Louisiana Justice Thomas Slidell
Last month’s article was about John Slidell, a powerful Louisiana politician who was embroiled in an international incident during the Civil War and is the namesake for the town of Slidell. As it turns out, he was not the only member of the family to make a mark on history.
Slidell’s younger brother, Thomas (1807-1864), followed him from New York to Louisiana after graduating from Yale University and served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1837 to 1838 (John also held this post).
By 1844, Thomas was a popular figure in the Louisiana legal profession and was elected to the state senate. Two years later, the governor appointed him an associate justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court, and in 1852 he was elected chief justice. Slidell made an important contribution to Louisiana’s legal tradition when he ruled that Louisiana was a “mixed jurisdiction,” meaning that both civil law and common law applied. Slidell’s tenure, however, was short-lived because he resigned his seat three years later, perhaps because he had worked himself to exhaustion.
Slidell went to Europe to regain his health but suffered a mental breakdown while there. Brought back to the U.S., he was hospitalized in Rhode Island but eventually regained his faculties and settled down in Providence. On election day in 1855, Slidell was casting his ballot when a Know-Nothing Party thug reportedly hit him in the head with brass knuckles. He never completely recovered from the attack and died in 1864.
Although little is known of John and Thomas’s sister Jane Slidell (1797-1879), she did marry one of the U.S. Navy’s most celebrated officers. On Christmas Eve, 1814, the teenaged Jane married twenty-year-old Lt. Matthew Perry in New York. The union lasted fifty-four years and produced ten children.
Perry had a long, distinguished naval career. He fought in the War of 1812 and Mexican-American War, and became known as the “Father of the Steam Navy” because of his urging the navy to convert from sailing vessels to steamships. But Perry is most remembered for sailing his fleet to Japan in 1853 and forcing that isolated nation to open up trade and diplomatic relations with the U.S.
Alexander Slidell (1803-1848), a younger brother to John, Thomas and Jane, changed his name to Alexander Mackenzie in 1837 to meet a requirement to claim an inheritance from a maternal uncle. He joined the navy in 1814 and rose through the ranks to captain. Mackenzie was a friend of Washington Irving and earned some renown as the author of a number of books and essays. In 1842, Mackenzie became a controversial figure when he hanged one of his officers onboard the USS Somers, an officer who just happened to be the son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer.
Nineteen-year-old Philip Spencer was a young, wild college drop-out who was fascinated by pirates. His father finally used his political influence to have him appointed a navy midshipman, but the lad never adjusted to military life. On one vessel, Spencer twice attacked a superior officer while drunk and later engaged in a drunken brawl with a British officer while on shore leave. After that incident, Secretary of War Spencer transferred his son to Captain Mackenzie’s USS Somers.
Spencer soon caused trouble once again. He inappropriately sought favor with the sailors by providing them with tobacco and rum, and he clashed with Mackenzie. Morale plummeted, largely because of Spencer’s behavior, and other officers became suspicious that he was plotting to take over the ship and become a pirate. Matters came to a head when a secret list of sailors’ names were found hidden in Spencer’s razor case. On November 26, 1842, Mackenzie arrested Spencer with sailors Elisha Small and Samuel Cromwell and charged them with mutiny.
Instead of conducting the required court-martial, Mackenzie oddly convened a simple council of officers, found the men guilty, and hanged them on December 1. It is the only time in U.S. naval history that sailors have been executed for mutiny.
When the Somers arrived in New York City two weeks later, a court of inquiry was held to investigate the incident. Mackenzie was exonerated at both the inquiry and a later court-martial, but it was obvious the executions troubled many officers. At his court-martial, he was cleared by a split vote and the court refused to give him a commendation, which was usually done whenever an officer was exonerated. Mackenzie continued to serve in the navy but was forever tainted by the controversial executions.
In the end, Mackenzie’s “Somers Affair” actually strengthened the U.S. Navy. Like most midshipmen, young Spencer had found it difficult to carry out his duties partly because he had received no training as a naval officer. Officials saw the need to fix that weakness in the system and created the U.S. Navy Academy in 1845.
Dr. Terry L. Jones is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. An autographed copy of “Louisiana Pastimes,” a collection of the author’s stories, costs $25. Contact him at tljones505@gmail.com
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