New YorkTribune soon ceased to be one ofthe foremostvoices in favorof abolishingcapital punishment. 40 "CapitalPunishment," New York Times, 17 December 1887. 41 "Electricityor the Rope," New York Tribune, 22 January1888. 42 "ANew Agent of Death," New York Tribune, 22 January1888. 43 "Deathby Electricity" and "The Abolition of Hanging," New York Times, 17 January1888; "Lightning for Murder," New YorkTribune, 17 Janu- ary1888. 44 "The Abolitionof Hanging";the referenceis to the workers'leaders hangedin 1887for the 1886 Haymarket bombing. For a discussionof re- lationsbetween the Haymarket hangings and Billy Budd, see RobertK. Wallace,Billy Budd and the Haymarket Hangings," American Literature 47 (March1975): 108-13. 45 "Gen. Curtisof St. Lawrence.. . ," New YorkTimes, 29 March1890; "Forty-eighthours after the news . . .," New YorkTimes, 2 May 1890; 358 AmericanLiterature

"Is It the DynamoAgain? Rushing through the Bill to AbolishCapi- tal Punishment,"New York Tribune, 2 May 1890;"The DeathPenalty," NewYork Tribune, 3 May 1890; "Capital Punishment," New York Tribune, 6 May1890. 46 "Far WorseThan Hanging;Kemmler's Death Provesan AwfulSpec- tacle,"New York Times, 7 August1890. 47 Dr. GeorgeF. Shrady,"The Death Penalty,"The Arena, October 1890, 513. 48 AndrewJ. Palm, The Death Penalty: A Considerationofthe Objections to CapitalPunishment, with a Chapteron War(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons,1891), 100. 49 Davis, 33. For an examplepublished while Melville was writingBilly Budd,see Hugh0. Pentecost,"The Crimeof Capital Punishment," The Arena,January 1890, 175-83. 50 [Benjamin0. Flower],"Shall We Continueto KillOur Fellowmen?" The Arena,January 1890, 243-44. 51 [Benjamin0. Flower],"Thoughts on the Death Penalty,"The Arena, October1890, 636. 52 Notethe echo of the narrator's comment about those possessed by "de- pravityaccording to nature":"Toward the accomplishmentof an aim whichin wantonness of atrocity would seem to partake of the insane, he willdirect a cooljudgment sagacious and sound" (133-34). 53 Mackey,Voices, xxx. 54 An 1889article published in bothEngland and the UnitedStates gave statisticsshowing that the homicide rate had droppedin each stateas wellas each Europeancountry that had abolishedcapital punishment; see Neuman,524. 55 Pentecost,175-76, italics mine. 56 Pentecost,178. 57 JamesD. McCabe Jr.,Lights and Shadowsof New YorkLife (1872),as quotedin Friedman, 170. 58 "TheAbolition of Hanging," New York Times, 17 January 1888. 59 CompareStedman, 227: "Great and good men have been hanged, and it was saidof one, that he 'madethe gallows glorious, like the Cross"' (the internalquotation is fromEmerson's eulogy of John Brown). 60 "Is It the DynamoAgain? Rushing through the Bill to AbolishCapital Punishment,"New York Tribune, 2 May 1890. 61 PeterShaw, RecoveringAmerican Literature (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1994), 76; MiltonStern, The Fine Hammered Steel of Herman Melville (Urbana: Univ.of Illinois Press, 1957), 26-27; Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (New York:Viking, 1965), 79. 62 Vere is actuallynot following but violatingthe code underwhich he claimsto be operating.This violation was firstpointed out by C. B. Ives, "BillyBudd and theArticles of War," American Literature 34 (March BillyBudd and Capital Punishment 359

1962):31-39; it has been explored further by other critics, including Stan- tonGarner, "Fraud as Factin Herman Melville's Billy Budd, " SanJose Re- view4 (May 1978):82-105, and, most thoroughly, Weisberg, The Failure ofthe Word, 144-59. Vere's modern defenders take the position that Mel- villewas simplyunfamiliar with British naval law, an argumentrendered dubiousby the detailedexploration of this law, based on thoroughre- search,in White-Jacket;see Howard P. Vincent, The Tailoring of Melville's White-Jacket(Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1970), 103-06. 63 The quotationsare fromWhite-Jacket or The World in a Man-of-War,ed. HarrisonHayford, Hershel Parker, and G. ThomasTanselle (Evanston andChicago: Northwestern Univ. Press and the Newberry Library, 1970), chapters35, 36, 71. 64 MerlinBowen, The Long Encounter (Chicago: Univ. of ChicagoPress, 1960),217. 65 For an analysisof Billy Budd in the contextof the end-of-the-century movementtoward imperialism, see my"From Empire to Empire:Billy Budd,Sailor."