Franklin W. Smith and the U. S. Navy

[L Verge]

I cheated and googled also and found a very interesting case of what would be called "whistle blowing" today. Franklin Smith and his brother exposed cheating and graft in naval purchases, etc., during the Civil War, and the Navy brass went after them -- accusing them of graft also. John Parker Hale (as in Lucy Lambert Hale's father) chaired the Senate committee that investigated the charges. The Navy brass hated Hale also because he had worked to outlaw several unsavory naval practices during the war.

Before Hale could release his committee's findings, the Navy arrested the Smith brothers and took them before a military court martial - another case of civilians being tried by the military. The Smiths were high up in the Republican and abolitionist movements before the war, and the people of Massachusetts took their case to Lincoln, who annulled the court's verdict with the order that Roger posted above.

David is certainly correct that it's deja vu all over again. Greed never changes.